Blogging highlights for 2024

/ Whispering Gums

Yesterday, as per my tradition, I posted my annual Reading highlights, which means tonight it’s time for my Blogging highlights. This is probably only of interest to me, but I’m a librarian/archivist by training and I love to keep records! My main blogging highlight this year has to be that I celebrated 15 years of blogging in May. I never thought I’d still be here, but then again, I hadn’t realised how much fun it would be to be part of an international community of litbloggers, nor did I guess the way we’d become part of literary culture, locally, nationally and internationally.

Anyhow, onto some specific highlights …

Top posts for 2024

Are you interested in which posts of yours get the most hits? I love seeing which of my review posts are most visited over the year. For many years, older posts have dominated my Top Ten, but recent years have seen a gradual shift to more newer posts taking top honours. This continued for 2024. Why this change?

  1. Claire Keegan, So late in the day (December 2023)
  2. Ernest Hemingway, “Cat in the rain” (September 2022)
  3. Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead (February 2024)
  4. Richard Flanagan, Question 7 (March 2024, Australian)
  5. J.D. Vance, Hillbilly elegy (August 2023)
  6. Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler, Black cockatoo (January 2021, Australian)
  7. Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard devotional (June 2024, Australian)
  8. Robbie Arnott, Limberlost (March 2023, Australian)
  9. Ambelin Kwaymullina, “Fifteen days on Mars” (January 2023, Australian)
  10. Epiphany in Harrower’s “The fun of the fair” (essay by Emily Maguire) (January 2022, Australian)

Observations:

  • Three of these posts (Hemingway, Kwaymullina and Maguire’s essay on Harrower) were Top Tens last year, but in a big break with the past, none of the Serial Top Tenners (Jack London, Barbara Baynton, and Mark Twain) appear this year. Jack London does rank 12th, while Baynton and Twain have both dropped to the 20s.
  • Seven posts were published in the last two years, which is another record, being an increase by two on last year’s record of 5. Even more of a record is that all top ten posts were published in the 2020s. This trend to recent posts ranking well is a big change after years of older posts holding sway. I’m not sure how much is due to a real change in behaviour and how much to some change in WordPress’s protocols for counting hits.
  • Seven of this year’s Top Tens are Top Ten debuts, and six of this year’s Top are for Australian works, both of which are also records.
  • The list always offers something intriguing (to me, anyhow), but I’ll just comment on two inclusions: J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly elegy jumped in hits the week he was named you-know-who’s Vice-Presidential running mate; and I have no idea why Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler’s gorgeous children’s picture book, Black cockatoo, is in the Top Ten, but I love that it is.

I also like to see how the posts written in the year fare, so here are the Top Ten 2024-published posts (excluding Monday Musings, event and meme posts):

My two most popular Monday Musings posts were the same as last year: Some new releases (the 2024 version); Books banned in Australia (June 2019); but my old post on The lost child motif (February 2011) was roundly bumped out of its stranglehold on the number three position by this year’s First Nations short story collections post (July 2024). What a lovely surprise.

Random blogging stats

The searches

Help Books Clker.com
(Courtesy OCAL, via clker.com)

I know some of you enjoy this part of my Blogging Highlights post, even though these days search term visibility is greatly curtailed.

Some searches related to specific books…

  • “need a detailed summary of stone yard devotional book by charlotte wood for a book club”: don’t you love the “need”?
  • “what is the trait of esperance in novel terra nullius”
  • “the rosie project cultural context”

while some are more general …

and some are just surprising …

  • last year I noted that the searches – ‘date of birth and “scott tucker”‘ and ‘husband and “scott tucker”’ – were probably looking for this Scott Tucker but that they got Michelle Scott Tucker’s Elizabeth Macarthur’s biography instead. People are still looking for “that” Scott Tucker, but are finding “mine”.
  • “trust-your-instincts-and-have-a-premarital-agreement-drafted” : what on earth brought this search to me?
  • “helen garner detives inspiration from female british author” : despite the typo this search found me, though I haven’t worked out why.
  • “books on literary authenticity in australia” : this seems to have brought the searcher to my home page rather than to a particular post which I guess should please me!
  • “historical importance of the esay literature and totalitarianism” : this brought the searcher to my post on George Orwell’s essay on “The prevention of literature”

Other stats

2024 was another quiet year for me post-wise. Although I wrote four more posts than last year’s 135, it was still well under my long term average of 153. However, my overall hits for the year increased by 35% on last year. Stats! I find it hard to believe that’s a true increase, particularly given the number of “likes” and “comments” were about the same. Methinks they’ve changed their counting protocols.

The top six countries visiting my blog were the same as last year, in the same order: Australia (46%), the USA (22%), United Kingdom, India, Canada, and the Philippines. But the next four show a change with Ireland popping in at no. 7, having not been in the ten at all, followed by New Zealand, Germany and France, from last year’s top ten. China dropped out.

I’ve never reported on this one before, but another interesting figure provided by WordPress (JetPack) is Clicks. This tells which sites visitors clicked, suggesting something about visitors’ engagement with our posts. My tops include Wikipedia, my own blog and images within it, and two short story sites. But, you might be interested in the bloggers that I link to. Here are the top 5 blogs clicked from mine, plus their most clicked link:

Challenges, memes, et al

I only do one regular meme, Kate’s (booksaremyfavouriteandbest) #sixdegreesofseparation. I occasionally do other memes – found under my “memes” link – but did no others in 2024.

I also took part, to various degrees, in Bill’s (The Australian Legend) Gen 0, Nonfiction November (multiple bloggers), Novellas in November (Cathy of 746 books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck), the #YEAR Club (Kaggsy’s Bookish Rambling and Simon’s Stuck in a Book), and Buried in Print’s MARM. Most of these can be found via my “Reading weeks/months/years” category.

I like the structured opportunity these provide for bloggers to explore writers and works we might otherwise find hard to fit in, and would love to do more, but …!

And so, 2025 …

I can’t do much but repeat my usual thanks you to all of you who commented on my blog this year – the regulars and the newbies who have given me a shot. I love those of you who comment – regularly or occasionally – and thank you for being an active part of the community. But, as always, a big thank you too to the lurkers. Your interest and support is also greatly appreciated.

I also want to thank all the hardworking bloggers out there. I’m sorry that I’ve continued this year to be a less regular commenter on your blogs than I’d like to. My life has changed, and I’m still working out how to manage the new lifestyle, with new and old commitments. I enjoy reading your posts when I can, and hope to read more, and engage in more book talk in 2025.

Finally, huge thanks to the authors, publishers and booksellers who make it all possible.

Roll on 2025 … Meanwhile, Happy New Year everyone.

37 thoughts on “Blogging highlights for 2024”

  1. Firstly, thank you for your ongoing participation in #6degrees 🙂

    I haven’t looked at my blog stats over the last few years (mainly because I was hacked at one point, stats went haywire, and then extra security made it all a bit harder to access the info…). Anyway, your post – especially the search terms, which are always funny and revealing – prompted me to have a look (Loved the ‘need’ in the search for Stone Yard Devotional on your blog – can you imagine the frenzy as the person was deciding whether to skim-read the book before their book group meeting, or let the internet do its thing?!).

    My post with the most hits in 2024 was one I wrote years ago about grief memoirs – it’s actually really out of date and there have been loads of grief memoirs published since that I think are better. Maybe I should do an update?! Other than that, my reviews of Claire Keegan’s Antarctica, Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, and Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos top mine.

    In terms of search words – ‘does patrick cheat on martha in sorrow and bliss‘ and ‘sigrid nunez when mother dies cannot trust‘ and ‘should you read the book my brilliant friend if you liked the show’ (no, stick with the show) and ‘lucy kalanithi john duberstein split up’ (can’t believe they found their way to my blog for this info!).

    Happy new year!

    Reply

    • Thanks Kate … I do enjoy Six Degrees. And thanks for sharing your top posts and search terms. You have some good-uns!

      Does Patrick cheat … reminds me of all the Does the dog die in Red Dog ones I got for years.

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    • Thanks Stefanie … that one made me laugh most too (besides the person NEEDING the book summary.) I do the searches I choose if their target isn’t obvious to see where they land but a few search pages in I was still mystified about that one.

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  4. 15 years of blogging! I’ll join your club in 2025.

    Happy New Year to you and your family. And happy reading in 2025. Let’s keep this wondrful book community alive.

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  7. I wonder if the popularity of the more recent posts has also to do with so many people reading and talking about a few of the authors on your list. I must hear Claire Keegan’s name every other day on social as well as the increase in popularity of the Australian writers and all the hype around these authors. Who knows. I began my blog around 2010/20212 but can’t quite remember. It started as a result of a quite severe medical episode of depression at the time and the writing along with other treatment helped me climb out of it. I am not as prolific or as educational around in depth book reviews as many but it is certainly fun and I enjoy the friendships made from it. All the best for more posts in 2025.🌻🌻🌻.

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  8. Interesting to see these stats, especially the shift to newer posts getting more hits. I’m always torn between wanting the newer posts to do well and wanting my older posts not to sink into obscurity. My stats are still dominated by a post I wrote 12 years ago analysing the ending of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. It seems people are still mystified by the book all these years later and are searching for an explanation! I’d love it if my newer posts got that much attention. Anyway, looking forward to reading more from you in 2025. Happy New Year!

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  9. Hi Sue, always a pleasure to read your blogs. Lisa and your blogs leads me to some very good reads. Have a great and happy 2025. I like how google searching leads you astray! Unfortunately, I cannot register my “like’s”

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  10. I’m one of those who enjoy the weird search terms! My favourite part (you’d think it would be the books, eh? lol)! I’ve enjoyed following along with your reading this year and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead for you in 2025!

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    • Thanks Marcie … I always enjoy your thoughtful comments.

      And I’m sorry for bombarding your blog at the end of the year. But I’ve been meaning to get to you ever since we arrived in Melbourne on 15 December, as I expected to have time to just sit down and have a good read, but here we are at our second last day before I found the time. It’s a heatwave today, so has been a good one for hiding inside.

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        • I do do that a bit on other blogs besides yours too … there’s sometimes pleasure in doing it that way in fact isn’t there. A feeling of continuity. But I worry the blogger will think I’ve forgotten them.

  11. I love that your stats post prompts the rest of us to check ours! My best search question was ‘write a rhynme about an eggplant funny‘ (in my early days of blogging I did a post about the eggplants I grew in my garden and found a couple of poems to go along with the photos 🙂 )

    I did notice that in Referrers, that I now have four AI sites sending people to my blog and that more people are using sites other than google as their search engines (at least nine).

    You, Lisa, Kim and Shelley were my top click throughs, though it doesn’t tell me which posts. Demon Copperhead was my top post for the year which coinincides with your observations.

    Aside from search engines, AI and my old blog, most people find my blog thanks to you, Lisa, Kim, Susan @A Life in Books, Nan @Letters from a Hill Farm and Liz. So thank you 🙂

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    • A pleasure Brona … i like the blogging community we have.

      Re Clicks, do you not that little symbol you can click to expand? When I do that I get some specific posts but some not which I presume means they went to the homepage.

      What are the AI sites? I’m on my phone now but I don’t recollect seeing any – near the top anyhow.

      Love the “eggplant” search!

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        • ChatGPT quite low for me – just 26 referrals in the last 12 months. The biggest “ai” sounding referrer was something called perplexity.ai with just under 100 referrals, with ChatGPT the next highest. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years, won’t it.

  12. How. in the. F&*# did I forget that J.D. Vance is going to be VP. He’s such a nasty snake, and his memoir is incredibly misleading. I “love” how the whole part of his life during which he gets into the prestigious legal school is utterly skipped over.

    Anyway, I loved all the insights you provided here and am now interested in checking out my own stats. Maybe I’ll share some tomorrow, as I don’t have a review scheduled.

    Reply

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