My One Year Blogiversary!! // a look into my first year as a blogger

Guess what, everyone? Today is my very first blogiversary! *party noises intensify*

I figured today would be a good day to share my year of experiences with you all. On one hand, I can’t believe it’s already been a year! But on the other hand… I feel like I’ve been blogging for a very long time! 😅 It’s complicated.

Anyways, on with the birthday post! I’m so glad you’re here!

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A Small Thank You 

I would just like to say: thank you all so much for a wonderful first year of blogging! As I’m writing this, I’m getting oddly emotional… I know I don’t know any of you in real life, but your likes, comments, views, and overall encouragement have meant so much to me. 💕 😭 Thank you for sticking with me through several months of inconsistant blogging, accidental posts, and all of my writing/reading struggles. It means so much to me that you all have spent time reading my rambles and random thoughts on here! 💕 Thank you, thank you!

The History of Starry Sky Books

September of 2018 was very much a blur for me, and it wasn’t until a few months ago that I fully realized I created this blog just a week after my birthday. I didn’t do it intentially, though! It was a deed out of pure spontaneity.

During the summer of 2018, I was seriously considering becoming a travel blogger. I had just returned from a two-week trip to Europe with my family, and I was ready to share my experience with the world. But… other than that… my main traveling experiences had been with mostly traveling to Florida and California. So I decided against travel blogging.

Shortly afterwards, I discovered that the Book Community had more than just BookTube – there was also Book Blogging! Somehow, I never noticed that on Goodreads! I kind of dismissed this for a while, because I was convinced that all of the popular Book Bloggers were too darn famous, and they had way more experience than me. How could I ever compete with that? I figured I stood no fair chance against them.

One week after my birthday, I had a very fast change of pace in my school semester. The health of my childhood cat, Twinkle, who had been a part of my family for about 16 years, rapidly declined, and she passed away on Friday, September 21st. I was devastated, and that whole weekend was a very hard one for my family. I stayed at home, rather than at my college campus, until the weekend was over.

She used to sit on all of my homework…

…and she used to watch Merlin with me. 😭

On Sunday night, when I returned to my college dorm, I was alone again. I still missed my cat very much, but I wanted to do something to take my mind off of the event. Later into the night, I created this blog (under the name of The Book Blog Battle), without thinking about it too much.

And now… here we are!

Breaking Into the Blogisphere 

I had a hard time finding my place in the blogging community, at first. I felt like everyone already had their “friends” and their groups. I found some of the biggest bloggers, and I noticed that they were friends with a few particularly small bloggers, and… I assumed this was a “clique” of popular bloggers. (But it wasn’t, btw. I just judged them too quickly!) For a while, I wondered how anyone could find friends, or at least find someone to tag them in book tags.

After a while, though, I got used to it. I tried out new things, and I commented on blogs similar to mine or with bloggers who seemed friendly and nice. I made myself into the type of blogger I wanted to be, and now… I think I’m doing pretty good! 😊

It’s been fun to write all kinds of posts on this blog, and to write the content that I wanted on here. After my first few months of blogging, I stopped writing posts just like everone else’s, and I made my own content, for myself. It worked very well for me, and it helped me grow into the blogger who I am today!

✨ related: 4 Things About Blogging That Seem Scary, But Really Aren’t That Bad

Things I Have Accomplished

In my first year of blogging, I have reached:

• 49 books read
• 129 posts
• 2,300 comments
• 5,850+ visitors
• 13,300+ blog views
• 910 Wordpress followers
• and… 3,217+ total followers, across all my socials 😳

Wow! This all seems like a lot when I put it together like this! *gently pats myself on the back*

I would also like to mention that I put this here because I personally love to find out how others progress over the timespan of a year. I’m unusally obsessed with stats, but not in a negative way! I just like looking at the numbers, and in case you’re wondering what my numbers are, here you go!

Graphs of my stats:

My monthly views and visitors… look the difference between December and January! 😂

A closer look at my monthly views! Just in case you had a deep desire to know 😌 (September 2019 is so low because I’ve only posted 2 times before today, haha!)

In just one year, I have met so many new bookish friends, gained a lot of insight into the bookish industry, and, in general, had a lot of fun! I can’t believe how much fun this blog has been, and I’m so glad I decided to create this small piece of the blogging community!

My Favorite Posts So Far

I love all of my posts like they are my children (don’t make me chose just so few!!) but… here are some of my favorites. 😌 (you can click on the images to take you to the posts!)

Also… I apologize for the differences in my header styles over the months! 😂 Some of them are on purpose, and some of them are just strange… I’m working on it!

Another Thanks + a Feedback Form!

Once again, thank you THANK YOU so much for reading my content! I never thought I would even reach 100 followers, but… this year online has truly been special and exciting. Thank you x3000!! 💕 💕 

And last but not least… I have a feedback form for you to fill out, if you so desire! It’s completely optional, but I hope to really improve my blog as much as I can, and I would really appreciate your help! (There’s also an option to give me a question for a future Q&A!)

Here’s a link to the form, in case it doesn’t show up here: https://forms.gle/4ZrGAnyESp1YaTh2A

Thank you all for such a great first year of blogging! 😀 How long have you been blogging, and how has the experience been so far?

Do you have any questions for me, if I do a Q&A soon? Ask away, my friends! 

Chat with me about it!

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You can also be my friend on Goodreads!

Happy reading, everyone! 😊