In late July
of 2005, Marie and I had an idea to start a Catholic blog. We had
several discussions about it over the phone, and invited Emmy and
Ginny to join us in contributing to the blogs.
Marie is
from Australia, Emmy is from the Netherlands, Ginny is from Trinidad
and Tobago, and I am from the United States. So our blogs were an
international effort.
We discussed
a name for the blogs, and came up with the name "Faith of the
Fathers". Marie and I discussed the look of the blogs, and
the different blog topics, and decided each of our primary topics
deserved it's own "blog" under the name "Faith of the
Fathers".
We started
with the main blog under the name "Faith of the Fathers",
and the others were (in no particular order) "Our
Lady", "Pope
Benedict XVI" (the only blog of ours that has been
regularly visited by The Holy See), "Spiritual
Warfare", "Church
Under Attack", "Apologetics",
"Approved
Apparitions", "Saints
of the Faith", "Daily
Mass Readings", "Favorite
Prayers and Scripture", "The
Early Church Fathers", "Spirituality
and Mysticism", "Saint
Quote of the Day", and "Prayer
Requests".
Later we
added "Catholic
Books And Movies", "No
Walls" (a youth section), "Busy
Mom's Notebook", "Faith
of the Fathers Links", "Faith
of the Fathers Report", and then our "Kids
Corner" blogs (which was primarily attended to by Ginny)
which included these blogs for kids: “Learning
and Understanding Our Faith”, “Our
Blessed Mother and The Holy Rosary”, “Bible
Stories”, “Angels
and the Saints”, “Prayers
and Scripture”, and "Fun
and Crafts".
Whew...no
wonder I am so tired....
So our first
posts were published on July 31, 2005, and now 7 years later, our
blogs are still here and still growing. During our first year we had
the following stats: 55,348 page loads, 26,908 unique visits, with
23,000 first time visits, and 3.908 returning visits. That was a
monthly average of 152 page loads, 74 unique visits, 63 first time
visits, and 11 returning visits.
For the
period of August 1, 2011 through July 31, 2012 we show the following
stats: 214,273 page loads, 170,224 unique visits, with 156,311first
time visits and 13,913 returning visits. That's a monthly average of
585 page loads, 465 unique visits, 427 first time visits, and 38
returning visits (which I would love to see get better). Not too
shabby an increase overall but, it perhaps could have been better if
not for a few setbacks.
The setbacks
that occurred were health related, financially related, and due to
personal obligations as well. First, I had a "light heart
attack" (I think health professionals call it light because they
weren't the one's that had it), and since I had no health insurance
(still don't), and was out of work for about 2 months, I eventually
wasn't able to contribute much. Then Marie's health got bad, and the
others personal obligations prevented them from contributing as
before. I keep their nameshere as contributors because the posts
they wrote are still here, and I will never remove them unless they
ask me to for some reason. Marie apparently removed herself as being
listed as a contributor a couple of years ago, but her posts are
still here, and all the posts by all of them are still worth reading
and reflecting on.
Anyway, it's
7 years later, and "Faith of the Fathers" is still here.
Let's pray and hope for another 7 years!
Your brother
in Christ, Steve Smith.
