Okay, call me a sap…that song "Seasons of Love" from the musical “Rent” has been going through my head a lot these days, probably because my teenager has it on her Ipod and plays it so everyone can hear it from time to time… ”Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?”  But it is a great New Year’s song, isn’t it? Ranks right up there with Ella Fitzgerald's “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”, Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” and U2’s “New Year’s Day”…It’s made me think about the past year, and while I’m not big on Year End Reviews (sometimes they can be SO stupid) sometimes it’s good for us to “take stock”…

Even though my earliest blog posts date to September 2008, UncoolMom.com was officially “launched” on January 5, 2009, so New Year’s Day 2010 is just about as good a time as any for me to start assessing its first year.  How should I measure the first year of this blog?

One way to measure it is in “hits”, or “visits” to the blog.  GoDaddy.com, the company who hosts UncoolMom.com, provides me with all sorts of daily, weekly, and monthly statistics so I can measure this.  For most of the year, total visits increased every month, and that was a good sign.  Some days I had hundreds of visitors.  But then in late October, things took a big dip (was it something I said?) (was it because I took a week off?).  I’ve been told by other bloggers that that’s normal as the holidays approach.  So I’m hanging in there and hoping the numbers come back up this month.  Oh, for those stat lovers out there, the most “hit upon” post this past year was "Our Easter Bunny Was A Dust Bunny". 

Another anniversary question to ask about a blog is, “Has it been a financial success?” Luckily this measurement has not been important to me, at least for the first year.  For those of you who don’t know (and a lot have told me they don’t), bloggers make money every time someone clicks on one of their ads. The revenue generated depends on the ratio of how many people visit the site that day vs. how many clicks are made. And for 2009, I guess people enjoyed the writing so much they didn't have time to check out many of the ads!   But hopefully that will change. I have definitely spent more time on this "side project" than I’d expected (I can’t help it—I’m a perfectionist and have not been able to do “15-minute blog posts”) so getting a little bit of moolah for that time would be nice…I do receive free stuff once in awhile that people or companies want me to review, and plans are underway to add a “Product Reviews” tab to the blog and have Giveaways as well.

Yet another way to measure the success of a blog is in comments.  Do people like it? Do they enjoy reading it? Yes, yes.  Check out the "Recent Comments" and "More Comments" sections on the side bar.  I definitely have touched on things to which a lot of people can relate.  And when I receive encouraging comments from not only people with children, but those without, I know I’m onto something here! Thanks very much to everyone who has sent in a comment—and if you’re finding it hard to comment when reading the blog on Facebook, simply bypass Facebook momentarily and go directly to the blog at www.uncoolmom.com, and the comment button at the end of each post should work.  Thanks also to those who have emailed me and asked for an “UncoolMom.com” bumper sticker.  I still have a bunch more and they are still free, so let me know if you’d like one. (My email address is always at the bottom of the sidebar.)

My preferred way to measure this blog is in fun.  Do I enjoy doing this? Yes.  This has been so much fun and such a creative outlet, I think some of my best writing ever has come out of this (some of my favorite posts so far are Uncool Hands, Little Miss Sunshine is Alive and Well, A Schoolbus Education, The Roller Coaster of Parenting, and When Mom Dresses Like A Teen).  It was fun to win the Nickelodeon Award, fun to win a prize in the Lakewood 4^th of July Parade, and fun to get encouragement, support and a few shout-outs from the editors at the Dallas Morning News’ NeighborsGo section. 

One question I’ve been asked is, “Are my kids embarrassed or bothered by the blog?”  My younger daughter sometimes looks over my shoulder when I’m writing and doesn’t quite “get” it.  I mistakenly thought my older daughter was too preoccupied to ever see it (how naïve is that?). Then one day I accidentally left the site “active” on my computer, and she sat down and read it.  Thankfully I have the option to approve or reject comments before they’re published—  she left some pretty harsh ones that night, to put it mildly.  But that was in the spring, and since then her attitude about it has changed.  I think she’s realized that it’s not always about her, and perhaps a friend has told her they thought having a Mom who blogged was… cool? In addition, she greatly enjoyed the photo shoot that resulted in the header photo above.  Whatever the reason, not long ago she told me that if I got her one of my blog T-shirts, she’d wear it to school.  (Will wonders ever cease?)

While I’m not sure I am going to do that, it’s always fun whenever I wear my own shirt.  I always get comments—  people love it, and most of the time they think “UncoolMom.com” is a funny statement rather than a real site, as if I’m saying, “I’m so uncool, I’m uncoolmom.com”.  They point and say, “That’s me, too!” and I’m happy with that.  Those kind of comments really lift my spirits, especially if I’ve had a particularly trying day.  Like the other day, when I was wearing my shirt in an Ulta store two days before Christmas, waiting in a line that was about 10 people deep.  Allison went off to find more stuff she could try to talk me into buying while I patiently waited.  Upon finally being summoned to a register, I was asked by the clerk, “Uncool Mom? What’s that?” To which a guy waiting at the next register, a total stranger, loudly replied, “That’s a parent who’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing!”

“You got that right,” I smiled and said, along with a few knowing laughs and murmurs from the crowd behind me.  ###