About a year into writing Appellation Mountain, I stopped checking the site’s stats. I’d become a bit obsessed with it, wondering why I wasn’t doing better than so-and-so, or worried that I wasn’t ranking higher in search engines.
Then I stopped looking … and you kept reading, and telling your friends. I can still see a summary of total visits on the dashboard, and I glance at it now and again, content that there are more and more people finding their way here.
Thursday evening I noticed that hits were trending upward – fast, and I mean Brangelina-surprise-adoption fast. When I clicked through, I realized it was because tct1219 had mentioned me on The Bump’s community forum about baby names. That ordinary day brought more traffic here than any guest post at Nameberry or celeb name announcement.
It is humbling to read complimentary reviews of your site, and I truly, truly appreciate each and every one of them, on The Bump and elsewhere. But what I most appreciate is that you visit here, share your thoughts, and suggest your favorites to be profiled as Names of the Day.
So whether this is your first visit or you’ve been reading since 2008, I sincerely thank you for being here! I was name-mad before blogs existed, but it so very much fun to share my obsession.
I’m a newcomer to your site, thanks to the mention on The Bump, and I’d just like to chime in and tell you what a great job you do. I’m an editor and writer, so words are important to me, and right now none are more important than baby names. Your careful analysis and research is a joy to read, and I know I’ll be reading as long as you’re writing, even after I’ve picked out my baby’s name.
I love your site and hope you continue to grow your audience! Keep writing! 🙂
I’m so glad you’re in this for the long haul! I remember you saying once that you would write even if nobody read it – your to-the-core love of names comes through in every write-up which keeps me coming back every day.
When parents mention a name they’re considering I love being able to send them a link to that particular name. I love that you’re so thorough in your research and draw from such a wide variety of sources, be they ancient, literary or pop culture.
As long as you keep writing, I plan to keep on reading. 🙂
Thanks, Christina! I appreciate it. Sites generate so much data that it is easy to drown in numbers, even though the numbers? That’s not why I’m here.
Readers who will suggest names like Jerusha? That’s what matters! 😉
That’s awesome that a single mention can make such a difference. This is defintely one of the first websites I recommend to friends looking for a name. Nameberry is okay, it does have a fairly large database of names but their descriptions are a wee bit lacking. But I love this site because you get so much of a better feel for a name.
Maybe you could make a full time job of this by updating their descriptions for them? 😉
LOL … Bevin, thanks for your vote of confidence! The truth is I like my day job. 🙂