Thank You Fans for Four Excellent Years
- Brandi Bradley
- Feb 5
- 6 min read
I am celebrating an anniversary, of sorts.
I had completely forgotten about it, actually. I was reviewing some statistics regarding my viewership for my website www.brandibradley.com and I realized that it was on New Year’s Day in 2022 that I decided to launch my blog.
It’s my blog-iversary!
It was an exciting realization because I have been posting regularly on my website for the past four years.
Let me take you back in time.
In 2022, I had been working as an instructor for over a year and I was not devoting much time to a writing career. In fact, I wasn’t writing at all. And it did not feel great. I love being a teacher, but I didn’t work so hard to finish my last novel for it to be yet another one to sit on the shelf.
And even if the process of trying to locate an agent at that point gave me agita, I knew that I couldn’t sit on my hands feeling sad that I wasn’t “succeeding” as a writer. Writers write. And I wasn’t.
I spent my holiday break that year binge-watching Downton Abby and reading Heather Sellers Page by Page, a little writers self-help book that I purchased years ago at one of her speaking appearances in Lexington, Kentucky. I was motivated to get back to my life… the writing life. I knew I needed a routine, a system, and a process for bringing joy back to my writing life.
I did this in phases.
First, I started hosting parties for one in my studio space. I’d make a tiny cheese plate and crack open a bottle of wine, and I would sit in the floor and type.
Then I remembered that one of the things that always kept me motivated was a deadline. I contacted a friend to see if they’d be open to reading an entire novel and offer a critique. When they said yes, I set a deadline for myself.
After that, I wanted to make sure I kept my momentum. I remembered that I started a blog in grad school to help me with my comps. Graduate students are required to read over 100 books and then be prepared to discuss any one of those books in depth for a huge exam. I needed to ensure that I was reading and documenting what I discovered when I read those books. I started a blog and shared it with my grad school writing partner. I could have probably accomplished this with a folder in Google docs, but it was just easier to pull up a website that I had bookmarked as opposed to digging around in a bunch of folders and files. Websites have artwork, design elements, and load pretty quickly over WiFi. Anyone who keeps a Notion page for their digital planning can probably relate. I knew a website would motivate me to write at least once a week.
But I wasn’t in grad school, I wasn’t a published author, and I had just started working on the manuscript that became Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder. What was I even going to write about? Whatever I wanted to, I guess.
My first post was called “The Process is not a Destination”. It was my first step to trying to stop obsessing over the outcome of a writing project – it’s publication – and falling back in love with the reason I started writing anyway – the process of writing a story about people I made up.
Because that was it’s ultimate inspiration, how can I feel like a writer without that external validation? What could I do to make sure that I didn’t get rusty until I figured it out? How can I make sure that I wasn’t a writer who finished one book, and spent the rest of their life trying to sell it?
When I thought about what I wanted the website to look like and feel like for the visitor, I wanted coming to my website to feel like walking into my home: warm, fun, and full of interesting things to read. And I think I have provided that for my readers.
And readers have responded. I have an excellent newsletter. I have a small and loyal following. And after a few attempts to find my brand, I finally feel lke I write about things that are relevant to my interests and the interests of my fans: organization, writing life, mystery novel research. And perhaps I have some fans who are a little exhausted by my planner posts – a crew of German fans of my honest VanderSpek review would beg to differ.
Here are a few stats that I pulled that I find interesting – and if you are wondering why I feel like statistics are so interesting, Hubs is rewatching The West Wing, and most of the writing is information presented in list form.
Based on the statistics I pulled from the past year, 53% of my visitors find me on Google. Which is excellent, because I have been working hard on my SEO. I also went and purchased five domain names like brandibradleyauthor.com, or brandibradleythewriter.com (all my Designing Women people are having “Dash Goth The Writer” flashbacks). This was work because it was six months in before I realized that my website was not appearing in searches at all because I didn’t know anything about submit a site index. Some of my pages still won’t show up, but I still try to resolve the issues that will make them visible.
Second area of entry to my website, (31%) come to me direct. That means they go to their search bar and type in my name and .com. To me, that means when I tell people about my website, they remember my name. Also, shout out to every senator, congress person, Avon salesperson, and the other Brandi Bradley whose emails come to me on the regular, because your people are coming to my website and sticking around. I hope that my regulars have me bookmarked, but also Brandi Bradley is not a difficult name to remember. The alliterative B with the assonant E sounds hit on the ear well.
And after that leading the mishmash of social media, alternative search engines, and listings on literary festival directories, 5% my readers come from Pinterest. I know! I have always been shocked whenever I have seen this, but I have accepted it. Pinterest loves me as much as I love it. Compared to Instagram and Facebook (1%), Pinterest has people clicking on my posts to read my content, as opposed to creeping around just to see what I am up to.
Now, this is just a sampling from this past year. But it’s also a great year to measure because I have been hustling my butt off selling Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder. I’m shaking hands, passing out bookmarks, and showing up for panels. This week I posted a link to my website in a message board post specifically for mystery writers! Before I started this process, I would have been too concerned that people were passing judgment on my credibility as a writer.
Other interesting facts I learned is about where my people are coming from.
I’m not shocked that 20% of my readers come from the great state of Georgia. Of those, 25% comes from Marietta, 22% comes from Atlanta, and 21% comes from Kennesaw.
After Georgia there is a three way tie, coming in at 6% each is New York, California, and the Commonwealth–and origin story of bourbon, both my children, and my husband– Kentucky. Big shout outs to Brooklyn and NYC, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Lousiville!
Here is also a little fun data that I’ve learned. Most school systems use Microsoft products, which makes me think that if someone is coming from Bing, they’re a teacher. Around 7% of my visitors were listed as Unknown, which says I have readers who value their privacy. And I get a few readers from a search engine that’s mission is to plant trees, so I have some eco-friendly folks.
So all of that is to say Thank you!
Thank you fans!
Thank you for logging on at night when you could be playing some game before bed. Thank you for being curious about a new author. Thank you for supporting indie authors. Thank you for the effort. You didn’t just scroll past me, you were looking for something like me, or me in particular. And that is a feeling I treasure.
I have many things in the works right now, so stay tuned for an announcement on what I have in the works for 2026.
If you haven’t checked it out, head over to the brandibradley.com Shop and see the novels and short stories available for purchase. I have instant downloads and paperbacks ready to ship!
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