Today is my 1 year blogging anniversary!
The last year has been quite the adventure around here. When I started blogging last year just to document my recipes, I had no idea that I would go from 10 hits a month (which were probably just my mom and husband) to over 5,000 hits per month with many photos featured on some major foodie sites and blogs. I have learned so much over the last year – photography, social media, cooking, writing, promotion, coding, design – bloggers wear a lot of hats. You can tell from the photos below that I’ve grown a lot as a photographer:
I have also met a lot of great blogging friends and readers. So many people, both online and offline, have encouraged me, helped me, taught me new things, shared my recipes on their blogs or social media, left a comment, sent me an email, made one of my recipes, or stopped by to view my latest post. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I really do appreciate every single person who stops by.
I checked my stats, and over the last year these posts have been my 5 most popular. If you haven’t seen them yet, go check them out!
What has been your favorite Sustaining the Powers recipe? What are you hoping to see more of here? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line on social media. I’d love to hear from my readers about what YOU want!
Thanks for celebrating with me!
Happy 1 year 🙂 Stephanie.
And thanks for showing your before and after food photo. It looks pretty similar to my early photography 🙂 I’ve seen some bloggers show their “terrible” early photos and laughed at how less-than-terrible they are. I spent some time taking some newer photos for old posts, but I haven’t done them all.
And the recipe I like from your site? I’ll pick the Crocktober series because it’s fun.
Thanks Julie! I did so much reading on food photography to come up with the “perfect” first food shot on my blog and I remember being so proud of that chicken chili photo. It’s not dreadful in the least, but oh how many mistakes I made… I think I even tried to submit it to Foodgawker. They were definitely not interested (and I don’t blame them!). I have a few worse photos over on Instagram, but they thankfully never made it here to my blog. The Microwave Mexican Cornbread photo may be worse, but I didn’t have a similar enough recent photo to compare to. I think I may go back and re-take those some day. Or leave them so people can compare my work. 😉
Congrats on your blogiversary 🙂 Glad we met and hope we have tons of fun together in the future years! Keep on cooking girl!
Thank you guys! It’s been so fun hosting a party together and getting to know you! I look forward to more collaborations!
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary! I just found your blog this week and love all the crockpot recipes. I’m a new blogger (just started in June) and it’s encouraging to see your growth over the year. It gives me hope for improving my little corner of the web. Have a great day!
Thanks Lori! I appreciate you taking the time to comment. (One year later and I’m still just as excited as ever for comments.) I’m planning to start a blogging series soon where I talk about what I’ve learned over the last year and my favorite wordpress plugins, so stay tuned!
CONGRATS! It’s a wonderful feeling to look back and see how much growth and progress has been made! I’m at a little over a year a 2 months. I hope one day to be seeing your 2 year anniversary 🙂 You have a great place here!
Thanks Becka! I’m excited to finally have a set of archives to reference when I post. 🙂