Fire up your laser pointers and Bunsen burners—we’re back with our annual numerical roundup. Every year we break down what Young House Love looks like by the numbers: some figures are wild, some are surprising, some are serious, and some are just for fun.
This year we’ve added a few fun blog facts that might just surprise you (no guarantees your mind will be blown, though).
Fun Bloggy Fact #1: Each month, the cost to host our site so it loads fast and stays up is higher than our mortgage payment.
Fun Bloggy Fact #2: In the past five years we’ve written more than 2,311 posts. If each one averaged 2.5 hours to write, edit, and upload photos, we’ve spent roughly 5,777.5 hours creating posts—more than 240 straight days of post-writing if you didn’t stop to sleep.
Fun Bloggy Fact #3: The Internet has made up some amusing rumors about us over the years. The most common: “Sherry is pregnant.” There was also a memorable report (relayed through a family friend) that we were Mormons. There’s nothing wrong with that faith, it’s just not ours—so it’s always funny how rumors travel. And for the record: I am not pregnant. Haha.
Fun Bloggy Fact #4: The combined value of giveaways we’ve hosted over the last five years exceeds $55,000. In the past two months alone we gave away more than $15,000 worth of prizes—more than we did during our first two years on the blog.
Fun Bloggy Fact #5: Blogging is the longest job either of us has ever held—five years (and counting) if you include the full time we’ve committed to it.
Fun Bloggy Fact #6: Tori Spelling once called us—herself!—to talk about producing a TV show with us. She was nice, and there was a goat and a chicken in the background. We politely passed on the TV thing because we’re awkward on camera and much happier behind our laptops. The call happened right after Hurricane Irene while we were camped at John’s parents’ house for power, and I snapped a photo to remember it.
Fun Bloggy Fact #7: Last month our site received 5.5 million page views. Our all-time total is over 143 million page views—funny to think we write as if we’re speaking to ten readers to keep the nerves at bay.
Now for a straightforward set of stats. We’ve included some numbers from last year for comparison, and you can also look back at our previous by-the-numbers posts if you enjoy the historical perspective.
1,043,621 – Total comments left by readers. That’s nearly double last year’s 570,314, meaning the past 12 months saw almost as much commenting as our first four years combined.
76,825 – Comment responses we’ve posted ourselves, almost double last year’s 38,754.
Pamen – The default name Clara gives to anything when we ask her “What’s that bear’s/doll’s/person’s name?” (Aemon is her second favorite). We have no idea where those names came from, but they’re adorable.
4 – The longest stretch, in days, that we didn’t publish a post over the last 1,827 days (five years), despite life events like a baby, an earthquake, and a hurricane. We’re surprisingly consistent.
3 – Average number of trips per week we make to The Home Depot.
143 – Published posts to date on Young House Life (we’ll catch up over there soon—compared to 2,311 posts here, someone needs to step it up).
21 – Months we’ve lived in our current house.
27 – Clara’s weight in pounds, up from 21 lbs last year. She’s tall and skinny like her dad.
8 – Burger’s weight in pounds, slightly down from 8.5 lbs last year.
198 – Total number of weekly giveaways we’ve hosted since November 2008 (you asked for them during our first blogiversary and we delivered).
35 – Our average number of posts per month.
4 – Number of soda-themed shirts in John’s collection (Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Pepsi and a recently added Coke shirt).
303 – Instagram photos posted to date.
1,800 – Average number of words per post. We’re chatty, and that’s what you get.
14,400 – Approximate words written per week—a bit insane, but that’s how the blog runs.
629 – Projects linked on our Projects page. We still have roughly 40 more to add when time allows.
70 – Photos taken for Clara’s ongoing photo project (52 weekly pictures, 17 monthly pictures, and 1 for her birthday card).
933,962 – Pinterest followers. This number still manages to astonish us.
1 – Remaining ear on Clara’s Olivia doll for her dollhouse. It was a tiny tragedy we try not to talk about.
There you go—the stats for the year. Do you track little details like Home Depot trips or themed T-shirt collections? We’d love to hear what quirky metrics you document.
Psst—If you’re curious about the nuts and bolts of professional blogging (how we built our site, grew our traffic, and turned this into a full-time job), we’ve shared detailed posts about how we started a blog, grew our following, and monetized the work.