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Fun stats on theBrickBlogger’s first birthday!

I’m a little bit late to announce this, but theBrickBlogger.com had its first birthday on January 1st! 😀

Although I set up this LEGO blog sometime in November of 2010, I didn’t do much with it for a couple of months. I had some vague idea of sharing some of my own LEGO creations and some tips & trick I have learned in the LEGO hobby, but that was about it.

However right around Christmas of 2010 I got inspired to find a way to remove the then newly glued LEGO magnet minifigures. I remember spending New Years Eve experimenting in the kitchen with different methods, feeling like some mad scientist on a quest for the elixir of life. That post was published on January 1st of 2011, and it is still the most visited page on this website. (See here: Glued Magnet Minifig Removal) It is also when I caught the blogging-bug and started to write on a regular basis. Therefore I count the 1st of the year as the official birthday of theBrickBlogger. So yeah, happy birthday bloggy!

I thought to share with you some interesting stats on this day. I know data-miners love this kind of stuff, so here you go!

As you can see theBrickBlogger.com is growing at a steady pace. In December it finished off with just below an average of 5,000 visits a day, which is continuing with an upward trend so far in January of this year. It would be nice to make it to 10,000 visitors a day this year! 🙄

This is theBrickBlogger.com visitor map, with visitors from 186 countries – that’s almost every country in the world! 50% of visitors are from the USA, 10% from the UK, then comes Canada, Germany, Australia… all well-known for their strong LEGO fan-base. But I’m really curious about visitors from places like Greenland, the Falkland Islands, the Maldives, Botswana and Nepal. Are they really LEGO fans, or just stumbled upon this website by accident? (If you are a LEGO-fan from these unique places please raise your hand! We would love to hear from you!) And what I would really like is at least one visitor from Tristan de Cunha, a tiny volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic, known as the most remote place in the world.

Here are some other fun stats you might like:

  • Total number of posts: 224
  • Total number of comments: 3,826
  • Total number of spam comments: 99,600 😡
  • Total number of subscribers: 220
  • Total number of likes on Facebook Page: 368
  • Total number of followers on Twitter: 204
  • Total number of subscribers on YouTube: 1 (our original YouTube channel was deleted by accident, so please re-subscribe!)
  • Total number of break-in attempts: 6 (yeah, that’s scary!) 😐

What I cherish most about blogging is the friendships I had formed with fellow LEGO fans; both those who are visitors to this site, and friends I have made at other LEGO blogs and forums and at the LEGO Company.

TheBrickBlogger has grown much bigger than I have originally envisioned and it is still growing in ways I have never imagined. This is no longer just my blog, but a place for LEGO fans to share their love for the LEGO hobby both by building and by writing.

I especially would like to thank our regular contributors; Sarah, William, Maxx and Gary. Their contributions have given theBrickblogger a diversity I could have never achieved alone. I would also like to thank Steph -who wrote a wonderful post on her childhood LEGO memories, Milos – who wanted to write something controversial and certainly achieved it, Shilo for his excellent tutorials (I still have to upload a couple) and Quad – who has been a bit shy setting up his own contributor’s page, but who nevertheless wrote two excellent tutorials. He is a TFOL (Teen-Fan-of-LEGO) wise beyond his years. Thank you all for your contribution!

I would also like to thank our regular readers and commenters, many of whom significantly contribute to this website by helping out other readers, answering questions on posts, alerting us of LEGO news, and in general making my job much easier. If any of you would like to step up and write full posts just let me know.

As far as my vision for 2012, my plan is to continue facilitating the growth of theBrickBlogger by writing regularly, and especially by supporting those who would like to share their passion of the LEGO hobby by writing. Although there are many LEGO forums around, a blogging platform is much more conducive to writers as it gives more lasting visibility. And if you have any suggestions on how we can improve theBrickBlogger, or if you would like us to cover a particular topic, let us know in the comment section below.

So, happy first birthday to theBrickBlogger! May there be many more! 😛

{ 43 comments… add one }
  • Yatkuu January 9, 2012, 12:49 PM

    Happy Birthday! I suscribed to the RSS feed a few months ago and I never regretted it, well written posts and interesting topics, please keep this up!

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:23 PM

      Thanks, Yatkuu! I should do a post on your Attack on the Nile set! It is one of my favorites! Although you got plenty of fame on it already! 😉

  • Quad January 9, 2012, 1:06 PM

    Hey, thanks for the shout-out Admin.
    I think the reason that this is so popular is because it is updated so often. It’s nice when everytime you come back there’s new stuff to see and read.
    Anyways, Keep it up! And I hope that this blog will be here for many more years. 🙂

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:25 PM

      Thanks, Quad! There is so much to write about in the LEGO world! I could be sitting here 24/7! Ours is a really exciting hobby, isn’t it? 😀

  • chris January 9, 2012, 1:25 PM

    Happy Birthday! I just recently found you and subscribed to the blog. I got the LEGO bug while working on my own blog.

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:26 PM

      Chris, thanks! Just watch out with that LEGO-bug; it is very dangerous! It can totally take over your life! 8)

      • chris January 10, 2012, 9:14 PM

        New Catalog arrived yesterday. Too much In there I want.

        • admin January 10, 2012, 10:32 PM

          Chris, I know exactly what you mean! This has been one of the best Catalogs! So much goodness! 😛

          • chris January 11, 2012, 12:10 AM

            I have to remember to save money and room for the Lord of the Rings stuff later this year.

            • admin January 11, 2012, 10:41 AM

              Chris, yeah, LOTR is going to be huge! 😀

  • Nick Nox January 9, 2012, 3:34 PM

    I’m SO glad you did decide to start blogging 🙂 🙂 Its become such an informative resource and easy-to-navigate website. Having subscribed to it I now visit it frequently (as compared to the lego site which I hardly ever visit). Thanks for doing such a great job in keeping us all informed. LEGO should certainly give you a big box of Legos for all the promoting you’ve done on their behalf 😉

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:28 PM

      Thanks, Nick! A big box of LEGO is always welcome in my house! :mrgreen:

  • Andy at www.smallplasticbricks.com January 9, 2012, 3:42 PM

    Happy Birthday! I love this blog and visit it every day. I was wondering how you get so many visitors to visit your site? My blog only has about 3 visitors a day if I’m lucky…although I probably don’t post enough as I should! Any ideas?

    Also, I think it would be a great idea to feature ways to organize/stack/sort collections for us AFOL builders. Not to compete and see who has bigger collections, but I’d really like to see others collections to see who they are storing and labeling, etc.

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:49 PM

      Andy, nice to have you! As far as visitors, it just depends on what you want to do with your blog. There is really nothing inherently wrong with 3 visitors a day. Some people run their blog more like a personal journal, and others as a news site. There will be significant difference in visitors depending on how you approach blogging. I would say the first thing is to figure out what you want to do with your blog, and why are you blogging in the first place? Having a good hard look at that will give you the direction you need to take.

      If you would like more visitors, I would say there are 3 key factors to blogging:

      1. SERVICE – people will come if they sense you are trying to help them. Be a samurai – be at service to others.
      2. CONSISTENCY – write regularly so your readers can depend on your information and know what to expect. It doesn’t have to be daily, but at least once a week is a must if you want more traffic.
      3. UNIQUENESS – create not just a “me too” site, but let your personality and vision shine thru everything you write. Sounds like a contradiction with the first point? No, not at all. You can serve others best by being genuine. People trust you more if they know you are real.

      I like your idea for featuring ways of how LEGO fans organize and sort their collection! In fact I have been collecting pictures on that for quite some time for my own purposes, so yeah, a post on it could start some interesting sharings and conversations! Thanks for the idea! Put it on my to-do list! 🙂

      • Steph January 9, 2012, 8:52 PM

        Several the contributors could take pictures/share what they do in terms of sorting; I’d be willing to, anyway! Group post!

        • Quad January 9, 2012, 9:29 PM

          I could too if you want. 🙂

          • admin January 9, 2012, 10:05 PM

            Sounds good, guys! Let’s do it! How about each of you send in your picture(s) and a little story of how and why you organize/store/display your LEGO the way you do, then I will put it together as a post. Just email your stuff to theBrickBlogger. You can also give me links to other people’s systems if you like them and why you like them. When you email me mention that it is for the LEGO Group Post – thanks for that name, Steph! 😉

            • Sarah January 10, 2012, 10:32 PM

              I think I did a post about portable storing, which is what we do. However, our collection has grown quite a bit since then and we’ve changed things a little so I can take new pictures and do a new write-up.

    • chris January 10, 2012, 9:53 PM

      Blog often it helps search engines find you. Follow others blogs and make quality comments to thier posts. Swap links, and register your blog at http://technorati.com

      • admin January 10, 2012, 10:33 PM

        Good suggestions, Chris! Yes, to all of them! 😀

  • nimjaelf January 9, 2012, 5:08 PM

    *raises hand* i just found you lego site last month while i was searching for lego sword stuff youre scabard guide or something is what i found and i decided hey i need to be up to date on lego news!=D thanks man your awesome.(if you find anything else about lego lord of the rings tell me first =))

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:55 PM

      Nimjaelf, you bet! LEGO Lord of the Rings is one of the best news LEGO has given us in a long time! BTW, have you seen the set images? If not, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHf262UufYE

      • nimjaelf January 9, 2012, 8:41 PM

        yea i did thank you!

  • Em Dy January 9, 2012, 5:57 PM

    Happy birthday. Only discovered you recently and it was also the post on magnets which led me to you. I’m enjoying the rest of the posts too which is why I visit daily! Congratulations.

    • admin January 9, 2012, 6:56 PM

      Thanks, Em! Nice to have you! 🙂

  • Nick the Brick January 9, 2012, 7:17 PM

    Congratulations on the first year of Brickblogger, hope its the first of many. I first discovered you from your minifigure magnet removal post and have been hooked ever since. I hope you continue to get as much joy from writing as I do reading your work. I would also like to say a big thank you for taking the time out to research write and keep us up to date on all things Lego and continue doing what you’re doing and you will reach your 10,000 visits, as somebody once said “if you build it, they will come”. Many happy returns.

    • admin January 9, 2012, 7:36 PM

      Thank you so much, Nick! I really appreciate your encouragement! BTW, we did get a bit over 10,000 visitors one day in December just as a teaser. It is a good feeling when people appreciate what you do! 🙂

  • Steph January 9, 2012, 8:53 PM

    Happy Birthday to theBrickBlogger!

    • admin January 9, 2012, 10:07 PM

      Thanks, Steph! 😉

  • see toh January 10, 2012, 2:10 AM

    Wonderful Blog. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    • admin January 10, 2012, 9:51 AM

      Thanks! How is your blog?

  • Brick Will January 10, 2012, 5:31 AM

    Happy Birthday !!! keep the good work and all the best for 2012, you deserve it sincerely
    William – Brick Will

    • admin January 10, 2012, 9:51 AM

      Thanks, Will! When is your blog’s BD? 😉

  • OJ January 10, 2012, 6:09 AM

    I love this blog! From the first time I discovered it through a search for – you guessed it – how to remove glued on minifigures, I have come to this site many times. I truely enjoy the articles and the comments from fellow Lego fans around the world. Happy Birthday Brickblogger and I wish you many more to come!!!

    • admin January 10, 2012, 9:50 AM

      Thanks, OJ! Nice to have you! 🙂

  • Sarah January 10, 2012, 10:36 PM

    Let’s see, Will and I found the BrickBlogger because we were looking for a lexicon of LEGO terms for one of Will’s articles on a different site. We asked for permission to link and in the process, realized that blogging was a much better fit for certain LEGO articles. So Will started writing blogs and I was the photographer/picture finder. Then I got the blogging bug and started on my own blogs. And, well, we’ve been hooked ever since and we look forward to an exciting 2012!

    Happy Happy Birthday Brick Blogger! 😀

    • admin January 11, 2012, 10:41 AM

      Sarah, nice to hear from ya! Thanks! I’m glad you guys caught the blogging bug! 😉

  • Carium January 11, 2012, 6:35 AM

    happy birthday and thanks for some great guides!

    • admin January 11, 2012, 10:41 AM

      Thanks, Carium! 🙂

  • Tobymacboy May 22, 2012, 7:24 PM

    I too found this website looking to remove glued magnets

    • admin May 22, 2012, 9:21 PM

      Oh yeah, I remember that! 😀

  • Tydroid Ninja of NINJAGONESS June 2, 2012, 6:31 PM

    Happy about 5 months late birthday TBB 😀 😛

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