Before January slips away from me, I want to get my annual Thank You post out! Thanks to TheDoc (our resident prolific forums guru) for reminding me.
Milestones
Snippets Launched
The biggest addition to this site in 2009 was the snippets area. It has been a popular resource which makes me happy since that’s the reason this site is around. It’s been slowing down a little, but I’m not too worried about that. You are welcome to contribute snippets of course, to help keep that area bigger and better.
Born and Died
2009 saw the death of “Status”, a project between me and Richard Felix Jr. But also saw the birth of Are My Sites Up? (kinda wild that’s only been one year since AMSU went up). Are My Sites Up was based on yearly pricing, so we are seeing the first round of people renewing their service right now, which is awesome.
Digging Into WordPress
I wrote a book this year with co-author Jeff Starr. As awesome as that was, I consider the blog that goes with it an equal accomplishment. I think I just love blogging.
Speaking
2009 was the first year I spoke at any events. The first being the Front End Design Conference in 2009. Between then and now, I’ve spoken at a number of other cool events. I hope to do some more of that in 2010. I’ll be at the CMS Expo in May, but other than that nothing else lined up.
Design
There were two biggish redesigns in 2009. One in September and one in December. Kind of strangely close together. At the time of this writing I’m calling it v6, and for the record, I rather like it. Probably won’t last long, but even when I do redesign, as you all know, it’s mostly just refinements and alignments rather than crazy huge overhauls. For example, the sidebar has been on the right since day one.
Writing Style
In the last few months I’ve been writing more editorial style posts. I plan to continue doing that as I enjoy it and I enjoy the conversion that is a result of it. I don’t plan to have it take over the site though. I plan to do tutorials and tips/tricks as well.
Chicago
Around the 4th of July I moved from Portland to Chicago. I like Portland the city (and the entire surrounding state) better, but I like Chicago as well and enjoy being closer to home and the Badgers.
Work
I was and still am a full time designer at Chatman Design. We’ve done some pretty fun and successful projects for local clients. We’ve also see some sites deteriorate and one thing we are working on right now is taking one of those and rehauling it. I’m excited to see that launch, if and when we can convince the client that they need it.
Statistics
- The highest-ever RSS feed subscriber count was 39,690.
- There have been 549 posts published, which makes 280 of them this year alone, and probably more than that since I’ve removed some old useless ones.
- 3,105 people have used the CSS-Tricks contact form, which makes 1,885 of them this year. Last year I said I responded to 90%, I’m thinking that’s closer to 75% this year. I really try, but I can’t do individual troubleshooting for the most part anymore.
- I’m up to screencast #79, with #80 and #81 already thought up in my head. That makes only 31 this year, less prolific than last year. I still love doing them but they are the least return on investment thing that I do with my time.
- I spoke at 7 events.
- There are 4,786 members of the forums who have posted 22,183 messages. This has about quadrupled since last year, although the forums see about 1/10 the traffic of the rest of the site. Huge shout out to all the forums guys who help keep that place so ridiculously helpful.
- Search engines provide 39% of traffic, 38% from referring sites, and 21% direct. I think that’s a solid mix.
- The most popular single article of the year was the Auto-Playing Featured Content Slider, responsible for 241,333 pageviews and 1.65% of total traffic.
- The single highest traffic day was August 24th, with 94,037 pageviews from the Moving Boxes post. Apparently, people like slidy JavaScript things.
To Come
Free Stuff, Soon
As part of all this thank you business, I have a plan to give away a whole bunch of books I have amassed and could use a better home. I’m still reigning in all the details. But it’s going to be fun, trust me.
Who Knows!
Again this year, it’s really hard to say what the future holds for 2010. I have less definite plans this year than I did last year, partially on purpose since I always have so much stuff on my plate I don’t like making major plans on top of it all. I am genuinely excited to live through it though.
Most of all, thank you to everyone who visits this site on a regular basis and participates in the community here. The year of 2009 was the first that this site solidified it’s place as not only something I do for fun but also as a part of my life and career. That’s only possible because of people like you.
Thanks to you as well Chris. You are an invaluable resource for me. I know that I can depend on your knowledge of the design world and I will be able to understand what you are trying to get across as you speak in a language I can understand.
Keep it up!
Kevin
learned a good bit from here . so thanks back lad.
Thank You right back! And I’d like to join you in thanking the forum guys (I’m not going to name them coz I’d be sure to leave one out!). This site and forum have really gotten me to a bigger and better stage in web design.
Excellent job all round.
Learned so much from you! Thank you.
Thanks again for all the help Chris!
Keep it up Chris…your work here is awesome. CSS-Tricks is THE place to go to for CSS stuff. Thanks!
Congrats on another year Chris. I’ve been enjoying Digging into WordPress a lot.
Are you planning on going to WordCamp Chicago this year? I wanted to go last year but I had a dumb wedding to attend instead, but I’m thinking of going in June.
Thanks for reminding me, I just registered.
Sounds like a good 2009! I thought the statistics you posted were cool and I can’t believe you work full time at a day job! With so much stuff going on I don’t know how you do it! Keep up the good work!
Keep up the great work Chris – I personally really prefer the “tutorial” style articles, but viewing an opinion from another can be a great eye-opener too sometimes.
Can’t wait to see more, high quality stuff from you mate!
Hi Chris,
Ill like to say thanks to you as you have pretty much single handedly taught me how to code over the last year or so..
Thanks for all you hard work and all of your really relevant and awesome posts!!
Thanks
Joe
The thanks should go to you and anyone else who helps with this site Chris. This was the first year I used CSS-Tricks, and it has helped me so much. It’s given me a lot of inspiration for my own endevers as well!
p.s. I really want a hard copy of DIGWP! Any idea when some more of those might be ready to ship? :)
I to would like to say thank you Chirs. You have been a real help over the years that this site has been up by providing interesting articles and also just teaching amazing things. I always push people to your html basics write up when they ask were to get started!
I think my favourite tutorial was the long “How to build a web app” one.
Anyway – looking forward to seeing future articles!
That’s awesome that you take the time to answer that many messages from your readers. That has to take some dedication.
Chris your site is briliant. Always a pleasure to keep up with what your up to!
All the best for the new year!
congrats, man. this year is going to be our best yet.
Your site and articles are the best. I have found many answers to questions I have. Love the videos too. I always find some little tidbit that I can throw into my bag of tricks. Thanks for sharing and for all your hard work.
Thank YOU! For the time you take in making those nice videos (screencasts).
Thanks for a brilliant site Chris. Kudos!
Thanks christ,
I learned a lots from this site.
NO, thank you kind Sir!
I gonna add my Big Thanks to your site. Its help me a lot.
Thanks…
And thanks in advance :D
Thank you Chris!
Your blog is great. It’s one of the first blogs I started following and one of the few I’m still following since that time. You really do a great job.
Thank YOU, Chris! Working non-profit its hard to afford the conferences and all, but your site and books, esp new one! are the most helpful resources of all. I’m telling all my friends to buy it. Best of all, you make it fun!
Chris, you shouldn’t be thanking us. We should be thanking you.
CSS-Tricks has taught me an awful lot, and for that I thank you.
I know it must be hard for you now with your job, and your blogging empire.
Good Luck. We’ll all be behind you every step of the way.
Thanks Chris,
Love the site, frequency and tone of pretty much everything you post. Your front, center and stable in my Google home page amongst a list of sites that come and go frequently.
Thank you as well Chris. You are the best!
With love from Italy!
Hello Chris,
Thanks to you for your great work!!!
Your articles are very usefull
:) *tips hat*
Thank you Chris! 2009 was my first year at building websites and with your indepth podcasts made my life so easy!! Thank you again
I like your videos and appreciate the time and effort that you put in to make them. Maybe they represent the least return on investment of your time but I will continue to watch them and learn from them whereever I can.
Thanks Chris
Al
Congrats on an awesome year Chris! :)
Here’s to many more!
Thank YOU Chris, as my fellow Italian said.
If I had to choose one single source of inspiration and great advice in all things web, that would be you.
I wish you all the best!
We all have to thank you Chris. For myself I learned quite a few tricks (not only css-tricks) here :)
please keep up doing this
Your tutorials have been very helpful for me especially the screencast series. thank you
All I can say is congratulations dude, you deserve it!
You tha’ Daddy! :P
Always helpful…great job dude!
Thank you Chris for contributing your knowledge to a dynamic community, if only the grass were greener in Chicago!
Love this site and all your others — thanks for your work! Especially for those of us who have been plunged into web management with meager training and support — it’s a huge help.
thanks for the knowledge you are truly a CSS genuine . Thanks to your site i am finally starting to build sites using CSS full time
Keep up the great work Chris.
Than you Chris. I have learned so much through your contributions on dgwp.com, css-tricks.com. I also use armysitesup.com and will be reading your book shortly. I have no idea how you keep up with it all; truly an inspiration.
Love this site!
Just found this site through using Anything Slider. There are fantastic resources here. Thank you!
Welcome to Chicago man, I’ve lived up here for a few years now. I know you are extremely busy, but you should really consider getting involved with the local Chicago web design group. They would probably be interested in promoting your book too.
http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Interactive-Design-Development/
I hung out with the Chicago Dreamweaver Group once, I talked to them about art directing posts in WordPress, it was pretty fun.
Cool (didn’t know there was a Dreamweaver Group), life in Chicago would be better though if this winter would end. Not as cold as last year though. We had one day where the only place in the world that was colder was Antarctica (I’m not joking).