2017 roundup

As has become my tradition, I am rounding out the year with a retrospective article. The idea stems from many places, but in particular from Steve Jackson, of Steve Jackson Games, and his annual Report to the Stakeholders.

There is no way around it; 2017 was extremely challenging on the personal front, for a number of reasons which I will not go into here. Suffice it to say that the family has come out of it stronger than ever, and that there were a number of opportunities for learning which have brought us closer. The kids are growing up, and are constant sources of joy and happiness. Visits to the extended family (including a trip to a family get-together in London) formed part of the framework of the year, and has brought memories which we will cherish for years to come.

In June I sat an exam for my studies, and am now halfway through my final module for the degree, expected to be completed in the summer of 2018 (after six years of work, I might add). While I have learned a lot, and am very proud of how far I have gotten, I am nonetheless looking forward to cede the position of the student of the family to my oldest daughter, who will begin school in the fall of 2018.

2017 presented plenty of challenges on the professional front, too. In the beginning of the year, my employment with the NIPH ended, and I was transferred to Norsk Helsenett, where my work with NIPH continued. While we began with an as-is organisation, work has started to combine and consolidate the different groups, to start to reap the benefits that are expected from this change.

January had a slew of opinion-pieces, ending with a practical tip. February was mostly technical, with a blog-centric post thrown into the mix. March opened with an opinion-piece, and continued with technical posts, while April was 75% technical (and 25% showing how a classic scam has been ported to the web-era). May was technical stuff, and another opinion-piece on DJi Spark. June was wholly dedicated to a four-piece series on my video editing workflow.

July opened with my second State of the Blog, continuing on with two issues with Tesla and Bluetooth, and ending with a couple of reviews.In August, I had tips and tricks, while September was a mixed bag of blog housekeeping, a review, and a couple of tips. October saw more opinion-pieces, spilling over into November, which also included tips and tricks. December once more opened with a couple of opinion pieces, continuing with my second annual “favorite discoveries” piece, finishing out with the post you are currently reading.

I find revisiting analytics to be valuable as well, and share it openly because I want to be transparent about what I see in my back-end tools. Here’s the data:

• Monthly readership: 4’500
• Return visitor rate: 7.5%

As for geography, that data looks as follows:

1. United States (25%)
2. India (12%)
3. United Kingdom (10%)
4. Canada (4%)
5. Australia (3%)

Compared to 2016, I am seeing a definite decline in readership, both in absolute numbers and (perhaps more surprisingly) in return visitors. As I have said time and time again, that’s fine by me. I am not doing this for fame, fortune, or views and clicks; I’m doing it for myself and my own gratification.