2012 is over. 2013 has begun. It’s been a crazy year in a lot of ways, but it’s been a great year as well. And, as far as my writing is concerned, it has been a very productive year here at JeffRandleman.com.

It was exciting. We moved over a thousand miles away, to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

I launched a new online resource designed to help dads become great dads, at DeliberateDads.com.

And behind the scenes, I saw some significant events as well.

One of the most important parts of maintaining a blog is taking stock of analytical statistics. In order to become for of an effective presence with my writing, looking at these stats is essential to see where I’ve been and where I am now, so that I can project where I’m going.

WordPress makes viewing these statistics pretty simple in the dashboard, and to top it all off, they send out an annual report so that I can see how things have stacked up for the year.

Here’s a brief synopsis of 2012:

• I’ve written 205 posts this year. That’s 26 more than I wrote in 2011.
• I saw almost a 33% increase in views that I had in 2011.
• My top five posts were all written over a year ago, indicating that my content has lasting impact. That excites me.
• In 2011, my readers came from 28 different countries. In 2012, 151 different nations were represented.
• Discussion increased dramatically in 2012 over 2011, with many more comments than I saw last year.
• December of 2012 was my biggest month since I started blogging in September of 2008.

Here are the top ten posts from 2012, including the date it posted, and views it received throughout the year:

• The Difference Between Purpose, Vision, and Mission (May 27, 2011 – 1,927 views)
• The Maniac And The Messiah (February 23, 2011 – 756 views)
• Our Tradition: Christmas Eve Candle Light Service (December 20, 2011 – 752 views)
• Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry (May 4, 2011 – 714 views)
• Tips For Becoming More Consistent In Your Bible Reading (January 26, 2011 – 687 views)
• Video Review: Book Book Cases for iPhone 4 and iPad 2 (August 13, 2011 – 477 views)
• Memorize Scripture With Me! (February 6, 2011 – 409 views)
• Trying A New Bible Reading System (January 18, 2012 – 407 views)
• My Current Philosophy Of Ministry (May 6, 2011 – 400 views)
• E.M. Bounds On Prayer…. One More Time (February 18, 2011 – 371 views)

With nine of these posts written in 2011, I can see two things. First, my content has staying power. But on the other hand, almost none of my posts from 2012 made as much impact, yet. What does this mean to me? It means that I need to focus more on writing meaningful content in the coming year. It gives me an area to work on.

What surprises me is that I started this blog as a place to review books for several publishers that I read for, and yet not a single book review made the top list, even though this remains a significant part of JeffRandleman.com, under the heading of The Randleman Review.

With so many posts to choose from that I wrote in 2012, it’s difficult to say which were the most life changing for me personally. I’m excited to see what I come up with in the coming year.

2012 has been a great year. And 2013 will be even better!

What has been your favorite part of JeffRandleman.com this year? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.