I can’t believe it’s been four years already since I set up the tonyjiang.com domain. Actually, the anniversary is somewhere in August, but I was busy moving to a new place to start grad school so I didn’t have the time to make this post until today. Unlike 2008-2009, there were plenty of big changes to my website this year. Read on if you want to find out the inside scoop about tonyjiang.com over the last 12 or so months.
I’ll try to keep this post short and concise, so here are the major changes to my websites over the past year in list form:
- TJ Online (this blog and my personal site) was relaunched and rebuilt using WordPress in December of 2009. Previously the site was powered by Xoops which was a nice piece of software, but I felt a blog was more suited for my needs. The new TJ Online became the first of several WordPress blogs under my management.
- In June of 2010, I moved all my websites to a new server. The new server had better features for a lower price than my old webhost, and that’s why I decided to switch. Of course, my websites are nowhere near hitting any of the limits on the old server, but I felt like moving. Three months in, the new webhost has been problem-free so far and hopefully that will continue for a long time to come.
- Also in June, the Old Couple’s Travel Log was rebuilt using WordPress. This is was by request of the author who wanted to post some new travel posts on the website.
- Finally in August, JP’s Badminton Portal and Badminton Blog were combined into the new JP’s Badminton Portal, which was again built using WordPress. A new domain name, www.jpbadminton.com, was purchased for this website and the site features the first custom WordPress theme that I’ve developed.
Other than the major developments, I’ve been trying my best to maintain my other websites and come up with interesting new content for TJ Online. Changing this website to a blog has encouraged me to write a bit more, and from a numbers standpoint this has been my most productive year at TJ Online. Many of my new posts are more personal in nature, and that’s probably the way it’ll be since I’m not exactly an expert at anything other than procrastinating and wasting time.
Moving on to the statistical side, the core tonyjiang.com websites (TJ Online, crabbing guide and Smash Bros. guide) received their 300,000 visitor in the last year. With 230,000 page loads and 120,000 unique visitors measured from anniversary to anniversary, overall traffic (including travel log and badminton portal) is up compared to last year’s 70,000 visitors and 150,000 page loads. This year’s traffic numbers are the best that my websites have ever had. They might not be impressive compared to many other sites out there, but I’m pleased so many people have found their way to my sites. Ad earnings are up as well with this year’s haul being around $630 vs. last year’s $500. It’s been a year of growth for my websites, and hopefully the growth will continue into next year and beyond.
Just like my websites have undergone some big changes over the last year, my own life also went through some major changes as well. I finally graduated with my bachelor’s degree, and now I’m away from home doing graduate studies. This means I’ll probably have even less time to devote to my websites, but I’ll try my best to keep my sites alive. A post every once in a while on this blog shouldn’t be too tall of an order… at least that’s what I’m hoping. Thanks for reading, and I’ll make sure the fifth anniversary post won’t be three weeks late like this one.