Blog Birthday!

That's right my Blog turns one year old today! One year ago today, with the help and encouragement of my good friend Buck, I entered the Blogosphere! When I first started to blog I didn't know if I would keep it up or more accurately, if anyone would read it. Truthfully, 206 posts later (wow - that's hard to believe), I've thoroughly enjoyed it! Sure, there have been those times when I would feel the pressure of having nothing to write and I'd get that looming feeling of, "It's been a while since my last post - oh no!" And there have been plenty of times I'd wonder if people would understand what I was trying to say.

But overall, it's been a blast. It's been an opportunity for me to bear my soul, cast vision, and tell our story - the Coastal story. Looking back over the last year's worth of posts I've talked a lot about Coastal, what we've done, where we're headed, and why we do what we do. I've announced upcoming events and shared a lot of pictures. I've bragged and lamented about my Clemson Tigers. I've talked a lot about my family - my marriage and my children. (Janet, thank you for being my sounding board and editor for almost every post. Lydia & Christopher, thank you for letting me embarrass you just a bit from time to time!) I've celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. I've told you about weddings I've officiated and funerals I've been a part of. I've shared mistakes and lessons learned and praises & victories to be celebrated. And you've seen my weird sense of humor.

I've only been tracking the online stats of my blog for about 4 months, but already in that short time I've had just over 1800 visits from a total of 23 different countries. The top five countries are: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, and Germany (evidently me and David Hasselhoff are huge in Germany). Direct traffic makes up for just over half of my visits with the rest coming from referral sites (top 3 referral sites: Jeremiah, Buck, and Andy, with the Beam's catching steam). During that short period of time I've had 171 visits via 114 keyword searches - the top word searches obviously being Coastal Community Church or Pastor Chris. But several strange keyword searches have sent people to my blog: pooper trooper, sanjayah, pastor rollins' death (whoa - what's going on there), soiled himself, what do you think of pastor chris (probably from some disgruntled wackjob), crazy hair day, lazy pastor (one of my most read posts), chick-fil-a, pirates of the caribbean, and whenever you need me I'll be there - just to name a few. Keyword searches for 5 different people from our church sent people to my blog (someone's looking for you Prisca!).

Online comments are nice, but the best "stats" of all are the ones you can't track - the comments that I hear at church, in a small group, in the community, or from friends far away. It's always cool when someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, I read your blog . . ." So Happy Birthday "Blogging with Pastor Chris!" I hope you've enjoyed it just as much as I have! Now let's eat cake!