Happy Accidents: Countdown to 2016

The year is coming to a close, and I'm counting down to 2016 by taking some time to look back and reflect on my first year of blogging.  I've shared with you my top 10 Good Eats from the year, and on New Year's Eve, I'll be sharing my highlights from the year as well as a behind the scenes peek at some of my favorite blogging tools.  For today, I wanted to share with you a couple of happy accidents that I've stumbled upon this first year of blogging.

SEO Accidents...and Six Flags

So search engine optimization (SEO) is a big deal for bloggers.  We all want our posts to be read, and we want people to be able to find them when they use Google or Bing to search for them. It was a new idea to me.  I honestly had no idea that this type of thing mattered!  Thankfully there is a plugin tool that I love called Yoast SEO that takes the guesswork out of "optimizing".  Yeah...I still really have no idea what I'm doing!

The funny thing is that I have one post that is consistently searched for and found on my blog:  Is the Six Flags Season Dining Pass Worth It?

The funny thing is that I posted this one before I even knew SEO existed!  I guess something worked, either that, or this is a really important topic that no one else is talking about!

Spam Encouragement

I've had about 1,000 spamy comments on my blog that thankfully get trapped by my gatekeeper and hold as spam until I can confirm.  Most of them are totally random bits of information, but there are some that cleverly disguise them as encouragement.  At first I had to do a double take, and then I'd look at which post they were commenting on, and I would get a good chuckle at the ridiculousness.  Here are a few of the most recent:

Comments on Latin Verb Conjugations Present Tense Worksheets:

What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious know-how regarding unexpected emotions.

Comments on Latin Verb Conjugation Muscle Memory Conditioning:

You’re so interesting! I do not believe I’ve read a single thing like this before.
So good to discover somebody with a few genuine thoughts
on this subject. Seriously.. thank you for starting
this up. This web site is something that is required on the web, someone with some originality!

Magnificent web site. A lot of useful info here.

I’m sending it to a few buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks for your effort! - by Muscle Building Review 🙂

Birthday Present - My First "Viral" Post

Okay, so maybe viral is a stretch, but when you're used to getting 20 hits a day on your blog and one post receives over 900 in a day, it feels pretty viral...and it happened on my birthday without any of my help!  A friend shared the post to the Classical Conversations Official page, while I was at a Classical Conversations Parent Practicum.  I got a little notice on my phone that said, "A post on your blog is getting a lot of attention!"  When I looked, I didn't even expect that!  So to all of you who generously share my posts, thank you!

I've run across some surprising and crazy things along the way in this blogging adventure.  It's been quite a ride!  I'm looking forward to a new year and all the new adventures that it will bring!

Do you blog?  Any happy accidents along the way you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear them!