The 8th Anniversary of An Historian About Town

Today is a big milestone for An Historian About Town- today marks 8 years of the blog! (This blog is now in the second grade…) Given that this is done in my spare time on top of two jobs, a dog, and an adult life with all of the business that that entails, I am quite proud of everything I have accomplished. Over the years, the blog has evolved consistently but I think that in the last 2-3 years, I’ve solidly developed my own niche. Today I am going to share four highlights from the past, and four goals. A happy 8th anniversary of An Historian About Town to all of us! 

An Historian About Town Highlights

Coming up to nearly a decade on the site, I have reached a lot of milestones. Some stand out more than others to me, though all have been meaningful in their own way. 

The An Historian About Town Newsletter

I started in the An Historian About Town Newsletter in the spring of 2019, and I now have over 700 subscribers. It regularly shocks me that well over 500 people want to hear from me monthly in addition to the blog, and that my open rates are often over 50%. (In email marketing, those are good numbers.) The contents have changed throughout the years, but it still going strong and I’m thankful for every reader! 

If you are not already signed up, you can sign up here: http://eepurl.com/gCHY3P! 

Almost 200,000 Views in 2022

I try my best to not focus on numbers, but 2022 was a big year for me- I had over 180,000 views for the year. My traffic grew by over 30%. That might not sound like a lot to many bloggers and site owners, but to someone with an incredibly niche website, that is massive. I don’t know that I will ever be able to expect 500,000 views a year or anything like that, and I am a-okay with that, but I am proud of my growth. 

Selling Products

In the fall of 2020, I launched a holiday history-themed ebook. It took a lot of time and effort (during a really not-great time in my life), and while it hasn’t sold a million copies or anything, I am immensely proud that I have created something and its out there. And then in the spring of 2021, I started selling my Royal Women bookmarks. Again, I’m not selling thousands and thousands of them, but something of mine is out in the world for people to enjoy. 

If you would like to visit my Etsy shop, you can find it here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AnHistorianAboutTown. 

Style History, Monarch of the Month, Books If You Love… Series

It might seem obvious, but I have created several different series that have been incredibly popular. This is something that I am particularly proud of given how far I live from most of the history that I write about. The idea that a person in the middle of Canada can have thousands of people visiting their website to learn about British and European history is wild, but here we are. I have very much enjoyed researching and writing these series, they allow me to do more of a deep dive on a topic than one post allows for. And if I do say so myself, I am rather excited about my Royal Jewellers and Coronation Chronicles series for 2023. 

I know that it is very niche, but I also am proud of my Blogmas posts every year. It can be tricky to come up with fun and informative holiday-themed posts and it takes several months of planning, but I think it continues to be my favourite time of the year on the blog.

An Historian About Town Goals 

Each year as my blog anniversary comes around, I think about what I would like to accomplish over the next year. These are loose goals, I am not heartbroken if I cannot achieve them but I like having something to aim for. 

Develop Patreon-style Content

The large majority of my content will always remain free and available on An Historian About Town, and anything that you can find for free now will remain free. However, I would love to develop some audio or video content for subscribers. I am still hoping to bring in more income via the blog so that it is self-sustaining. (I would like my hosting and equipment paid for, I do not expect this to be a full-time job or anything like that.) As well, I think that it would be a good way to start developing that content with a smaller audience that is not as overwhelming. It would be something like a podcast, or perhaps book and period drama reviews and recommendations. 

Connect With More Authors for the Blog

Over the years, I have gotten to know several authors quite well through social media. I am hoping to reach out to several of them, and share interviews, their recommendations and more. Oftentimes, authors are the most astute readers who can recognise the elements of the books, and that means that they can make excellent book recommendations. If there are any authors that you would like to see, please send me an email or a message! 

Create More Products 

I really enjoyed creating my Royal Women bookmarks in 2021. I don’t know that I would want to do it as a full-time job, but it was a lot of fun. Over the next few weeks and months, you can expect a few posts and polls on social media looking for opinions. It won’t be anything huge- possible more bookmarks, maybe prints, or notebooks. My goal is to make something that people are truly interested in, though. (This also ties into my goal of making the blog monetarily self-sustaining.) 

Take More Time For Me

This might seem like an odd goal for the blog, but I am hoping to also make sure that I am taking time for myself. The blog will be incredibly busy in the leadup to the coronation (not to mention writing for Royal Central), and the other projects on the goI have a lot of fantastic content planned. My hope for the summer is to give myself more of a break and to come back refreshed. 

Happy 8th anniversary to all of you, hopefully we have another 8 more!

Cheers,
The Historian
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