A blogger's look back on 2010

I know all of this retrospective stuff is supposed to happen over the week between Christmas and New Year's. It makes for easy copy to fill in what would otherwise be dead air. I did a bit of that myself when I listed my Top 10 Posts for 2010. However, if you'll indulge me, this not only has pretty pictures, it has numbers. (You can click on the image to make it larger, if you're a detail oriented kind of person.)

As you can see, my visitor stats were coming along nicely in a solid growth projection. The little outliers you see circled are a slightly viral hit I had back in August, which I previously discussed and then drew a lesson from. But what lessons can be drawn from the year as a whole?

First: you, my readers, like things that are funny, informative, and entertaining. No surprise there, but I might as well set it down in writing for future reference.

Second: trying to gin up single day, blockbuster hits that will make up for weeks upon weeks of mediocrity is a bad business model. This is not to say I wouldn't enjoy one blockbuster viral hit after another, but just that it's much better to try for solid quality all the time.

Third: I'm much happier continuing to be me, instead of trying to capitalize on that viral hit by completely re-orienting my blog to capture that moment and make it last. I tried not to be "all ranting, all the time", since I'm not a one-trick pony. Granted, I still get razzed occasionally about semicolons and cat tweets, and I like the give and take of it, because it's all in good fun. However, those memes are part of me; neither one is my sole defining achievement.

Fourth: I can see that there is much yet to be done, as a blogger and as a writer.

So... how was your 2010? Do you look back and try to learn lessons from it, or is that too nit-picky?

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