As we move into 2012 and I get ready for the year of financial posts ahead, I’m taking this week as an opportunity to look back and plan forward. Yesterday, I shared the most popular posts from 2011 with you. Today, I’d like to update you about what’s going on around the blog and what you can expect going forward into the next year.
Benchmarks
Websites around the world live and die by statistics, so it seems fitting to let you know how Fiscal Fizzle is doing in terms of numbers. Here are a few key benchmarks for 2011:
- Over 300 new RSS and email subscribers joined the ranks. If you’re not a subscriber yet, please consider it today.
- More than 175,000 people visited the site last year, generating over a quarter million page views.
- The site’s reach on Twitter and Facebook continues to expand, topping more than 2,500 Twitter followers this year.
New Blog Features
While I made some minor design changes throughout the year, the biggest changes this year came in the way the various pages on the blog were organized:
- A new “start here” area provides a guide for new visitors and those who want a comprehensive overview of what the blog has to offer.
- Earlier this year, I created various resource pages that speak to some of the recurring themes on the blog, like car buying and recommended tools.
- On the back end of the blog, but hopefully equally noticeable, the site made the switch to Media Temple as my hosting solution, accelerated by services from CloudFlare, which should have made the site considerably faster for most of you.
Business Notes
While I have treated this blog as a business for some time, 2011 marks the first year that Fiscal Fizzle became part of an official business entity, KPL Media. I decided to create an LLC as a parent company for all of my online efforts for liability and tax reasons that I’ll write about in the coming year.
One of my original 2011 goals was to generate enough income from my new business to provide 15% of my total yearly income. The final year-end total is actually closer to 8%, but the last quarter of the year was far better than the first three combined, which is promising for what I can reach in 2012. I’ll discuss my personal and business goals for 2012 in greater detail in a post later this week.
On My Plate Right Now
For those of you who are interested, I like to update everyone with what’s “on my plate” right now–professional and personal projects and efforts I’m working on right now in addition to this blog. Here’s a brief overview:
- I continue to practice architecture full time. There is renewed interest in planning and building in our area, which is promising for my job security, earning potential and opportunity for growth in the profession.
- I’m working on a new personal finance project that will involve a blog, resource pages, and a paid product. I hope to launch this by the spring of this year, depending on how quickly I’m able to put content together.
- Once a week, I contribute to a relatively new culinary website called Married Food. It was started by none other than Elle from Couple Money, and continues to be a good source of creativity for me outside the money arena.
- The “slow down” blog I wrote about last year really did slow things down, and I haven’t taken care of it as well as I should. I have decided to scrap the project to focus on other work.
- I’m hoping to launch a new website this year with a few friends that caters to children’s literature. We are still developing the concepts for what the site will be, but I hope to report on it more in a year’s time.
Finally, as I’m sure you’re well aware, life continues to roll on behind the scenes of my day job and all of the projects which I tend to online. My son turns 2 years old this weekend, and we’re looking forward to a year filled with whining and discipline. Tennis, running and cycling continue to be a passion of mine, and some unfulfilled goals are rising to the surface again, like the desire to learn piano. I’ll talk more about my personal goals later this week.
Fiscal Fizzle in 2012
Finally, with 2011 now completely behind us, what can you expect from Fiscal Fizzle in the coming year? Here are a few of the upcoming things I have planned:
- I have committed to writing at least 150 new posts this year, or about 3 new posts every week. I plan to alternate a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule with Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule on alternating weeks.
- Since I decided not to launch a family/child-related finance website, I plan to return to posting about how to deal with child expenses and other family issues in 2012.
- 2011 was a quiet year on the social media scene for me. I expect to really put forward more effort to be active on Twitter, Facebook, and other personal finance blogs this year.
- Finally, I expect that you’ll see more ads on Fiscal Fizzle in the next year, but I am avoiding making them intrusive at all costs. They are part of my effort to diversify my income and make running this blog a worthwhile investment of my time.
2012: The Year of the Great Reversal
I can feel it coming–things are getting better in every area of our lives, personally and professionally. Many of our friends and colleagues are experiencing the same thing. After years of struggle and effort, the tides of the global and personal economies are finally starting to change in our favor.
I hope that you’ve decided to ride along and we can make this a great year together!
