I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I first started Nice Job Breaking It, Hero and it has been such an amazing journey, full of so much growth! In my first Year End Wrap-Up post, I dubbed 2016 my New Bark year, because this time last year, I was just starting my blogging journey here on WordPress. I was new to all of this, back then I was racking in a cool 10-20 views a day… and let me tell you, it was discouraging sometimes. There were days when my site didn’t get any views at all! Ya’ll I wanted to give up so many times, especially when Grad School was kicking my ass, but I didn’t! I fought every step of the way, I wrote, I networked, I put in the time and the results blew me away!
I’ve never been one to post my blog stats, not because I’m embarrassed or anything… I don’t usually post them because I don’t measure my success as a blogger in the number of views I get or people that comment on my post, instead, I measure my success as a blogger in the connections I’ve made over this past year. Now, I’d be lying if I said stats didn’t matter, I just see them as more of a guide for what kinds of content I feature here on my blog. But, this year I saw a pretty big spike in my day to day viewership, so for the first time, ever, I will publish my blog stats from this year… just so you all can see my growth…
Stats By Year: 2015 vs 2016
Stats By Month: 2016
In the span of one year, I went from 10-20 views a week to anywhere between 700-1000+ views a day. If you had told me a year ago that I’d be getting that many views a day, I’d have laughed in your face… But, the numbers don’t lie and it is all thanks to each and every one of you, I could not have reached this point without all of your love and support.
I started this blog as a way to get my mind off of the stress of Grad School, and look at far we’ve come! Every view, every comment, every like, and every share, helped keep me going when I felt discouraged or thought about quitting… You all are the real heroes here at Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, whether you follow my little blog or not, each and every one of you all out there helped make all of this possible, and for that I can’t thank you enough!
Blog Plans for 2017
So, if last year was a year of beginnings, my New Bark Year, then 2017 is my Mt. Silver Year… For those of you not familiar with the Pokemon games, Mt. Silver is a location from the second generation games (Gold, Silver, Crystal) between Johto and Kanto full of high powered Pokemon. Mt. Silver is only accessible after players defeat all of the Gyms in both Johto and Kanto and they defeat the Elite Four and the Champion at the Indigo Plateau… It’s a place where trainers build on the lessons learned from their Pokemon journeys and prove themselves in one of the most epic showdowns… ever! So, this is my Mt. Silver Year, because I will be building on all that I have learned over this past year to tackle another year of blogging!
As you can see from the above image, I am going to do something I never thought I’d do… use a blogging schedule. Yes, I know, I hate schedules, but I’ve found that schedules make the world go ’round. As you can see, in addition to the two ongoing post series, I have been working on two new ones, however only one is ready to go, so I’m going to hold off on the “first” new series until February. On a positive note, I have the second series done and ready to go (at least for the month of January). The new series, “TG”(title not finalized yet) will go out every Thursday and that’s pretty much all I’ll say about that until the first post is released on January 5th.
There are some blank spaces in the above schedule, which I will fill with reviews and other content that I’ve been working on especially for the new year… more game reviews, ramblings, opinion pieces, top 10 lists, first impressions posts, and a few discussion posts too! As always, I am always open to suggestion, so if you want to see a particular post or topic here on Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, tell me about it!
For week to week schedules please be sure to check out my Last Week Today posts every Sunday, for a comprehensive look at the past week… From gaming news to blogger spotlights, Last Week Today posts will keep you up to date on what’s going on here and in the community!
January marks the first OWLS Blog Tour! This month we will be writing posts on the topic of Disruptors in anime.
“To disrupt” has a negative denotation, but rather than looking at the verb in a negative light, we are going to use the verb in a positive way. It’s like the word, “protest” which has positive and negative connotations depending on the perspective of the person.”
Disruptors: An individual or a group disturbing a system or social norms/conventions that they believe is destroying what is morally right.
Each OWLS member will be uploading their individual posts throughout the month of January, so be on the look out for announcements on the Official OWLS Twitter @OWLSbloggers, where I will keep you guys updated on each of the upcoming posts and other OWLS news!
Ah crap, I almost forgot! I wanted to do some guest blogging posts with some other bloggers from the WordPress community! I’ve done two collaboration posts with Katrina Sade of GrimmGirl.com, and I had so much fun, that I’d like to do a few more! If you are interested please feel free to hit me up either here or on Twitter, @BeckNaja!
2016 was an uphill battle, there were many successes and just as many failures… From the upcoming otoge localizations from MangaGamer and Aksys to the rather colorful political goings on… This past year has definitely been full of surprises!
On a more personal note, earlier this year I finished grad school and now I’m out in the real world searching for a job in my field, which is no easy feat. But, I am confident that something will come through in the end, but for now I’m breakin’ it til I make it lol!
Again, I want to say thank you to everyone for your support and friendship this year, be you old friends or new, know that I am happy to have met so many wonderful people through blogging. Here’s to more late night chats about BL, otoges, and anime! Here’s to the Haikyuu Squad and the YOI Squad! Here’s to the Otome Armada and to more otome games in the West… and here’s to all of you super special awesome folks out there reading this ridiculously long post ( I promise I’m almost done)!
I am ready to give it my best shot in the new year, even if I sometimes make things worse, I’ll keep pushing ahead, ‘cus, that’s what heroes do…So here’s to breaking it in 2017, and every year to come…Sometimes you have to break it to make it…
Share with me some of your 2016 successes! What are your plans for the new year? Any resolutions? Let me know what you think in the comments section. If you like what you see, like this post or follow Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! As always THANK YOU FOR READING!!