Fire up your laser pointers and Bunsen burners — it’s time for our annual look at Young House Love by the numbers. Every year we break down the stats behind the blog: some numbers are surprising, some are silly, and some are downright impressive. Here’s what our year (and five-year run) looks like in data.
This year we’ve also included a few fun blog facts that might blow your mind (or at least make you smile).
Fun Bloggy Fact #1: Each month our hosting costs more than our mortgage payment — that’s what it takes to keep the site fast and stable for readers.
Fun Bloggy Fact #2: We’ve written over 2,311 posts in the past five years. At an average of 2.5 hours per post (writing, uploading and editing photos), that adds up to roughly 5,777.5 hours — more than 240 straight days of post-writing.
Fun Bloggy Fact #3: Internet rumors about us have circulated — the most common being that Sherry is pregnant. One of the stranger rumors reached us via family: someone thought we were Mormon. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course — it’s just not our religion. And in case you’re wondering, I’m not pregnant. Haha.
Fun Bloggy Fact #4: The total value of giveaways we’ve hosted over five years is over $55,000. In the last two months alone we gave away more than $15,000 — more than we did in the first two years combined.
Fun Bloggy Fact #5: Blogging is the longest job either of us has held, if you count the full five years we’ve worked on it (and not just the period when it became our full-time profession).
Fun Bloggy Fact #6: Tori Spelling once called us about producing a TV show. True story — she was very kind, and there was a goat and a chicken in the background. We politely decided TV wasn’t for us; we’re happier hiding behind our laptops. The call happened right after Hurricane Irene while we were staying at John’s parents’ house, and I snapped a photo to remember the moment.
Fun Bloggy Fact #7: Last month the site received 5.5 million page views, and our lifetime total exceeds 143 million page views — which is wild, especially since we often write like we’re speaking to ten people to avoid stage fright.
Now for the straight-up stats. We’ve kept a few figures from last year for comparison, and you can check our previous by-the-numbers posts to see how things have changed over time.
1,043,621 – Total comments left by readers. That’s nearly double last year’s 570,314, meaning the past 12 months produced almost as many comments as the first four years combined.
76,825 – Comment responses we’ve posted ourselves, also nearly double last year’s 38,754.
Pamen – The default name Clara gives when you ask her to name a bear, doll or person. Aemon is her second favorite. No idea where those names came from.
4 – Our longest stretch without posting over the last 1,827 days (five years), which included having a baby and weathering an earthquake and a hurricane.
3 – Average number of trips to Home Depot per week.
143 – Published posts to date on Young House Life (we clearly have more to contribute over there, compared to the 2,311 posts on YHL).
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 slim like her dad.
8 – Burger’s weight in pounds, slightly down from 8.5 lbs last year.
198 – Total weekly giveaways held since we launched them in November 2008 after readers requested them during our first blogiversary.
35 – Average number of posts published per month.
4 – Number of soda-themed shirts John owns (Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Pepsi, and a Coke shirt added recently).
303 – Instagram photos posted so far.
1,800 – Average number of words written per post. We’re chatty.
14,400 – Average number of words written per week — admittedly a little insane.
629 – Total projects linked on our Projects page (we still have about 40 more to add when time allows).
70 – Number of photos taken for Clara’s photo project (52 weekly photos, 17 monthly photos, plus one birthday-card picture).
933,962 – Number of Pinterest followers. This. Is. Insane.
1 – Number of ears left on Clara’s Olivia doll for her dollhouse — a tragic little mystery we prefer not to discuss.
There you have it — the stats of the year. Do you track little things like average trips to Home Depot or how many themed shirts you own? Or are we the only ones who catalog our quirks?
Update — We often get questions about professional blogging: how we built our site, grew our audience, and monetized our work. For readers interested in that process, we’ve shared detailed information on how we started a blog, grew traffic, and turned it into a full-time job.