Total Followers 132,503
Oh, well when people say blogging changed their lives – they are absolutely right!
It has been one amazing…really amazing year with you guys! Blog grown from nowhere to quite impressive size in one year! Read further and I will share all last year statistic numbers, my works, successes – everything I have done on my first year being in this online design community! I am also creating big surprise for you free *.pdf document with roundup of all the posts done in the last year, only I am recreating articles with only the best of the best selections. I hoped to get finished and release it now, but it was bigger job than I thought, so you’ll have to wait a little bit. Now read a little about past and present, but get ready to be back tomorrow for new inspiration, resources, tutorials about everything design related! Thank you for being with us!
I started at August 30 by choosing domain name 1stwebdesigner.com – to choose this domain I wrote down full A4 paper with different names, phrases, adjectives. I really don’t know how good this domain name is by I got lucky and it was registered at first in 2003-2005 and then it was free for 3 years, when I picked it up. Interesting anyways – I found it out because of WayBackMachine (wrote a post about this webpage some time ago too – Wayback machine – history of Internet).
I guess that’s one of the reasons, why this blog ranked so fast and so well on Google search engine at first at least I guess so.
And yes, again – this is my first blog, so I think I am not optimizing and maintaining it good enough still, but at least trying my best. And you know – this blog is only half visible part of whole work, there must be done a lot of networking, marketing to get noticed in this already overwelmed blog world. I will be totally honest here with you (I won’t share only my income just now), so read and do the same if you want to get similar success as I am getting now.
Okay, let’s get started with visible part – blog, numbers and little statistics, shall we?
Public Stats:
Below you can see last year’s timeline – slowly, slowly, but all the time growing!
I think not bad first year achievements:
A little bit unbelievable for me, but trending is good!
Here you can see my top 10 traffic sources:
Top 5 keywords:
Top 10 Countries, where visits came from:
And about my blog.. Through this year there are 134 posts (+1 this one) written, where 6 of them are made by guest writers Srikanth AD (5 posts) and Andy Walpole (1 post). My biggest thanks to them for contributing and I hope in this year we will do even better. If you want to contribute too, read the details on Write For Us? section.
Blog also has 4 pages, 10 categories, 261 tags, 6,215 approved comments (a lot of them are trackbacks though) and 2,258 different nicknames were represented in the comments.
Huge thanks to my top 10 commentators:
And here are the most popular last year’s articles I’ve made:
Okay, so much about blog statistic numbers, but how did I manage to get that traffic? Ah..here comes not so visible part..social networking..
Did you notice, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Digg, Designfloat are in top10 traffic sources? And there are a lot more social networks in top 50 traffic sources.
And yes, again I started on social networks one year ago too and I’ll show you my accounts to show you at least idea how much work hides behind the scenes:
Twitter – I started to use Twitter just on September, when I had 60 followers.
Now… I have 5,131 followers, while I am following only 2,260 people (I follow only designers in the same niche – I add them directly or find through MrTweet service), through last year 1,405 tweets has been made. Twitter is not about how many followers you have, but how many targeted followers you can get. That’s my explanation about Twitter as my Top6 traffic source. You can view my Twitter account and follow me here.
StumbleUpon - I joined to StumbleUpon on Aug 5, 2008 and when I started to blog it was definitely my best traffic source for my new blog.
Now I consider myself as StumbleUpon power user with more than 29,000 favorites, 2200 reviews, 218 subscribers and 360 friends. A lot of effort and time has been put here, but believe me it’s paying off! You can view my Stumbleupon account here.
I joined Digg on August 28th, 2008 and at first didn’t know how to use it right and didn’t make any traffic at all. Now I have 138 active friends, 722 fans – who help to get my stories popular. I worked hard on my digg profile – almost 11,000 diggs, 100 comments and currently 7 stories I submitted made popular. Not really Digg power user, but trending is good and network also is very powerful. You can view my Digg profile here.
am Top1 user on Designbump now too, look at statistics and view my profile.
Top1 user here as well, look at statistics on the bottom of page and view my profile.
Gtalk IM – here I have more than 100 friends, whom I can ask to help me on Digg, Reddit – my networking list.
To get better I also joined to Yaro Starak’s Blog Coaching Program – I really have to give credits for my knowledge to him too!
I really didn’t want to impress you, but I just wanted to show at least part of the job behind the scenes. Really now I hope you will understand why 50% of my time goes writing article and other half 50% goes promoting, networking and sharing that one article over the blogosphere!
Right and finally few feedback articles I made this month..and screenshots from history:
The First Month Of 1stwebdesigner
First 132 RSS readers and ~45 000 unique visits!
The Third Month And Time To Talk!
1362 RSS readers and more than ~100, 000 uniques per month!
New Things Happening At 1stwebdesigner Website
And here you can find out what’s happened just month ago – big changes and still a lot of work must be done! But now I must say..redesign really put this site to another level!
What can I say, stay with us, because I promise – I will work even harder, I also learned a lot in this year – hoping you did too! Let’s get started – Year 2 stage comes! Cheers!
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Dainis Graveris is 23 years old blogger and designer, founder of 1stWebDesigner, now more silently managing everything behind the scenes. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links and chatting with people. If you have any questions or feedback that's the best place to start! Cheers!
Monday, March 1st, 2010 04:16
dude, you had a great 1st year. Congrats.. little jealous..haha
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 10:24
It’s inspiring.. I just need to find the time to devote haha
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 19:50
This post is very inspiring. I am currently building a blog of my own (less than 2 months old) and some of these techniques are great. I’m not achieving the popularity you were. I’m at about 83 subscribers, but I won’t give up! Thanks for the post.
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 16:29
What a year! Dainis you are an inspiration to a new design blogger like myself (just over 6 months blogging now) and keep up the amazing work here. Here’s to another fab year :-)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 17:46
well i am establishing my online blog now and thank you for the information, i will try to use it to make a cool blog like yours :)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 03:16
always enjoyed your posts man
cheers and good luck for future
Saturday, September 5th, 2009 18:23
great blog! Hope 1stwebdesigner becomes better and better.
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 21:58
congrats dainis thats good stats considering your at design school aswell like having two jobs
keep it up mate b
vtw gonna find your digg pg
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 13:18
Happy Birthday 1stwebdesigner. Hope you do more awesome in this coming year. Keep rocking!
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 07:05
Happy Birthday! Congrats for achieving this within an year. I still remember the days when you send me the digg requests. You blog has come a long way from there.
Keep the good work. Looking forward for more impressive blog posts going in the future.
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:30
Ah, thank you..I still got friends who help me with digg..:) But at least slowly evolving – thanks, we’ll what will happen in future!:)
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:36
Ah, I will say just one, big HUGE appreciation thanks to you all! I cannot explain how much I evaluate you being here and keep coming back!
Stay with us in the next year too!
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 19:51
Congratulations Dainis you already have an excellent blog in just one year, That’s awesome, and inspiring, in fact, I’d seen your articles about 1 and 3 moths when I started blogging and I have them as reference (now this one too) because one day I will do such statistics, “I hope so”.
Anyway, keep working as you are doing, because you have a great present and a most even excellent future for you and this blog, you can be sure.
Last, I can beleive I am in the top commentators as I really know and comment on your blog since some months.
Ps: I would like to see more about your personal projects.
Congrats again!!!
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:34
Thanks, Luis! I don’t know if blog is that good as you call it, but for one man’s job it’s pretty hard:) Sure, just work a lot and I don’t see why you couldn’t be even better!
Yeah, you are doing a lot of commenting – I really appreciate your good words and time!
About personal projects, I’ll see how I get my work managed and let you inform about future plans, I definitely want to evolve in the next year.
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:58
Happy Birthday! =)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:22
Some awesome stats there, really nice for you to share it.
Happy birthday to 1stwebdesigner!
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:13
Congrats on your first birthday! Very impressive stats
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 19:16
Happy new year.
Many congratulations on the success and all the people and information that exists on your website.
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 08:58
congratulations to 1stwebdesigner, you may have a good year ahead
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 06:05
Happy birthday to 1stwebdesigner! Through this blog i had learned a lot of things and i hope your hope continue to grow and also bring you more income :)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 11:18
Great work! And the right strategy of promotion. Blogging and social networks are inseparable.
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 05:25
Congratulations & happy birthday~
love ur blog, thank a lot :)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 03:22
Happy birthday and thank you for all the amazing resources.
Feliz Aniversario¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
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Pablo Lara H
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 03:22
Happy birthday and thank you for all the amazing resources.
Feliz Aniversario¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
Javo
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 19:16
Happy new year.
Many congratulations on the success and all the people and information that exists on your website.
Andy Walpole
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:13
Congrats on your first birthday! Very impressive stats
Dave Sparks
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:22
Some awesome stats there, really nice for you to share it.
Happy birthday to 1stwebdesigner!
Luis Lopez
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 19:51
Congratulations Dainis you already have an excellent blog in just one year, That’s awesome, and inspiring, in fact, I’d seen your articles about 1 and 3 moths when I started blogging and I have them as reference (now this one too) because one day I will do such statistics, “I hope so”.
Anyway, keep working as you are doing, because you have a great present and a most even excellent future for you and this blog, you can be sure.
Last, I can beleive I am in the top commentators as I really know and comment on your blog since some months.
Ps: I would like to see more about your personal projects.
Congrats again!!!
Dainis Graveris
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:34
Thanks, Luis! I don’t know if blog is that good as you call it, but for one man’s job it’s pretty hard:) Sure, just work a lot and I don’t see why you couldn’t be even better!
Yeah, you are doing a lot of commenting – I really appreciate your good words and time!
About personal projects, I’ll see how I get my work managed and let you inform about future plans, I definitely want to evolve in the next year.
Frank Stallone
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 15:58
Happy Birthday! =)
Catalin
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 10:58
Hey congrats man! You rock!!
Johnson Koh
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 10:21
Congratulations Dainis! Keep rocking buddy~
Sherry
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 05:25
Congratulations & happy birthday~
love ur blog, thank a lot :)
Iflexion
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 11:18
Great work! And the right strategy of promotion. Blogging and social networks are inseparable.
Dicky
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 06:05
Happy birthday to 1stwebdesigner! Through this blog i had learned a lot of things and i hope your hope continue to grow and also bring you more income :)
Mars
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 08:58
congratulations to 1stwebdesigner, you may have a good year ahead
aravind
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 13:49
Congrats buddy… Keep rocking!
Mohamed Badr
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 17:46
well i am establishing my online blog now and thank you for the information, i will try to use it to make a cool blog like yours :)
Grace Smith
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 16:29
What a year! Dainis you are an inspiration to a new design blogger like myself (just over 6 months blogging now) and keep up the amazing work here. Here’s to another fab year :-)
Shane Jeffers
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 19:50
This post is very inspiring. I am currently building a blog of my own (less than 2 months old) and some of these techniques are great. I’m not achieving the popularity you were. I’m at about 83 subscribers, but I won’t give up! Thanks for the post.
daddydesign
Monday, March 1st, 2010 04:16
dude, you had a great 1st year. Congrats.. little jealous..haha
Metacom
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 10:24
It’s inspiring.. I just need to find the time to devote haha
srikanth
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 03:16
always enjoyed your posts man
cheers and good luck for future
Daniel
Saturday, September 5th, 2009 18:23
great blog! Hope 1stwebdesigner becomes better and better.
Dainis Graveris
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:36
Ah, I will say just one, big HUGE appreciation thanks to you all! I cannot explain how much I evaluate you being here and keep coming back!
Stay with us in the next year too!
Satbir
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 06:14
congrats and thanks for all the good stuff!
Thomson
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 07:05
Happy Birthday! Congrats for achieving this within an year. I still remember the days when you send me the digg requests. You blog has come a long way from there.
Keep the good work. Looking forward for more impressive blog posts going in the future.
Dainis Graveris
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 08:30
Ah, thank you..I still got friends who help me with digg..:) But at least slowly evolving – thanks, we’ll what will happen in future!:)
Ben Rama
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 21:58
congrats dainis thats good stats considering your at design school aswell like having two jobs
keep it up mate b
vtw gonna find your digg pg
Bariski
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 13:18
Happy Birthday 1stwebdesigner. Hope you do more awesome in this coming year. Keep rocking!