Phew, year six already?! I’m so grateful to still be running this little blog and reading amazing books! 2022 brought quite the year of learning, but I can confidently say I’m closing out the year happy about how far things have come in the last 365 days!
Let’s dive in!
Stats:
- This year, I had 37,962 page views on my blog from 85.1% new visitors and 14.9% returning visitors!
- My email subscribers count unfortunately reset last year as I had to start using a new platform. If you were an email subscriber before, please review the option on my sidebar to sign up for the new notification system.
- UPDATE! I figured out how to export my original list from my old platform and merged that into the new platform. I’m so thrilled that I got that to work finally! My subscriber count, as long as my old contacts want to stick around after they get the welcome email, is 1,004!
- My Facebook fan page follower count has grown from 378 to 414.
- My Instagram follower count grew from 1,314 to 1,503 followers.
- Review requests completed this year: 59.
My most popular posts from this year include:
- [Book Review] We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca
- [Book Review] SLASH-HER: A Women of Horror Anthology
- [Book Review] Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror
- [Book Review] Slice of Paradise: A Beach Vacation Horror Anthology
- [Short Story Review] The Family by Lor Gislason
New pages created this year:
Dead Headspace podcast episodes I guest hosted on:
*NEW* Blog posts that I contributed to on other platforms:
- Review: In Darkness, Shadows Breathe by Catherine Cavendish
- Review: Below by Laurel Hightower
- Review: To the Devil, a Cryptid by Hunter Shea
- Review: Parachute by Holly Rae Garcia
- Review: Cool S by Die Booth
- Review: Noose by Brennan LaFaro
Interviews I hosted:
- Interview with Shana Frost
- Interview with Laurel Hightower
- Interview with Max Booth III
- Interview with Die Booth
- Interview with Lor Gislason
- Interview with Steve L Clark
- Interview with Catherine Cavendish
- Interview with Ronaldo Katwaroo
Book Events:
What I’ve Learned:
Two big lessons this year.
First – I need to cool it with accepting review requests!
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love working with authors to get the word out about their latest books! But I’ve got a solid list of authors that I work with each time they have a new book out at this point, so that keeps me pretty busy!
I’ve also been slacking on reading the books I buy for myself because I’ve been so focused on catching up on my review backlog after my little oopsie last year… and this kept causing reading slumps. No one wants that!
Second – I need to really make sure I’m investing in good support.
I invested in something this year that was a total scam. I had someone inform me they could create a WordPress block, and they didn’t. I was so hurt and pissed at myself for letting that occur. I kept trying to tell myself I didn’t know any better, but let’s be honest, I got a bad vibe from them pretty early on and should have shut it down, but I was hopeful and too polite. I paid them the full cost and didn’t get what I had asked for.
This year, I am still on the lookout for someone skilled in creating blocks in WordPress. But I won’t dive in there until I’ve seen some legit references. Recommendations are greatly welcomed if you know anyone!
Shout-Outs:
I know I am going to forget some key people here… so stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll be updating this section again soon. If I missed someone you think should be here, feel free to email me or comment below! I would really hate to miss anyone!
Shout out to the following authors for sending over review copies! I had an absolute blast reading your work and I’m so honored that many on this list are return authors!
- James Flynn
- Eric LaRocca
- Shana Frost
- Matt Wildasin
- Alan Baxter
- Max Booth III
- F.R. Jameson
- Ivan Radev
- Holly Rae Garcia
- P.J. Blakey-Novis
- H.P. Newquist
- Kayleigh Marie Edwards
- Hunter Shea
- Matt Wildasin
- Mike Bryant
- J.P. Choquette
- Vanessa Westermann
- Aiden Merchant
- Sonora Taylor
- Lor Gislason
- Die Booth
- Joseph West
- Brennan LaFaro
- Steve L. Clark
- Stephen Kozeniewski
- Wesley Southard
- Catherine Cavendish
- Nathan Nish
- Anne Joyce
- Ronaldo Katwaroo
Shout out to the following publishers that sent review copies over for various authors!
Same case here as I noted above, I am so honored that many of these publishers are people I have worked with many times before!
- Brett Reistroffer of Bad Dream Entertainment
- Max Booth III of Ghoulish Books
- Andrew Robert of Dark Lit Press
- Kevin J. Kennedy of KJK Publishing
- Dean Drinkel of Demain Publishing
- Sarah Miniaci of Flame Tree Press
- Kevin Lucia of Cemetery Dance Publications
- Aric Sundquist of Dark Peninsula Press
Thanks for reading!
And thank you for being here! If there’s anything you’d like to see me do more of in 2023, please feel free to add a comment below!
Related Reading:
If you missed my other blogiversary posts, feel free to take a peek at them below:
Oh wow you accomplished so much, congrats!! And happy blogoversary 🥰 I hope your 7th year will be a good one too!
Congratulations, Erica, and thank you. May all good things happen for you in 2023!
Yay, happy blogoversary! Here’s to many more, and have a happy new year 🙂
Thank you so much! <3 <3
Killing it!! 🙌
<3
Happy blogoversary!! Looks like you’ve had another really successful year! I can totally relate on needing to take fewer review requests – I’ve realized I’m over-extending myself too, and I just can’t keep up anymore. Here’s hoping we both learn to say no. 🙂
Here’s hoping for sure! haha Good luck to you! 🙂