We have no idea who these people are, but they say our message loud and clear!
Urbyville.com has crossed the 25,000 mark and I wanted to thank everyone that frequents our site and finds what we have to say entertaining or interesting enough to keep coming back. We are very excited to have so many people viewing the site and it is very rewarding to see others appreciating all the time we put into it.
Specifically, Urbyville.com now has had over 25,000 pageviews since we started it back in early April, 2011. We were set up with a program through Google that tracks all sorts of stats including pageviews, content viewed, location of viewership, and much more. Slowly but surely, our usership has grown and we have now amazingly had over 25,000 views from 18 different countries.
Steve must get the first thanks. Without his pushing and prodding, we wouldn’t have a website and it wouldn’t be managed nearly as well as it is now. Steve told me as we were preparing to leave our jobs and head off on a new adventure that we had to share it with others because there were too many people stuck behind desks that would really appreciate the opportunity to share in our adventures. I wasn’t so sure but I did feel the need and desire to get more people involved with our non-traditional way of living and to in a sense, give back since I’ve been able to experience so much. Steve’s only rule was that if he made it, I had to use it.
And use it we have! We’ve written over 100 blog stories and uploaded hundreds of photos and videos over the past 8+ months of non-career life. For fun, I’ve included the top five viewed stories since we started the blog:
We also owe much thanks to our friend Rocket Cop (Ron). While Steve does the back end work on the website, keeping it running and organized, Rocket Cop does the design work. And very quickly too. We mentioned the idea to him and within days, he had the original design ready to go. He was on top of it when we switched adventures to the bike too and has always been very gracious to help with the project. I also think he’s one of our biggest Urbyville supporters.
For me, the site has been rewarding in many ways, some of which I would never have imagined. For example, I have never consistently kept a journal, though I always thought it would be a valuable thing to do. I’ve done it from time to time but never anything that lasted too long. The website has basically become my journal and I am so thankful to have the site continually there pushing me to write down my thoughts and experiences. While they are written for others, they are very valuable to me personally. I’ve already found myself going back to read AT stories and looking at biking pictures, and these aren’t even a year old. I can only imagine how much more I’ll appreciate it years down the road.
I also really appreciate the connections the website has strengthened with our friends and family. Everyone knows what we’re doing. People share their views and comments with us frequently. This is so wonderful and makes us feel so connected. We’ve even had people we don’t know contacting us through the website. When Julie was looking to get off the trail, she actually received numerous emails from friends and complete strangers encouraging her to stick with it. It has been seriously amazing how this website has connected us with people new and old.
So in conclusion, thank you everyone for making Urbyville.com a smashing success in our book. We really like working with the website and we really appreciate everyone that is part of our community. Thank you Steve and Rocket Cop for all your amazing work and we are looking forward to the next 25,000 pageviews as we continue on with our adventures and Urbyville.