WordPress has a really great annual report they send you every year in January giving you statistics on your blog. I thought you might find it interesting (….or not, but read through to the end anyway because I want your input….pleeeeeeease!)
2011 Blog Stats for Monday Motivation & More
Number of Posts: 29 (that averages 2.5 posts a month…anemic if you want my opinion)
Number of photos posted: 207 (ok so I like pictures!)
Number of visitors: 30,000 (wow…that’s a small city)
Where the visitors are from:
- North America (of course the vast majority are from the USA & Canada)
- South America (Brazil, Argentina, Ecudor, Peru)
- Europe (Germany, Spain, France)
- Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa)
- Asia (Phillipians, India, Japan, Pakistan)
- Australia (New Zealand, Guam, Papa New Guinea)
(I am AMAZED and feeling very cross cultural right now! I have folks visiting from every continent except Antarctica. Now if only I could go visit all of them!)
Number of Email Subscribers: 875 (if you want to receive my posts in your email box…you can subscribe here)
Top referrers to my blog (these are websites not people…I know many of my faithful fans give out my web address to friends & family and I thank you for your support)
- facebook (because I link my posts to my facebook page!)
- Thoughts about God
- Mommylife (one of my favorite blogs to read)
- WordPress
- Yahoo mail
Top Posts: (by number of views)
- I am the 1% (I guess using a title with a hot current event gets you hits. This blog post was not really a commentary on the Occupy Wall Street situation, but more of an encouragement to look at our lives and strive to be the best! I sure made a lot of folks mad however…oy vey!)
- Take the 40 Day Love Dare Challenge (This has been a top post since I wrote it three years ago. The thing is…it is really not even much of a post. Most people who come looking are either desperate to fix their marriage or are looking for the list of the 40 day challenge without having to buy the book. I guess this should tell me that there are lots of people looking for help with their marriages)
- Holy Week (A post about the importance of honoring and observing Holy Week as believers. There are several links to our Easter traditions. It makes me really happy that this post made the top five as I hope Christians are getting more serious about observing the important Holy Days of our faith)
- Our Passover Christian Seder (I wrote this post 4 years ago and it stays in the top posts every year. It gives details at to why and how we celebrate Passover with a Christian Seder. Again I am thrilled with the interest this generates. I hope many believers incorporate this feast into their Easter Week celebration)
- Rite of Passage (This post is about the Christian Rite of Passage we have our children go through as a young person who is ready to take responsibility for their faith. I wish all families did something like this for their children!)
So my dear blogosphere friends I would love to hear a few things from you?
Where are you from? (city, state, country)
How did you come to my blog? (are you a subscriber, did you google something, from facebook, are you my friends, family, former students or business associates…tell me how you got here)
What were your favorite 2011 posts? (4 out of the 5 top posts were written well before 2011…I would love to know if my current posts are helpful and adding value to your life)
What would you like to hear about in 2012?
Ok, ok I’ll bribe you to comment in the comment section below. If you will answer my four questions by Monday January 8, I’ll put your name in a drawing for a $10 gift card to Starbucks or your favorite coffee or tea hang out!
Thanks for reading my blog this past year and for all the encouragement to carry on! In a few days I’ll tell you my favorite blog posts from 2011.
“Tada!” Ya see I couldn’t post without a picture. 🙂
Inspire Ministries 
Hi Beth, I am always up for free starbucks, so:
Val Pennino, Lodi, CA
I view your blog via your Facebook posts, and am connected thru Rachel Fichtner and CM
My favorite blog post was about your dad. My father passed away in feb 2009 and I really enjoyed your reflection on your relationship with your dad. I did really enjoy your post in your 25 years of marriage as well. Thank you for sharing your life, stories and wisdom, you have such a way of encouraging others!!
thanks Val! 🙂
Hi Beth! It’s me, Bek. I’ll answer your questions!
1) I’m currently in Arvada, Colorado…USA (not really FROM here)
2) Funny story, learning about your blog. A friend of mine here in CO, who was involved w/ CM told me about this “speaker” coming to Denver. She proceeded to tell me about “her and her blog”…as she continued, I told her I knew the person she was speaking of…it was YOU! We were going to attend the CM event you were speaking at, but unfortunately, she had a personal crisis take place that same evening. 😦 Also, I am one of your former youth kids…and friend, and am subscribed to your blog through email. (I don’t tweet, or blog…and barely fb).
3) My favorite blog post for 2011 was definitely “Love For A Lifetime.” A close second would be “Don’t You Know What Causes That?”, and third would be “What Was, What Is, & What Might Have Been.” I do also frequent “Holy Week” and have incorporated many of your traditions into our family celebration as well! SO Inspiring!
4) What I would like to see more of?… How you do all that you do? Do you follow a strict schedule? Where do you get the energy? Perhaps more posts on finances…how you/the Lord provides for a family of 10? All of the things you are always doing…how you have $ for it all? (hopefully not being to personal here). I think of you often…and the “go-getter” you are, and am totally amazed. Quite honestly, I find my head spinning at all I have to do…and we don’t have any “extras” going on…no sports, no music…etc., and are only a family of 9!
Anyway, hope this is a blessing and a benefit to you! I know that your blog and especially you have been both to me! Love you!
Thank you dearest Becky! I appreciate your thoughtful response and ideas for future blogs. We were so excited to get your Christmas card and see your newest blessing! What a joy! Love you so very much.
I am originally from San Diego, CA USA
Came across your blog through Kim Harkins – my upline- in CM.
I love all your posts but my most favorite all the time are the ones on your traditions and homeschooling.
That is what I would love to hear more about in 2012.
I am not commenting because of the bribe but it would be nice…. 🙂
Thanks Jennifer! I appreciate your input. 🙂
Okay! I too am up for a competition and especially if the prize is a coffee card! 🙂 So:
1. Suzanne from Orange, California, USA
2. little did we know when God blessed us with friendship that summer of 1979 that our vocabulary might in the future, include such words as “blog”, “subscriber” and the VERB!!??… “friend”.
3. Without looking at a list of all your 2011 posts, the two that stand out for me are about Amy’s leaving for college. I LOVED how you celebrated and shared with us the unique gifts and talents Amy has been given from our GOOD God and the proper place that academics ought to have for the follower of Jesus (and her little ones :). I ESPECIALLY loved the post that was a publishing of the letter written to Amy from the young woman/family friend whom your family “adopted”. It was so wise and so spot on! I’ve shared both blogs with others and even thought the latter was mostly NOT written by you, I still give it a vote as you and Dan have so obviously influenced her life and you had the good sense to share her words of wisdom with us and hey…it is YOUR blog, right? So, I call it one of yours and give it my vote! 🙂
4. 2012 topic requests?…perhaps more on the perserverance in trial? I appreciated you sharing with us at your 25th wedding worship service (and in your blog) about the hardships you, Dan and your family have experienced over the 25 years. It’s easy to look at your photos and snippets of your lives and be decieved into thinking that somehow you are so different from most of us. I think it’s important for people to not miss the fact that your lives are at times as difficult and messy as everyone elses — health crisis, rejection, abandonment, heartache from a variety of places, betrayal, etc. The difference (if one’s comparing) likely is in the approach to the trial. We’re not much of a perserverance society. Our culture has changed a very great deal just in recent years (refer back to my comment on new vocabulary since 1979 :)) and we do not seem to know how to be long suffering.
Speaking of which…how soon might I know if I’m the “winner” of the coffee prize??! 🙂
Can’t wait to when we might get to share some 1-1 time again!! 🙂
Suzanne! Great comments…very helpful. I got your email anmd will be sending you beach dates soon…I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to have some good face to face time! I love you my friend! I’ll have my kiddos draw a name on Tuesday morning. 🙂
if i win the drawing, take one of the kids to Starbuck’s for a special reward and grab one for yourself 😉
out here in Baltimore, which they call Charm City (funny story that… http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-07-18/news/1995199190_1_charm-city-bill-evans-loden … that’s the watered down version, i read something once about a garbage strike and a police strike that were occurring at the time…) they call me Fox (and someday i’ll tell you why 😉 ) we won’t be here long though, we’re packing up and moving to Corpus Christi, TX (which we’re jokingly calling Mexico for the time being) some time this summer to be closer to my family… i found this on Facebook and i read EVERY new post, often skimming back to posts that went up before i found the page so i can “catch up.” i don’t subscribe by email because i rarely check my email but i FB every day… when it’s been a while since you’ve made a post here, i hit your homepage and scroll through to see if maybe i missed something in my news feed, ’cause i really enjoy your posts… if i’ts not printed on a 4″ wide ticket from a kitchen printer, i probably have no real interest in reading it, except for this… my favorite post was “Don’t You Know What Causes That?” it was really funny, you may remeber i’m a sarcasm afficionado, i would have paid the $10 cover charge to watch you tell that story onstage at the local comedy club on amateur night, i’d have brought all my friends… i also really liked “After You Have Suffered” i never knew you hated being pregnant so much, you didn’t let it show, you didn’t let it slow you down… the post reminded me of the time you went into labor and during journalism class and i came to your desk to ask you something in the middle of a contraction and you gave me the “gimme’ a sec” hand gesture, took a deep breath, sighed, and went RIGHT back to “regular” Beth… i thought it was pretty awesome… hmmm… what would i like to hear about in 2012? more of the usual i guess, and i’m really looking forward to your picture a day project, you might group them into weeks and make a page a week here with those? i saw some layouts here that looked really good for photoblogging back when i was exploring options…
upon further consideration, if i win the Starbucks drawing, any of the kids who wish to be considered can submit a brief essay on why they’re the extra special little Lambdin and i’ll choose who gets to take Mommy out for a mocha… meh, i don’t like that idea, really, i’m not into the competitive thing much anymore, i’d make a horrible judge… so we’ll settle this the fair way… take Dan out 🙂
Jason….you are great! You always make me laugh (which I need to do more often) Thanks for the great input. Maybe we’ll meet up in Texas sometime in the next few years while Amy is in college!
that would be so much fun!
Hi Beth,
Got to know you and your blog through CM. Admire your family values and traditions. I personally enjoy the letters to your children, but look forward to all your blogs. I would love to read about sibling rivalry and arguments at your house. I enjoy your honesty and every time you say you are not perfect I sigh and know everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
Thank you Kathy! I will be sharing more & more kid stories especially as they are leaving the nest and growing up (I do have to be a little careful during their teen years as to how much I can publicly share) Looking forward to our time together at the beach. 🙂
hey Beth!, it doesn’t have to be Starbucks since the closest one to me is 55 miles away… here in small town midwest where Walmart reigns & everything is either fried or barbequed (but not ever spelled out!… ha, ha) Nevada, Mo population 5K (less in town but they count all the farmers on rural routes), favorite post were about your Dad & how you still love & grieve for him… gives me hope for my girls & their love for their Daddy… looking fwd to your picture a day… love seeing how much Joy is blossoming… want to hear more about favorite movies & why, songs & emotions, date night conversations, decorating a small house, …. is that enough? wishing I could learn from you about digital scrapbooking @ the beach in FEB…. thanks for your inspiration & encouragement
Hi Beth
Thank you for your continued faithfulness to encourage, inspire and lead the way to more godly thinking and loving. I thoroughly enjoy your blog.
1. I’m from Victoria, BC Canada
2. I’m a subscriber and I met you on a CM incentive trip years ago and been following you ever since.
3. My favorite post from last year was “Don’t You Know What Causes That?”
4. I’d love for you to post more about things that challenge our way of thinking and responding. Things that encourage us to not accept the cultural norm but to strive for a better way.
Thanks for all you do to encourage to make the world a better place. If you pull my name in the draw, take your hubby out for tea on me!
Hi Beth,
I am a long-time CM consultant, though do it more as a hobby for the past few years. I am in Cathy’s first-line as well, after Laura Mapstead deactivated. I was always encouraged when you would come and speak to
us at CM meetings. I admire your convictions and values and believe in keeping that kind of influence in my life in whatever form it is offered- so that is why I love to ready your writings.
Blessings,
Julie
Hi Beth!
I live in Sebastopol, CA and started receiving your blogs via email b/c you and I were emailing prior to those anyway and have been friends since your first Teen Camp at SLW in 1985 ( yikes!) I’d been doing the camps since ’83 – Donnie’s first camp there when there were under 40 kids in the Family Room ( small dining room off the SLW lobby). Yikes again! I can’t necessarily say which 2011 blog was my favorite – I find myself tucking most of them away in a folder to re-read for further encouragement. LOVE how you share family traditions w/ all of us, how you motivate us to be better as people, etc etc etc. Keep it up, dear friend!
Love it – Thank you for sharing with us and inspiring me.
Good morning Beth – I’m enjoying my Starbuck’s latte as I read this post. I’m in Eugene, Oregon and came to your blog as a fellow CMC (oh, the people that have come in to our lives with this fabulous business). Currently, my favorite post was the recent one on New Year’s Eve. As a new year begins, most of us stop to think what our goals are for the new year and as you shared your traditions, it helped me to stop & reflect. I enjoy your blogs that do just that. It’s good to be reminded of what really matters as we get busy with life, over whelmed and put those important things on the back burner. Any of your blogs that help us to stop and reflect – those have been the best.
HiBeth,
Thefact that I’ve taken the time to respond amazes even me! I’m taking a lunchbreak and somehow I always end up back in front of my computer screen, so Idecided I’d actually read through your entire blog post today and respond! HA!
Where are you from? Grants Pass, OR, USA
How did you come to my blog? Subscriber, CM business associate
What were your favorite 2011 posts? All the posts I take time to read are myfavorite, which only means that those I don’t read would be my favorite too! The one I most recently remember reading that truly struck me as AMAZING, wasyour incredible recent trip to New York on a shoe string! As a travel fanaticwith little funds to do it on our own, aside from all the CM trips I earn(thankful for that special blessing!!!), how you managed to budget your tripsimply amazed me!
Actually,ALL the ways you seem to financially make ends meet AMAZES me! What atestimony of obedience and also pure trust in the Lord.
And,everything you write about your family is also an AMAZING testimony of yourfaithfulness and obedience and no compromising! THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES in a worldof compromise!
What would you like to hear about in 2012? Hmmm….really hard to pinpoint as I benefit fromeverything I do read from you (as I have the time). Honestly, I don’t readeverything. Lack of time and information overload (not just from you…from ALLthe stuff that comes in my inbox) is the biggest culprit!
Ilove the photos you post as it helps keep that visual connection with yourfamily and the realness of your posts.
Oh,and I love Dutch Bros coffee!
ManyBlessings Beth!
from: Anaheim, CA
found you: I’m another CMC
faves: I am the 1% (I loved it)
2012: ideas for random acts of kindness & showing appreciation to hubby
Beth,
I am from Seymour, TN
I came to Monday Motivation…by way of your sister Caroline. I met her when she lived in Knoxville and worked at Marble Springs. I attended a CM crop you came to in Knoxville one year.
I am also in Christian Education. Your posts regarding your time with students and school –re: the good times and the bad times ( we experience those to) — have been helpful. My family and I also use your posts about ‘Holy Week’ and the ‘Passover Seder’.
I am looking forward to hearing about your ministry–this blog is so motivational–God uses you and your family in unique ways and it is inspiring to –thanks for sharing what God lays on your heart.
Hi, it’s Chrissy Young from Bakersfield, CA. I have been a CM consultant for 11 years and can’t remember how I learned of your blog, but am so thankful I did:) I enjoy all your stories. Thanks so much for sharing all the ups and downs of parenting and marriage. I have shown lots of your stuff to my teenage boys, you seem to have the words when i cant seem to find any, LOL! You are truly inspirational. I look forward to what 2012 has in store for you and your fabulous family.
I work in Austin, Tx but live just outside of town … way out in the
country – – – at the end of the road … … on the back side of nowhere.
It is a country girl’s dream, especially when you factor in two grandkids
living just down the road. Heaven on earth.
I have been a faithful follower for several years and don’t remember for
sure how / when I got addicted. Must have been through another Creative
Memories consultant. I didn’t last with CM ( I am not a salesperson) but I
certainly am still an avid fan of your blog.
There is absolutely no way I could pick one favorite blog. I enjoy each
for the diversity. I must say I did really enjoy the trip to New York and
hearing about how God blessed y’all with unexpected treats along the way.
I love that you recognize God’s hand in your lives.
Are you still thinking of adopting a boy?
What is the job situation these days?
Do you still have regular tea parties with the remaining girls?
Don’t stop with the pictures, please.
Thanks,
Jacquelyn Werchan
Hi, it’s Dianna Snyder from Stockton. I don’t know if we ever officially met but I graduated from JECHS with Michelle. I had the blessing of being in 1st period study hall with her senior year, for which I was very thankful because I was very shy during high school and she always made me feel very welcome to talk to her 🙂
I don’t quite remember how I came across your blog….very possible that is was through a facebook post.
I had two favorite posts from 2011, “Faint heart never won fair lady”, to remind me to be patient and to wait for the man who will jump through a few hoops for me 😉 and the second favorite is, “And after you have suffered…”, was very helpful as me and my family were going through a rough patch it helped remind me that without suffering I wouldn’t be appreciative of the good things in life.
To hear about in 2012 hmm… If you have anything about singleness that would be cool, and pictures 🙂
Hi Beth,
I love Starbucks, so I couldn’t resist a chance at some free coffee. 🙂 My answers:
Where are you from? Chesapeake, VA, USA
How did you come to my blog? Subscriber, former Creative Memories consultant
What were your favorite 2011 posts? Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or (gasp) Xmas; Lambdin Christmas Greetings 2011; Random, Abstract & Off the Wall; Times of Refreshing, Parts 1 & 2; And after you have suffered . . .
It really is hard to pick just a few because I truly enjoy each and every post/e-mail. I am ashamed to admit that I get sidetracked easily by life and forget what is really important. Your e-mails/posts help me to refocus, as simple as that sounds. Even if you don’t send one every Monday, I can go back and re-read past posts to get reminders. After a health scare/hospital stay in November, I am making changes in my life and my husband/family are helping me to stay on track. I have often wondered if I have ADD. 🙂 LOL At any rate, I would say don’t change a thing and send posts every day, but if you are making God and your family your priority, then I know why there won’t be a daily post. 🙂
What would you like to hear about in 2012? Your family, faith
Thanks so much for taking the time to write and share your life with all of us! I pray that you and your family will be blessed beyond measure in 2012!!
Blessings,
Kim Munden
Hi Beth,
Jill Dunn – Cary, NC – as you know we met thru CM 🙂 but our friendship has definitely continued outside of that… and for that I am very thankful! 🙂 My favorite posts are the ones of your family traditions and parenting. I am always looking for ways to teach my children to be purposeful and a light to the world around them as well positive ways to teach discipline … so I guess I would love more of the same is 2012! Thanks so much!!!! Happy New Year to you and your family!!!
Hi Beth!
Kristen from Stockton, CA! I am a former student and babysitter! My favorite post of 2011 was the Merry Christmas, Xmas and Happy Holidays post. I love reading your views on life and mostly society. I also love reading about your family and traditions.