Two and half years ago this blog reached 201 posts. Now it has reached 301 posts and it is nearly exactly 7 years old (which makes 43 posts/year). So how has this blog fared over that time?
There have been over 254,000 visitors, but most don’t stay for very long and are never seen again. The visitor peak of just under 6000 views in a month was around the time of the last meta post, June 2012. Since then there has been a slow decline, back down to around 2000 views/month.
I think this decline corresponds with a change in the content of the blog. The most popular page is Java NIO server example and all the other top 10 posts are also technical in nature. They are also all at least 4 years old (that NIO server post is the most recent). The decrease in technical posts is due to me leaving my old server-side programming career and becoming a wannabe indie game developer. Since then I have posted more about travel, MOOC and games. Apparently these are less popular topics (at least on this blog).
The decline in viewers has been reflected in a decline in AdSense revenue. Although I hesitate to call it revenue, because I have never actually received a penny. The minimum amount for a payout is £60, after 7 years I stand at £46 total. Still a way to go before actually earning anything. The rate of growth has slowed to around £0.20/month, down from over a £1/month when views were at a peak.
All the blog posts combined now account for over 160,000 words and 1.1 MB (before formatting). This is a large novel’s worth! Writing the blog has been worthwhile. Without it, I would barely ever write a word. I also still have tons of ideas of things to post. So expect more posts to come (even if few people ever read them).