TRAPPSTR

TRAPPSTR.com turns One!

Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by Brett in Wrk

365 days ago today I launched this blog. After planning (read procrastinating) for literally two years prior, I finally pulled the trigger and got the thing launched. The original intent for this blog was for it just to be a platform for my thoughts on two things: my Christian faith and business. My thinking was that you have “Christian” blogs and business blogs but rarely do you see one that has both. I wanted TRAPPSTR.com to be that. Of course I quickly found out that I couldn’t resist blogging about other topics, like weddings, Alabama football, and real life horror stories.

A few interesting facts from the first year of TRAPPSTR.com:

• I posted 98 times–or 26% of all days during a year.
• 15,609 visits and 30,280 pageviews – Don’t be impressed. The big boys get this in a day.
• 26% of my blog visitors come via clickthrus on Facebook. 17% come from Twitter. 6% come from Google. Great job Facebook friends.
• Exactly 1/3 of all visits came from the fine folks in my home state of Alabama. 22% came from Georgia. 10% from Florida. To the two people in North Dakota who have visited TRAPPSTR.com, I love you too.
  
• My most popular post? THIS ONE. Surprisingly enough, it’s also the one most scoffed at by certain people. That post had a really broad appeal and a lot of people found it through Google.
• I’ve done two little fundraising pushes through this blog. Theironbowlisbetter.com raised $2,251 for schools in Africa and the 22in22 campaign raised $2288 for clean water in Kenya. Total between the two projects, $4,539. Awesome! I love doing little things like this to help causes I believe in. Probably won’t be the last. HUGE thanks to everyone who gave!
  

My posts dropped off a bit in the summer, but I’m hoping to get it cranking again this fall. Have lots of good post ideas that I’m really excited about. I’ll loosely stick the Christianity/Business thing, but I’ll deviate at times. I’ll try to be somewhat consistent but sometimes I’ll get busy and I may disappear for a while. You can understand busy, right?

Can I make one request?

Writing stuff that people may or may not read with zero financial incentive is interesting. You find yourself craving feedback. For the blogger with no paycheck, it is, in fact, the only incentive to keep writing. Knowing that someone was encouraged, inspired, pissed, or just got a laugh at something I wrote means everything. So if that’s you, do me a favor and just let me know. Or better yet, tell someone else. We tip waiters, hair stylists, and even the pizza delivery kid when they do a good job. Don’t ever be afraid to throw a digital tip–a retweet or FB post or email forward–in the direction of someone who’s created something you liked.

Okay, it took me a whole year to work up the courage to self-promote. So if you feel violated and spammed and hate me now, well…sorry.

I know some people think blogging is vain and egocentric. And maybe it is. In fact, most days I would use those two words to describe myself. I just happen to believe that every single person has something to offer and that you don’t have to be an “expert” or have 30 years experience in something to be able to write about it.

When my late dad was a young pastor in his 20’s he only had a couple hundred people in his congregation. These were people God put in his path to encourage and inspire. That’s kind of how I view this blog. If only 50 or 100 people ever read my posts and it never “grows,” I’m okay with that. For some reason, you’re reading, and that means a lot to me. I’ll do my best to add a little something valuable to your day.

Life is short. Let’s all keep trying to do it right.

Ok?

Cool.