Normal Happenings just hit an important milestone: 300 WordPress followers! I am so happy!
Three-hundred followers, in my mind, was always the point on the map in which I’d allow myself to think I’m on my way. It’s the statistical realization that I am capable of building a community around the concepts in which I adore writing about, and I can through consistency and passion truly get an audience involved in a journey of appreciating everyday life.
I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. The first post, entitled Normal Happenings: A Reintroduction, went live on February 28, 2018. It’s surreal to think that was only just north of six months ago.
Granted this wasn’t my first foray into blogging — I had been doing so with little success since 2012 — but it was definitely the only meaningful one. Shout-outs to those who stuck with me even when I hadn’t quite found my writing voice — Super Jan and lifelessons, among others.
Creating Normal Happenings came with it the discovery that writing my own sincere thoughts is the only way to truly find passion through script. And judging by the fact that you, an actual, wonderful human being, are sitting here reading this, some of that passion must leak through the relentless filter of language. You’re an awesome person, and I’d totally tell you that in real life if I could!
So I wanted to go back and wrangle some stats, briefly taking a look at our six month journey getting from there to here.
Top Five Posts (by views):
- Hyrule: See the Sights! Hear the Sounds!
Big thanks to all involved in making that possible. - We Need Your Talent! Collaboration #2
Big thanks to all currently making this possible. - My First Video Game Was a Masterpiece | A Kirby’s Adventure Retrospective
It was so great replaying this beautiful game. - Facing Yourself: Escaping the Black Hole of Depression
Nikki did amazing on that post! - Five Cute Moments When You Adopt a Kitten
Kittens are my secret weapon.
Bottom Five Posts (by views):
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the Secret Pain Disillusionment
A dreadful film deserving of its dreadful view count. - Falling for Jars of Clay’s “The Long Fall Back to Earth”
I knew while writing it would be a post for me alone. - Behind the Scenes: Designing the Opening Sequence for A Geeky Gal’s New YouTube Channel
Come on, give A Geeky Gal‘s intro more love! - TV Shows, Video Games, and Movies, Oh My! Real Life Follows Culture
Understandable. - Rom-Com Week! “What If” and Bantering Towards a Proper Love Story
This film deserves more love… from somebody other than me.
Top Commenters:
Total posts:
85 posts
Average word count:
1,093 words per post
Total word count:
92,872 total words
Most popular date and time:
Fridays at 10:00 A.M. — Nice Job Badges, of course!
Total likes:
1,302 likes — whew, getting close to the super-specific milestone of 1,337!
Total WordPress followers:
310 amazing people!
You all are seriously the best, and I can’t wait for what’s in store for the future of normal Happenings!
Help us make amazing designs, better collaborations, and even achieve our dreams of podcast and video content. Consider becoming one of the amazing patrons of Normal Happenings. We would be forever grateful!
This is so awesome Matt, congrats!!
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Thank you Alyssa. I really appreciate you being so supportive of us. 🙂
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Congrats!
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Good for you for sticking in there, Matt.
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Aww, and thanks for sticking with me over the years, Judy! 😀
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Yay, congrats, Matt! I look forward to more awesome content in the future! Here’s to the next 300!
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Thank you Jan! And I appreciate you sticking with me all these years. I checked the stats, and it looks like you’ve been following me since 2016, long before Normal Happenings was ever a thing. So yeah, you’re awesome. 🙂
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:3 Aww, well, you’re a brilliant content creator, and a great writer. You deserve all the followers. All of them!
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Aww shucks, Jan. 😀
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Congrats on 300 followers man. Here’s to another 300 more I had no idea I was one of your top commenters! Keep it up 👍!
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Thanks 2Tall! Yep, you sure are! It’s interesting what happens when you start ranking things by numbers. 🙂
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Congratulations! It won’t be long until you are at the 1337 milestone now either.
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Thank you (times 1,337) for your support. 🙂
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The reason this has happened is because – and I infer this from your output – you weren’t in this for the views. The best of us aren’t, none of our other blogging friends are. I recall seeing a Nintendo fanboy on YouTube explaining that he was closing his channel because, after less than a year of making videos, he had less than a hundred subscribers, when he really wanted as many as the official Nintendo channel (millions). Needless to say, people who want instant success or gratification are unable to care about what it is that they’re actually outputting, which is why it’s also inevitable that they give up so soon. But we know better, and just thinking about how many of us are getting to know each other and overlapping into our lives… well, I think we’ve saved each other from that alternative.
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What an amazing comment Alex! Thank you, and I appreciate your support. Sad story about that YouTuber though.
You are so so right. Long before Normal Happenings, I used to be obsessed with stats — you can ask Nikki. But over the years I changes, and now I only periodically glance at them. Do I want to write for a living one day? Sure, but it has no consequence on me just writing my heart.
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Congratulations!
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Thank you short-prose! I really appreciate it. 🙂
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You are welcome!
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Congratulations Matt & Nikki! With the amount of time and effort you put into this it doesn’t surprise me at all how fast Normal Happenings has grown! Looking forward to seeing what’s next for the blog!
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