Although I’ve been blogging since April 2008, December 2009 marked the end of my first calendar year of blogging. It’s now time for a status review of “my blogging year, 2009.”

My website and blog have had 188,329 visitors since January 1, 2009 according to Webalizer, for an average of about 516 visits per day. I had the highest number of visitors, 20,086, in September 2009, and the lowest number, 12,316, in January 2009.

The website and blog had 987,830 page views in calendar year 2009, for an average of 2,706 page views per day.

I’ve written 235 blog posts in 2009, or about 4½ posts each week. Unfortunately, less than the “one post each day” goal I set for myself last year, but an increase of about 20% over the number of articles posted in the same period in 2008. Although I didn’t reach my goal, I learned that, as I wrote more and the number of blog posts increased, my enjoyment of blogging also increased. I also found that I never ran out of topics to blog about. There is so much happening in the areas of law I practice in, which is what my blog is all about, that there is always too much I could say. I could easily increase the number of posts on the blog substantially, if I had the time.

Most viewed blog post:  New Statutory Short Form Power Of Attorney And New Major Gifts Rider Form Now Available For New York State. Other blog posts with high readership included Stimulus Payment for Social Security Recipients to Arrive in May’s MailSocial Security’s Disability Backlog: Economic Stimulus Package May Help and The Basics of VA Pension Benefits.

The article with the highest readership, posted under the Publications section of my website and written in 2005, is entitled, Medicaid Liens and Estate Recovery in New Jersey.

The section of my website that attracted the most readers in 2009 was Will Contests, Probate Litigation and Elder Abuse Actions Attorney.

Both my website and blog have been rated PageRank 4 by Google.

Traffic sources: about 80% of visitors came from search engines. The largest percentage of those, by far, came to the site via searches on Google; 12% came directly to my site; and 8% were referred from other sites. By the way, I’d like to thank those who referred readers to me, including kostrolaw.com; hiltonheadelderlaw.com; njelderlawestateplanning.com; seniorlaw.comnursinghomesabuseblog.com; and, medicalfutility.blogspot.com.

I’ve been consistently disappointed in 2009 with the low number of comments posted by readers. Don’t know what I can do about it.

The number of clients who retained me solely as a result of contact with my website and blog increased dramatically in 2009. There was close to a 75% increase in clients obtained in 2009 solely as the result of contact with my website and blog when compared with 2008. If you add the number of prospective clients who paid for one or more meetings but did not retain my firm for any project, the number of those who found me solely as the result of my website and blog increased almost 100% over 2008.

Unfortunately, I have not earned any money as a direct result of the sale of products or services on my site. Frankly, I have not yet attempted to sell directly through the website. However, I’ve been reading more and more about virtual law practice and the delivery of legal services over the internet. I plan to explore the viability of delivering unbundled legal services through a website portal in the coming year.

Though not strictly about blogging, I was happy to finally establish a presence in the social networks by completing my profiles in LinkedIn, Avvo, the lawyer rating website (I’m happy to report that my rating is 10 out of 10, by the way) and Facebook. No tweets yet, though. There is a link from my LinkedIn profile to my blog, so my profile page is automatically updated with new posts each time I post a new article on my blog. The others have a link to the blog, but the posts do not appear on the sites.

It’s been a fun year of blogging. It is, without question, an exciting experience to try to consistently meet the challenge of delivering original content about new cases and developments in New Jersey law.