Blog.SpoonGraphics

Two Years of Blog.SpoonGraphics

In April 2007 Blog.SpoonGraphics was created as a small personal project, now two years on it’s still growing nicely and continually leads to more and more surprises and opportunities for me. Let’s take a look at some stats outlining it’s growth over these past two years.

Long time subscribers may remember the posts One Year of Blog.SpoonGraphics, or maybe even Six Months of Blog.SpoonGraphics. In each of these posts I presented some of the milestones the site has seen. So, how have things changed recently?

Average stats of late:

Average visits per day: 13,000
Average pageviews per day: 33,000
Top Content: 15 Tutorials for Recreating Authentic Photo Effects & Create a Simple Vibrant Light Effect in Photoshop
RSS Subscribers: 18,000
Highest Traffic Peak: Wednesday March 4th – 31,311 visitors

StumbleUpon has remained to be a good source of traffic, however it now rests in third place with the majority of visitors coming from Google search (keywords spoon graphics, spoongraphics, blog spoon graphics) and as direct traffic which suggests major development of the site as a recognisable brand.

Evolution of Blog.SpoonGraphics

Version One – April 07 to August 07

The original theme was quickly put together using elements of my portfolio website design at the time. I can’t say was anything too spectacular but it did receive some inclusions in various CSS galleries!

Version Two – August 07 – August 08

The website design you all recognise has been around since August 07, and I’m still pretty happy with it! The large page header with various vector elements still receives praise and has been included in a bunch of design roundups, all of which I’m really appreciative of.

Version Three – August 08 – December 08

Verison three of the Blog.SpoonGraphics design saw some little tweaks and changes, including a revised sidebar and a couple of jQuery effects. Although the major addition was the creation of an About page, which started the development of myself personally as Chris Spooner giving further exposure as a designer.

Version Four – December 08 to Present

In December 08 the site saw a complete rebuild, but is still rocking the semi-original header and footer designs. The latest set of changes included a wider content area and refreshed sidebar, as well as more attention to the styling of individual page elements. The largest change was behind the scenes in terms of freshly written XHTML and CSS coding, and some little changes to help reduce server load and requests.

Technical Stats

Powered by: WordPress
Hosted on: 1GB VPS from Slicehost (with appreciated assistance from @crouchy) + Amazon S3 Storage.
Bandwidth generated per month: 430gb (prior to moving images to Amazon S3)

Recent Blog Related Achievements

Last year I talked about Blog.SpoonGraphics achieving an inclusion in Web Designer Magazine issue 157. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Blog.SpoonGraphics having its posts recommended and featured on various blogs and podcasts, as well as some personal blog related achievements:

• PhotoshopUser TV – Cited in episode #182 of PhotoshopUser TV
• MarcoFolio – Discussing blueprints with Chris Spooner
• John O’Nolan – Interview with Chris Spooner of SpoonGraphics
• NET Magazine Issue 188 – How to Build a One-Page Portfolio Article
• Spicy Web Designers – Spicy Web Designer Interview with Chris Spooner
• Sharebrain – Braintalk with Chris Spooner
• Graphic Design Twist – Expert Advice: Creating A Successful Blog
• Designm.ag – Designer Showcase: Chris Spooner
• Inspiredology – Chris Spooner Interview
• Smashing Magazine – 10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website
• ColorBurned – Interview with Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics
• Logo Gala – Featured Logo Design and Interview
• Smashing Magazine – Push Your Website into the Future with CSS3
• Just Creative Design – Designer in the Spotlight: Chris Spooner
• Web Designer Depot – 10 Characteristics of Excellent Portfolio Sites
• CityofAngels – Interview with a Pro, Chris Spooner
• PSDFan – Interview with Chris Spooner
• Smashing Magazine – Looking Back on 2008 with Top Web Designers
• ProBlogger – 10 Innovative Blog Business Models
• David Airey – How Designers Charge Their Clients
• Please Critique Me – Member of the Please Critique Me Critics Panel
• Advertees – Need a Logo Designer? Or just Advice?
• BrianYerkes – 3 Questions for 3 Top Design Bloggers & Productivity Tips
• ScrnShots – Featured ScrnShots User – Chris Spooner
• Vectortuts – Weekly Article Writer at Vectortuts
• Web Hosting Search – An Interview with Chris Spooner of SpoonGraphics
• Vandelay Design – Interview with Chris Spooner
• Designers Who Blog – Blog.SpoonGraphics Feature
• My Ink Blog – An Interview with Chris Spooner

A word from me…

Two Years of Blog.SpoonGraphics from Chris Spooner on Vimeo.

Given the special occasion, I thought it would be a good opportunity to create this (slightly cringeworthy) video of thanks to introduce myself in person. Video blogging was a direction I’ve been looking to take a dabble in recently, especially since seeing a bunch of fellow design bloggers also giving it a try. I suppose this is where I say ‘please excuse the nerves/awkwardness’, sitting on your own (well, with the company of the cat…) and talking to a webcam is strangely weird and difficult. No doubt I will improve over time. Stay tuned for some further vlogs and a screencast tutorial or two in the future.

So overall, I’m really stoked about the development of the site and I’m looking forward to continuing it into the future. Thankyou to all the subscribers, readers, advertisers, Twitter followers, fellow bloggers and everyone who has offered their social media vote on the articles and tutorials here at Blog.SpoonGraphics.

Written by Chris Spooner

Chris Spooner is a designer who has a love for creativity and enjoys experimenting with various techniques in both print and web. Follow Chris' daily design links on Twitter, and be sure to check out his second blog over at Line25.com.