2013 Blog Year In Review

2013 was a great year for My Own Advisor thanks to every reader and visitor.  Today’s blogpost will highlight a few milestones for the site and share some reflections as part of this 2013 blog year in review.

Site Traffic

2013 was my second full year running this self-hosted site after moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress platform.  In the summer, the site was also redesigned thanks to Dividend Ninja’s creative and technical expertise.  In 2013:

• Pageviews increased to over 30,000 per month compared to 21,000-24,000 per month in 2012.
• Almost 50% of all site traffic remains courtesy of new visitors, and I hope you keep coming back!
• The average time on my site is about 2 minutes, keep browsing folks and contact me if you can’t find what you are looking for or you want to see a particular post about something.
• 80% of my traffic is from Canada, 12% from the U.S.  The site also got a few thousand hits from the U.K. in 2013.
• There is almost a 50-50 split between male and female visitors.

Site Reflections

Visiting other blogs, attending personal finance conferences and more, inspired my content this year and I’m sure the same will hold true in 2014.  I’ve got lots of ideas for new material in the New Year.  Until that time comes, here were some of my favourite articles from 2013 by month:

January 2013 – I have no problem with price matching (in fact I do it myself from time to time).  However, if you’re going to price match please consider these things…

February 2013 – I’m a fan of the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), I use both accounts, but I believe if you don’t do this, the TFSA is by far the better choice every time…

March 2013 – I wrote about how to plow through $10-million bucks courtesy of this lottery winner…

April 2013 – I had some fun with reasons why folks didn’t file their tax return yet…

May 2013 – I shared how I became a DIY investor…

June 2013 – We all know saving money is not always easy but I found 20 ways to save more cash here…

July 2013 – We learned Detroit was bankrupt this past summer and I took this opportunity to share some personal finance lessons from this disaster…

August 2013 – Friends of My Own Advisor know I don’t like debt, which makes having my fat mortgage more than annoying.  Even so, I wondered if investing more would be better than paying down debt and asked readers if I should change my tune here…

September 2013 – I wrote why mortgage insurance doesn’t work for everyone, far from it actually…

October 2013 – I was fortunate to cross a significant dividend income milestone this month…

November 2013 – You can learn all about TFSAs here and RRSPs here…

December 2013 – With Christmas and the holidays, the end of the year is here.  It’s also a good time to get your financial affairs in order. Here are some year-end financial planning tips…

All my Archives can be found here.

Looking Ahead

Last year I wrote I had no idea what was in store for My Own Advisor.  I’ve started to think about some personal finance and investing goals for 2014 but that’s about it.  I intend to share those goals in January.  I suppose for the site, these would be some great milestones if they were achieved:

• Average 40,000 pageviews per month (an increase of about 30%) – lofty goal.
• Start a mailing list for fans.
• Consider writing an ebook – eventually.

What do you think of those blogging goals?

I’ve got more reflections to share in the weeks to come, including how close my financial predictions were for 2013 but that will do it for today’s post.  Again, thanks for the support in 2013 folks.  Lastly, in case I don’t get around to some new material sooner than later, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” – Sophia Loren