Year in Review

I hope you don’t mind yet another “year in review” post. I can’t believe it’s that time again. On the one hand, I can’t believe it’s December 31. (Never mind that it’s December 31, 2008, for Pete’s sake.) Then on the other hand, I can’t believe I’m falling for the “year in review” trap. I mean, how cliché is that? But I don’t care. I really do love “looking back” articles.

Now… what to talk about. Hmmm…. movies? music? deaths?

Wait a minute, I got it. Let’s talk about me.

Why? Because a million other web sites, blogs, newspapers and magazines will talk about movies, music, and deaths. This is my only shot at having a Back to the Fridge Year in Review. So I took a vote amongst myself and it was unanimous.

Back to the Fridge’s Year of Firsts

This blog (as we know it) launched August 25, 2008 and attracted six visitors on its very first day. Granted, the blog technically existed before then, but I’ve now all but written off “BTTF 1.0” as an odd experiment and I more or less pretend it never happened. By the end of the year, the new and improved blog was attracting up to eight visitors per day.

It’s truly been an amazing ride: I got my first traffic spike from being mentioned on a much more popular blog. I got my first stumbleupon spikes. I got my first comment from an actress in a Sonic commercial. And even though it had nothing to do with this blog, I even met Maureen McCormick.

I re-announced my book and sold nearly five copies.

And I even added a second post to my other blog which will have lots more content Real Soon Now.

Top Ten Posts by Visits

Ah yes! The “Top Ten” lists. What year in review would be complete without listing ten random items that serve no other purpose that to get people to argue over what the real top ten items should be?

First up: the most visited posts. Granted a few of these (including the top one) got StumbledUpon, so many of these visits were just from tire-kickers. Still, the stats are what they are, and I found them interesting nonetheless:

Top Ten Most Commented Posts

Another interesting statistic! Which posts got the readers out of the woodwork the most? The top one almost doesn’t count, since that was my first (and only) giveaway.

I’m still amazed by other bloggers who get dozens, hundreds, if not thousands of comments per post: even on multiple posts per day.

My Favorite Posts

But which ones do I like? While I do like a few of the above posts, many of my favorites just don’t get a lot of hits or comments. I think they’re worth noting here, in absolutely no particular order whatsoever:

New York Trip

As an added bonus, here is the entire New York trip in a single, easy to click interface:

Whew! Well, that’s about that. It’s an amazing thing to look back on, actually. As each day creeps (or flies) by, I don’t see the mountain of writing piling up here. And that was only a little over four months worth. I can’t imagine what 2009 is about to bring!

Anyway, thank you all for reading along. I couldn’t do this at all without knowing at least someone was out there reading. I hope the friends I’ve picked up along the way stick around and I look forward to meeting many more.