Hummingbird Year Two Retrospective
Hummingbird Year Two Retrospective
Happy Birthday Hummingbird! The Hummingbird Year Two State of the Blogosphere, AND introducing the Birdie Awards (or Birdies) for top posts.
It is difficult for me to believe that we’ve actually been publishing thehummingbirdpost for two full years! Yes, today marks the second anniversary of me taking down the password protected “wall” and exposing myself, and all of the Hummingbird contributors to the world. We approached the project with confidence, all of us having been successful in our own right, but surely none of us wanted to have egg on our faces with our new venture. I should say confidence and naiveté in equal measure. Oh my, what we didn’t know. But crazily, it has worked out.
We started out on October 16, 2017. We had approximately a dozen posts on our home page—a smattering of what was to come, mixed in with a Welcome, About Us, and The Team. We have evolved over our two years, but we’ve also stayed close to our roots, offering a refuge from the commercial, a platform for sharing stories and experiences that matter, and promoting the creative genius within us—whether it be writing, drawing, photography, painting, analyzing, commiserating and of course, cooking, eating, and enjoying life.
There aren’t enough words to thank all of our contributors, most have been with Hummingbird from day one. While schedules and responsibilities cause lapses in “production,” all of our original writers, artists, and contributors, and those that joined us during year one maintain active status. We’ve also welcomed new writers in year two, including Nicole Emmi, Alex Ferrone, and ghost writer Cecil Dumas. We expanded our Emerging Writer field with the continuation of Emerging Writer Contests 2 and 3, and the introduction of guest contributors. Both initiatives have been extremely successful, and we plan to build upon them.
So, here are some of the numbers, down and dirty, that help to tell our story. Across the board, our numbers are up approximately 8% in Year Two, over Year One. We had 10.5K visitors that read 24K pages. Since our inception we have had 46K reads of our nearly 700 original posts! We think that’s pretty good!! Thank you to our loyal readers!! You make it all worthwhile, and give us our reason!!! It is important to note that still, we have done no advertising or promotion for the blog. It has grown organically primarily through word of mouth, sharing on FB, and Google search. We did stick our toe in the water, and built the HB twitter page, but we need to reboot there. Stay tuned. At present, Facebook is our only active social platform.
We had some interesting trend lines in Year Two. First is an evolution of our “traffic sources.” In our first year about half of our visits came through direct access (accessing the HB URL) and half through social (Facebook). Other sources were negligible. This year, while social led followed by direct, together comprising 80% of total visits, we also saw a significant increase in our number of “search” sources, primarily Google, which comprised about 6% of total visits. I believe this is a direct result of SEO options that were added to our host content management system as well as the broader (geographic) interest in the topics we are posting! We also saw an uptick in number of shares through email sharing, “referrals” from other websites that linked to Hummingbird, and LinkedIn.
Today, we induct our Year Two top posts into the Hummingbird Hall of Fame, as determined by YOU, our Hummingbird Readers. Drumroll as we note the most read Year Two posts in descending order, to be known going forward as the Birdie Awards or Birdies.
Top Hummingbird Year Two Posts:
Hummingbird Weekly Quote 2019 Edition, curated by Lynda Bernard
Welcome & About Us, The Team, by Sandra Novick
North Fork Beaches + Special Spots, by Sandra Novick
Emerging Writer Contest 3, thehummingbirdpost
Emerging Writer Contest 2, thehummingbirdpost
Big Lou, by Sandra Novick
A North Fork Favorite. Ali Katz Kitchen, Sandra Novick
Bad Assery, by Nicole Emmi
Happiness for Sale, by Nicole Emmi
The River, by Angela Rieck
Nobody’s Girl, by Lynda Bernard
An Evolving Life. Resolved, by Meryl Spiegel
Just Folks. A Gallery of Work by Tina Folks.
An Evolving Life. The Strength of No, by Meryl Spiegel
An Evolving Life. Becoming Fierce, by Meryl Spiegel
Top Year Two Series:
An Evolving Life, by Meryl Spiegel
Honorable Mention Year Two Series:
Historical Fiction. Journeying Back to What Used to Be, by Mary Ann DiLorenzo
Just Folks, by Tina Folks
Gallery Notes, by Alex Ferrone
Book Reviews, by Sarah Ehrenson
Hearing in a Deaf World, by Donna Wetjen
Mensa Mominu, He’s Smart, He’s a Rat, by Cecil Dumas
Top Year Two Stand Alone Musings & Threads + Stories:
I’m Outta Here, by Mary Ann DiLorenzo
One Day. The Extraordinary Ordinary, by Angela Rieck
Minding the Minutiae, by Nicole Emmi
Christmas Magic, by Donna Wetjen
Bruno’s Story, by Donna Wetjen
Fear of Drowning, by Barry Novick
Lame Excuse, by Lynda Bernard
Emerging Writer Contests Winning Stories:
Contest 2, The Promise, by Susan Perretti
Contest 3, WOUNDS, by Kit Storjohann
Top Year Two Emerging Writer Guest Contributor:
Crossing Mauritius, by Helene Munson
Congratulations to Year Two Birdie Award winners, and to all of our contributors and guest contributors!
I would be remiss not to include an idea of what our readers can expect in Hummingbird’s Year Three. This is the subject of much thought and discussion among the Team. Here is what we are planning, with the caveat that this is a dynamic enterprise, and we are a growing group of creative individuals… so with this in mind, this is what we plan to tackle in Year Three!
-Expand our Team of contributors
-Further develop Emerging Writer opportunities
-Focus on topics of Year Two top posts and reach out to new contributors to expand our perspective
-Introduce a new “artist” series
-Expand our reach through better utilization of social platforms
-Last and most important, we will listen to the Hummingbird Readers through comments, likes, and data (which usually doesn’t lie) and continue our mission to share the best of what our talented, amazing, creative, intelligent contributors have to offer.
THANK YOU for a great year!!! ONWARD we go!
