Happy 3 Years, ClubPenguinMemories.com – 2013 Year In Review

Wow, I can’t believe it – three years ago on January 1, 2011, I launched officially released ClubPenguinMemories.com to the world at exactly midnight. (Eastern Standard Time)

Like I’ve mentioned on this website in the past, back in late 2010 when first starting to move everything from Piczo to WordPress I didn’t think it was going to be worth it. But boy, I was way wrong. For those unfamiliar with Piczo, it was a platform to make your own website with whatever you want. Unfortunately Piczo declined overtime and now no longer exists. Anyway, here are stats for you:

• Total views in 2011: 590,932
• Total posts made in 2011: 1,004
• Total views in 2012: 2,128,416
• Total posts made in 2012: 1,327
• Total views in 2013: 2,075,265
• Total posts made in 2013: 1,269

So that means:

• 5,385,545 total views (roughly a little more than that)
• 3,614 total posts (includes this one) (doesn’t include a few deleted ones overtime)

Now for images and pages:

Stats from 2011:

• 16,736 total images uploaded (about 5GB worth)
• 1,094 pages

Stats from 2012:

• 22,506 total images uploaded (easily 7 or 8 GB worth)
• 1,248 pages

Stats this year:

• 26,944 total images (4,438 new images uploaded this year)
• 1,298 pages (50 new pages added this year)

There would be many more images and pages added this year but I have not had the time to update and create many pages based on Club Penguin’s updates from Summer 2013 to current. Sometime in 2014 I’ll get back up to date though. I have been keeping track of what I need to do.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is what I wrote last year: (with a few additions this year)

The main thing I have noticed over the past three years is viewers like you LOVE originality between my theme and posts – and that you love my nearly daily if not completely daily posting. I do try my best to have a different looking website than other Club Penguin Blogs – theme wise, navigation bar wise, writing wise, heck – even purpose of the website wise. The irony in this is I’m usually not one to be creative in real life. I’m one to joke around, so don’t take this personal or anything – I once said to some people “Club Penguin Blogs are like lyric websites – there’s so many and they all have the same content.” I was joking when I said it, but it’s kind of true – there’s tons of music lyric websites out there with the same song lyrics listed. Why so many? I’d love something new. Then there’s lots of Club Penguin Blogs out there, all posting the updates. (and lots of famous blogs have some sort of blue theme :P) There’s nothing wrong with that, even though I’m jokingly poking fun – everyone likes different blogger’s writing styles, how quick they are at posting, their theme, etc. (and not to mention, blue is a great colour on blogs!) Don’t take things I say like that to heart, I promise I don’t mean it in a bad way. I just do what I like and hope others like it too. Challenge yourself to work hard and create your own content. Results are not instantaneous. I didn’t even try to make Club Penguin Memories popular, I just wanted to create a website to archive the history of Club Penguin in addition to posting what’s new each week along with some other extra posts. All of this hard work has definitely paid off. And I’m highly humbled by this. I’m sort of on a mission – to change the way Club Penguin Blogging is and loosen it up a bit. Rather than just post cheats, let’s have some fun with other things too!

I’d also like to add that I love the friendliness in the Club Penguin Community. Each and every single one of you are so awesome and caring. I like that. :)

I never expected Club Penguin Memories to continue to do well. That wasn’t my goal at all. I made this website because I wanted to. I didn’t expect for Spike Hike of all people to show Club Penguin Memories to the My Penguin team in California. Heck, I didn’t expect the blog to get as much attention as it did in general, whether it be from a player of the game or an employee of Disney! One thing I’ve learned in life is this: if you work hard enough and set your heart on it, results will eventually be seen. I’ve never blogged for the fame or money. Not once, not ever. I blogged for the fun, for the enjoyment, for the journey. And this journey is far from over. It’s just getting started.

One thing I’m asked about from time to time is how many views Club Penguin Memories has. I don’t show them too much, because I don’t want people to think I’m flaunting my success – something I would never do. There’s that, and I don’t want people to be discouraged when they see my stats and compare it to theirs. Over the past six years (2007 – 2013) I’ve slowly built up an audience. It takes time! Many people on Club Penguin try to be famous. My advice? Don’t. Too often I’ve seen penguins try to be famous or want to be famous, fail, and then become upset. Things like this don’t happen overnight, and not to mention most famous people don’t do what they do for the fame – they do it because then enjoy it. The same goes for me with blogging. If something is meant to happen, eventually it will. Fame isn’t everything, either. What matters the most is making friends, having a good time, and making a positive mark on the Club Penguin Community. :)

Every year I try to make a few extra special posts that stand out among the usual cheats. Here are my top picks for this year:

1. Spike Hike Teases What Is Most Likely The ‘My Penguin’ App – why? Before the Club Penguin app for iPad was officially announced, I had a hunch that Spike Hike was teasing the rumoured My Penguin app and that it would be coming soon. I ended up being correct.
2. Spike Hike Answers Your Questions – why? I was lucky enough to interview Spike Hike for a post. He unofficially announced CPNext, which resulted in a big follow-up post.
3. Spike Hike Talks About The Future Party That Never Happened – why? Spike Hike gave a cool backstory about a possible party the team scrapped…for now?
4. Spike Hike Agrees The EPF Can Be Better, Mentions Upcoming New EPF Mission – why? I had a discussion post about the EPF and PSA that caused quite a debate and brought up many good points. Spike Hike was then nice enough to address many of our concerns and even gave us his opinion on the PSA vs EPF topic!
5. Posting about upcoming Club Penguin app features before they were released (post 1) (post 2) – why? It was lots of fun to break the news on what Club Penguin had planned for their iPad app…all thanks to V0rtex. Who knows what he’ll dig up for me in 2014?!

Now, in closing here is to another fantastic year of blogging in 2014 as well as many more friendships! I hope you continue to check Club Penguin Memories and be active in the Club Penguin Community. I enjoy the discussions we have in the comments!

Also: If you are interested, here are a few other extra stats from WordPress – you can view the full report on their website if you are interested here.

• The busiest day for Club Penguin Memories was on August 22nd where the site got 22,227 views in a day. The previous record was 19,537 views on November 15, 2012.
• The top posts/pages on Club Penguin Memories this year are, in order from greatest amount of views to least amount of views are:

1. Club Penguin McKenzie, Brady, and Cadence Meetup Times (20,053 total views)
2. Aunt Arctic Waddling Around Club Penguin!
3. Puffle Handler Meetup Times
4. Club Penguin Sensei Meetup Times June 2013
5. Club Penguin Rookie Meetup Times – July 2013

And finally, comment wise, who talked the most? This list does not include me:

1. Ultimate64 with 572 comments
2. Adrián Anhelo with 467 comments
3. Rexo345 with 440 comments
4. Phineas99 with 415 comments
5. All73 with 366 comments

Phineas99 also scored number 4 on the top 5 commenters list last year. In 2012 he had 271 comments.

Let’s go 2014! :D