Happy New Year (well almost) my fabulous readers. Typically at the end of the year, I like to take stock of what I accomplished through the year and share it in one last blog post. I honestly don’t expect anyone to actually read these summaries, but they help me determine what I did well and what I didn’t accomplish over the year while figuring out what I want to adjust for next year. So here’s how I did in 2023.

Writing #

My goal for the blog is consistent, useful, helpful, and fun posts. My publishing ‘plan’ is one post a week for 52 posts a year. Counting this post, I published 118 posts which I’ll take as a big ole win. My traffic, according to Netlify, hovered between three and four hundred thousand page views a month. I think Netlify’s numbers are a bit high. My GoatCounter stats show 225 thousand page "visits" over the year. Either way, I think my traffic is pretty good so folks are still reading my content (thank you!).

Outside of my blog, I also wrote multiple articles (four) for the Cloudinary blog. I list these on my About page if you wish to check them out. For work, I wrote on our Medium blog, and you can see all of my posts on my profile page. I published twenty articles there which I think is pretty good.

Along with Maya Shavin, I also released the third edition of "Frontend Development Projects with Vue.js 3". Longtime readers will know I went from being really into Vue.js to… not quite as much. Working on the update to this book and really digging deeper into Vue 3 has made me appreciate it more, but I don’t see myself doing more blogging on it in the future. I may always change my mind on that too.

Public Speaking #

Sigh. So, right or wrong, I judge myself very harshly when it comes to events. There’s a part of me that feels like I’m a complete failure if I get a rejection from a conference, and I got quite a few. I’m trying to think most positively about that and recognize that the competition for spots is fierce, but between us friends here, it’s a sore spot for me. Last year I spoke at twelve events, of which four were in person. I really would have preferred hitting fifteen speaking engagements, maybe twenty, with a good ten or so in person.

For 2024, I’ve been confirmed for three events, two of which are in person. I’ve also been working with my friend Brian Rinaldi to craft better conference proposals. And if you’re reading this and looking for speakers, reach out!

Videos #

For probably a decade I’ve talked about doing more YouTube videos, and I’d throw out one or two and then nothing for months. This past six months or so I’ve been doing much better and creating more videos, including an entire series of learning Alpine.js. All in all, I published a bit over thirty videos and while I’m biased, I think they’re pretty good.

For the year, I got a bit over twelve thousand views, which isn’t a lot, but it’s something. I also gained a hundred and thirteen subscribers, which according to my stats is a 999% increase.

Looking at my stats, you can really tell when I started doing more videos about halfway through the year:

My thinking for next year is to just try to keep the same pace, and hopefully get my subscriber count over one thousand.

The Rest of It… #

I’m ending 2023 in a pretty good state. I didn’t lose one pound this year, but I’m generally healthy. My wife and kids (all eight of em) are happy and healthy. I’ve got a very good job and a really good manager as well. I’m incredibly lucky and privileged. I’m incredibly appreciative of everyone who comes here (especially if you read all the way to this) and I hope your 2024 is filled with joy, love, and laughter.

Raymond Camden