As if this morning’s pie charts weren’t enough, we’re back to get all numerical and statistical on you. Each year we like to break down what YHL looks like by the numbers. Some are crazy. Some are surprising. Some are serious. Some are, well, just for fun. We’ve included some of last year’s numbers just for comparison’s sake, but you can also look back at our past by-the-numbers posts for our last three blogiversaries to see how things have changed: 2010, 2009 and 2008.
2,014 – The number of published posts to date on Young House Love (Last year: 1,527)
16 – The number of published posts to date on Young House Life (clearly someone’s gotta pick up the slack over there).
570,314 – The number of total comments left by you fine folks. More than DOUBLE our number last year (258,904) meaning there has been more commenting action in the last 12 months than in our first three years.
38,754 – The number of comment responses we’ve posted, which is more than TRIPLE last year’s total (13,039).
9 – Number of months we’ve lived in our new house
21.5 – Clara’s weight (wonder how long she’ll let us keep sharing that?). Up from 14lbs last year. She’s tall and skinny like… well, a bean (a string bean to be exact).
8.5 – My main man Burger’s weight. Up from a whopping 8lbs last year.
210,460- Most blog hits we’ve received in a single day according to WordPress.com stats – the day our Washington Post feature came out (last year’s top day: 97,024). But yesterday we were just 7K away from topping the Wash Post day!
4,048,011 – Total number of blog hits we received last month (insanity – last year’s stat: 2,144,976).
68,164,565 – Total blog hits to date (nearly double last year’s number: 36,698,957)
4 – Number of times we’ve driven by our old house to check in on it (including once after Hurricane Irene – it was fine!)
1 – Number of times we accidentally turned down our old street when we meant to go to our new house (we’re proud of ourselves since it’s only a mile away).
150 – Total number of mood boards featured in our Mood Board Gallery.
146– Total number of weekly giveaways that we’ve held since starting them back in November of ’08 (after you guys requested them during our very first blogiversary)
35- Our average number of posts per month
3 – Number of soda-themed shirts I (John) own (I do own non-soda-related shirts, despite the fact that they seem to be the only ones that show up in pictures).
12 – Clara’s current catalog of animal sounds. She can moo like a cow, neigh like a horse, baa like a sheep, maa like a goat, meow like a cat, woof like a dog, hoo like an owl, cheep like a chicken, roar like a lion, quack like a duck, say “ooh-ooh-ahh-ahh” like a monkey, and even imitate a sloth (which according to one of her books says “slowly slowly” – so she slinks around saying that).
2,405- Average number of words written per post (we’re chatty, huh?)
19,204- Average number of words written per week (admittedly, this is kind of insane)
648 – The total number of projects that we link to on our Projects page (and we still have around 50 to add, but haven’t gotten to that part of our to-do list yet. Sorry!)
58: Photos of Clara that we’ve taken for her photo project (52 weekly pictures + 5 monthly + 1 for her birthday card)
230,652 – Number of Pinterest followers (this. is. insane.)
22 – Total number of steps from our bed to our desk (in the last house it was 7, so we no longer risk posting in our sleep anymore).
6:30 – The time tonight that we’ll be participating in a local panel discussion called “Hobby to Business: Making A Living Doing What You Love.” How fitting for blogiversary week, no? More details here (psst- we’re not getting paid for it, just thought it sounded fun).
So there you have it. The stats of the year. Do you guys count things like steps from one room to another or how often you intentionally and unintentionally drive to an old house? Can you picture how cute Clara is when she slinks around the house saying “sloooowly, sloooowly” – seriously it’s amazing. We’ll have to get it on video pronto.
Psst- You can also look back at our past by-the-numbers posts for our last three blogiversaries here: 2010, 2009 and 2008.
Laurel says
Congrats on 4 years!!
Brooke Castelloe says
Do the web hits include everyone that reads the blog on their google reader, etc?
YoungHouseLove says
Nope, they just count how many time our page fully loads over on YHL. Isn’t that crazy?
xo,
s
Emily says
I wonder if there is a way to keep track of google reader hits. I bet the number would almost double. I read most of the blog posts on google reader and then jump over to the website to comment (i try and comment sparingly since people have said what I was going to say 100 times before).
YoungHouseLove says
We do know how many google reader subscribers we have (maybe around 72,000)? So that’s pretty mind-blowing too!
xo,
s
Elisa says
Let’s play a game: number that surprised you the most?! Other then Pinterest the number of projects you guys have documented is CAH RAY ZEE.
YoungHouseLove says
Seriously, the pinterest number is insanity. I mean, John started putting this post together last week and it went up 40K in the time that he wrote it so when he updated it he couldn’t believe it. I guess the other most surprising numbers are monthly hits topping 4 million. That’s a pretty crazy number when we think about how we’re just two people with a dog and a kid sharing our DIY trials and tribulations. Haha.
xo,
s
Laura says
Sherry, you guys know you are listed as “tastemakers” on pintrest, right? Everyone that clicks on that link and goes “what is a taste maker?” gets to see you, RIGHT at the top of the list. Congrats on all of your success!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so crazy?!!! Isn’t that nuts. Don’t tell them I’m not fancy enough for the title. Haha.
xo,
s
Marie says
Yep, I just caved and joined Pinterest last week and after I entered my interests (home and DIY being two), it had me autofollow about 10 people, the first of which was you!
I didn’t get there via a link from here or anything, so it must be happening to everybody.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so funny! We have heard that if you log in using Facebook and you’ve liked us on Facebook it might auto-connect us, so maybe that’s what happened!
xo,
s
jeanette says
Wow..that is a lot of blog hits!
Naomi says
Wow! The growth in the past year is crazy! I’ve been a faithful reader for 3 years and will continue, glad others are hopping on board.
Also one of my 21 month old daughter’s fave animal sounds is a turtle: she shrugs her shoulders and says ‘not much’…
Also go you guys for only auto-piloting it once to your old house :)
YoungHouseLove says
OH MY GOSH, now I’m dying to teach the turtle to Clara. Hilarious!
xo,
s
Monique says
Please DO put the video up. I’m VERY excited to see this! Good luck!
Kaylyn Myers says
I’ve been following you for a few months now, and I’m so excited for your blogiversary week! You inspired me to even make my own blog (still getting it set up) and join Pinterest!
YoungHouseLove says
Hooray Pinterest! And happy blogging!
xo
s
Kaylyn Myers says
thanks! Also saw this picture on FB (they did my sister’s daughter’s newborn pictures) and immediately thought of you! I think your influence is verrrrrrry far reaching :) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488186980196&set=a.342300845196.149579.21863385196&type=1&theater
YoungHouseLove says
No way?! I love it!!!
xo,
s
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
You guys have been pretty busy this past year – that’s a lot of numbers! With a lot of the stats doubling, does it feel like you’re doing a ton more work or is it not too bad since you love what you do?
YoungHouseLove says
I think our nights are different. We used to work until 8 or so on a late night and then relax and completely unplug for the most part. Lately we’ve been working til 1 or so (last night til 1:45) which is kind of getting old. We’ll have to figure something out. Haha. I have some pretty hot bags going on under my eyes today. But we still love blogging! It’s a sickness!
xo,
s
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
If it makes you feel better, sometimes I fall asleep before I sit down on the SI Ferry (on my commute). I don’t go to bed nearly as early as I should. Oops!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I used to see people sleeping on the subway and worry about them to the extent that I’d want to wake them up and make sure they didn’t miss their stop. I’m sure they’d just want to punch me for waking them up though. Haha.
xo,
s
heather says
Of everything, the amount of blog hits slayed me. I got my 18th follower, and someone I didn’t know, and I was like “NO WAY!”. Hahaha. That’s pretty bad ass.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, we remember when a friend of ours had 2,000 hits a day and we said “holy cowwww, if we could get 2K a day we’d be set! We could retire!” That’s a famous quote around here, haha. I can totally relate to having ten people reading! We’re pretty sure we blogged to no one at all for the first 100 posts or so. Haha.
xo,
s
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
Looks like you’ll hit 100 million hits in the next year. You should have a party that day. Too bad you can’t pinpoint the person responsible and give a prize. Maybe you can do that with the millionth comment?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh that’s kind of mind-blowing. That would be really fun!
xo,
s
heather says
Oh my goodness, I can’t even imagine 2K in a day. Haha. It’s all so relative. The 400,000k+ number you guys get I can’t even wrap my head around. That’s what happens for being so darn personable.
Ashli says
Heather, I remember when I got my first (and only) comment from someone I didn’t know. It MADE my night haha. Sherry and John, I found your blog and pintrest over the summer, and I am completely addicted. You guys really make me miss the States and the freedom of decorating my own space. Concrete walls, wallpaper, and furniture owned by your landlord make for a miserable decorating experience!
Ellen says
Congratulations for sharing your successful lives as bloggers! Would you consider hooking us up with your first ever post? I played around and got back to 2007:
https://www.younghouselove.com/2007/
Makes me smile to see you only got two comments on that… how far you’ve come!!
YoungHouseLove says
If you click the little “last” button at the bottom of the page next to all the page numbers it’ll take you to the last page (well, first page I guess). The funny thing is that we just learned the picture in the first post is broken all of a sudden. Have to go fix it. It was originally a pic of the den.
xo
s
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
Our new house is only half a mile from our old place (a left turn a little further up the road, versus a right turn not so far up the road), so the temptation was really strong in the beginning, but I don’t think I ever actually made the wrong turn. I used to drive by the old house on my way to work, though, so I still got my fill…but my husband felt the urge to drive by from time to time to check things out (until the third or fourth time, when he realized that it really just looked the same). Interestingly, the “new” owners still send us e-mail every few months to pick up mail they’ve received for us (two years later!).
Too bad bunnies don’t make a sound. If you taught Clara to do the nose wiggle, that would be super-cute, too, though. : )
YoungHouseLove says
A book that we read says bunnies say “crunch crunch” when they eat a carrot, but Clara isn’t having it. Haha. She skips that page.
xo,
s
Jamie says
My 18 month old son tries to do the nose wiggle but really just squints his eyes. I love it! That “slowly” thing sounds so cute.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, the nose wiggle is so cute.
xo,
s
ELT says
Our bunnies go “hop hop” –and that, according to our daughter, also applies to all frogs and insects as well. By the way, would be interested to see how many countries you get hits from.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- so funny! Oh yeah, as for countries that’s so interesting! We’ll ask where folks are from in tomorrow afternoon’s survey post, so that’s so much fun to see!
xo,
s
Maureen@ This (Kinda) Old House says
Wow! This is so interesting. Unbelievable numbers! The counting your steps is of particular interest to me, as I am CONSTANTLY doing this. I pretty much have resigned myself to the fact that it’s some sort of OCD.
YoungHouseLove says
The crazy thing is John counted them from his desk (the further one) and I counted them from my desk (the closer one) and we both got the same number since my legs are shorter. Haha.
xo,
s
julie says
no babycenter post today? =(
YoungHouseLove says
It’s actually going up tomorrow since we wrote it to coordinate with a big Q&A thing we’re doing here for our blogiversary!
xo,
s
Merideth says
when asked what a duck says, my niece used to say “tickle tickle tickle”. i don’t know how she came up with it, but it was cute. also, i love the mind picture i have of clara doing the sloth. video!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- hilarious. I love it.
xo,
s
Karla says
Wow those numbers are amazing!! Thanks for sharing!
Danica Allen says
I so enjoyed reading this post! You two are so humble and I think that is what makes your blog fun to read and makes the two of you so likeable. Thanks for all the great advice that I’ve looked to for help so many times!
Karla says
Oh and funny story, when you ask my niece what mommy says she says “SHAWN!!” Which is hilarious. Apparently daddy gets in trouble at home :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha. Once I said “what does a cow say?” and Clara said “moo moo” and then I said “what does mommy say?” and she said “no, no!” – hahah. Better than moo I guess!
xo,
s
Bridgette says
Wooohoo. You guys are popular!!! Love it. You work hard and the numbers show it. Be proud of yourselves. Also try to get back to relaxing around 8pm…you deserve it.
P.S Funny note, I like that a reader is proud of her 18 followers, because I have 18 now and am equally proud of it too. Especially that I do not post often enough. So yeah..boring but I found it interesting that we had the same numbers and commented on this…annnyways.=)
YoungHouseLove says
18 IS awesome!! I think we were at 0 for a while. Haha. Too funny that you’re both on the same number. Love it.
xo,
s
heather says
*high-five Bridgette*.
Laura V says
This is crazy! Do you get paid at all from ads when people use an RSS feed or only when they actually load your whole page?
YoungHouseLove says
We have an ad that loads at the bottom of RSS feeds thanks to google so we get a little kickback there! It’s not the same as when folks visit our blog directly but we totally understand how handy Reader is. It’s actually how we read all the blogs that we do!
xo,
s
JoAnna says
Congrats on 4 years and the CRAZY growth! LOVE the new header too.
Ya’ll are great.
Gina @ Running to the Kitchen says
The visual of Clara doing “slowly-slowly-slowly” around the house is just too much! You guys should really record that :)
Those are some crazy stats! Congrats on the growth.
Andrea says
My little statistician heart is fluttering with all these numbers! You don’t need me to tell you that you are growing at an insane rate though! Well done!
Cassie says
Oh how funny it would be to see Clara the Sloth impersonator on Young House Life! :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man I’d love to get that for you guys!
xo,
s
Jessica @ Quirky Bookworm says
That’s nuts! When I first started following you on Pinterest you were at 6k!
I thought it seemed like the comments had gone up a lot in the last year, congrats! Way to keep them rolling in. And, I love the nerdy numerical posts. So fun.
One of my favorite animal sounds: mouse. My 16 month old Eleanor says “squee squee!” (One of her books says that mice squeak.) I love the sloth one though, might have to try to get her to do that. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh squee is cute! Love it.
xo,
s
Vanessa says
Wow- crazy numbers. You deserve all the success and I have feeling you will gain more readers once your book is out!!! Loving all the extra info this week by the way! :)
Laura says
Holy smokes! It looks like having John full time really paid off! :)
Also, you’ve mentioned what a giant baby Clara is for awhile, and I’ve always wondered how big she actually was. My daughter is also 21 lbs, and she’s 31″. Did I mention she’s 6 months old? Crazy growing machine.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that’s really amazing! What a big girl!!!
xo,
s
Snickrsnack Katie says
I haven’t been around much because I don’t have an office job anymore that I can sit and read your posts all day, but I still love you guts! What is funny is today I took the baby I nanny for to the Little Gym and I swear there was a woman there who could be Sherry’s twin and her baby loojed like Clara! You have doppelgangers in Houston! :)
Snickrsnack Katie says
Meant love you guys! lol
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- no worries. I love your guts too Katie.
xo,
s
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo,
s
Roeshel says
Congratulations on 4 years! Looking forward to reading for many more!
Jamie says
Wow, your numbers are mindblowing! It is still fascinating to me how someone’s seemingly ordinary(-ish!) lives are so fascinating to all of us blog devotees!
I am still slightly new to pinterest, how do I find you guys (dumb question?)?! Congratulations!
YoungHouseLove says
I’m still kind of a pinterest dummy but I think going to pinterest.com/younghouselove is a way to find me?
xo,
s
Hanna says
Also, If you click on the INSPIRATION link and picture on the sidebar it takes you right to the younghouselove pinterest site. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, that’s the one!
xo,
s
Sara says
I have been reading your blog for over two years now and just wanted to say congrats on all your success! Keep up the good work!
Sara says
Those numbers are insane! And by gosh that is a lot of comment responses! Good for you guys. That in itself is a lot of work.
Michelle says
WOW…holy guacamole!! you forgot 32,604 Facebook Likes and 14,802 Twitter followers! Wow guys!
My kids like for me to time them when they clean their rooms. They always try to beat their record. They usually get their room cleaned in 10 minutes or less. That’s pretty good considering sometimes you can’t even see the floor because of all the toys, haha.
YoungHouseLove says
The funny thing about those is that we’ve have those places to “connect” for years and suddenly Pinterest came along and went crazy! Isn’t that funny?
As for your room-cleaning timer method: genius!!!
xo,
s
Annabelvita says
Crazy insane stats. My niece just learnt how to roar like a lion and it’s the cutest thing ever.
My brother-in-law (ish) has a t shirt that says “I’ve got mad spreadsheet skills yo” on it. John should totally add that to his collection!
We don’t do that many stats for our life but we love top ten lists. Mainly in his and hers postcards home from holidays these days http://annabelvita.com/top-ten-postcards-how-we-remember-the-best-of
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh, John neeeeeeds that shirt. And I love your best-of posts!
xo,
s
Nicole says
Can you define hits? Are those unique hits? Or if I visit your page 3 times in a day, does each time get counted?
YoungHouseLove says
They’re page loads, so if someone comes twice a day it counts the page loading twice (although it doesn’t count our hits since it knows our IP address and we don’t want to skew the count – and it also doesn’t count anyone reading through a site like Google Reader).
xo,
s
Ashley says
Plllllleeeasse take a video of Clara as a sloth! That sounds awesome.
Your stats are simply mind-blowing. You guys have such cool jobs!
Hanna says
Awesome numbers. I know it can’t possibly be measurable, but I wish we could give YOU the number of projects you have inspired in houses all over the world. :)
I only started reading a few months ago and I already have 7 YHL-inspired projects in my home (curtains, paint, spray-paint, and framing lumber are just a few materials used).
Oh yes, and 1 YHL-inspired pinterest account. :) Don’t have a chiuaua yet, but am seriously considering it after some Burger vid-watching. And I thought I was strictly a labrador kind of girl.
BTW, I love the little icons they made at the panel website. A skull, a house, and a bike helmet (although first I thought it was a ninja lol).
YoungHouseLove says
Isn’t that cute?! I love those icons. As for finding out how many projects we’ve inspired, that is an amazing and inspiring thought for us. Hearing that anyone out there is doing something because they feel encouraged after seeing our blog is incredibly humbling. Corny, but true.
xo,
s
RachelW says
I love you guys! And I’m amazed & impressed that you even had time to compile this “by the numbers” list after reading your “day in the life” post earlier in the week.
Kudos to you both & many more!
KLL says
I had the same job for about 8 years. When I suddenly switched jobs, I drove to my old office on the first day and was late to work. It took a surprisingly long time going the wrong way for me to realize I was driving to a job that was no longer mine. It’s scary to think how much we autopilot our driving. It’s like I go into a mind-coma or something. yikes!
YoungHouseLove says
Isn’t that so weird?! John intentionally takes us a completely different way so we don’t pass our old house and turn off by accident out of habit! Still to this day (nine months later) we go that alternate route!
xo,
s
Wilhelmina says
You guys are truly an inspiration! I stumbled upon your blog when I was searching how to DIY an ottoman earlier this year, and I became instantly hooked.
You truly make all of us out here in the interwebs feel like a part of the family—which clearly is reflected in your astonishing blog stats!!
Congrats on four years!! (and I can’t wait until your book comes out next year!)
Julia @ Chris loves Julia says
These numbers are totally astounding. I remember reading last year’s (that feels like it was last month!) and being totally awed. Awesome, you are.
Katrina says
Are those 22 John-sized steps or 22 Sherry-sized steps?
Congrats on 4 years – your numbers are crazy!
YoungHouseLove says
The funny thing is we both counted and got the same amount of steps since my chair is on the close side of the room (but my legs are shorter). We thought it was hilarious!
xo,
s
Kara says
Haha, i know that one! Sloooowwwwly, sloooowwwwly, sloooowwwwly goes the sloth. QUICKLYQUICKLYQUICKLY goes the jaguar! My son pronounced it “clickwee” for quite a while, so cute.
YoungHouseLove says
So cute!
xo,
s
Elizabeth says
Wow, I am in awe of your numbers, and hard work. I was laughing to myself when I read the two comments about getting 20 followers, I just reached that milestone myself, and I was so excited!
Again, love that you keep it real.
Congratulations, and here it to another successful 5 years.
tara says
Congrats to my favorite bloggers on your 4th blogiversary!! I’ve been a faithful reader for the past two years and your blog is included in my morning ritual of eating breakfast while checking email/news/facebook/yhl :) Awesome to see those numbers doubling! Can’t wait to read/see everything coming up!
Maybe a video montage of Clara doing all her animal sounds can be the 17th post on Young House Life:) Just a thought!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, we’ll have to figure out a way to get it on camera (lately when the camera comes out she gets immediately silent). We need to hide it in our shirts or something. Haha.
xo,
s
toni from says
Congrats on the blogiversary. Here’s to another four years of great posts! Love you guys!
Elizabeth says
Congratulations on a seriously impressive 4 years! Side note: when my sister was born, I told my parents she looked like a sloth. She has never forgiven me for this, but I meant it as a three-year-old’s compliment. Baby sloths are terribly cute.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, totally agree! Sloths are very cute. Especially the babies.
xo,
s
Carolyn says
Just found you all in the last month and have LOVED reading back into the archives! Happy Blogiversary!
Anne says
Congratulations!
I have to say of all of my favorite blogs, YHL is my favoritist! I love how down to earth and real you are and how you take time to respond to reader comments :) Its inspired me to take the time to respond to my reader comments as well even though I don’t blog as nearly as often.
And the Pinterest followers is amazing! But I’m not surprised, when I was looking for people to follow, YHL came up as one of the top curators. I wonder if you are one of the ones with the top number of followers!
Lindsay says
Wow, what an impressive 4 years, you guys! You should feel so proud. You should add two questions to your next survey: 1)”have we inspired you to start a blog? 2) have we inspired you to DIY around your own house? It may be a bit of a self-gratified comment, but when you do your numbers breakdown next year, it could be really cool to see how your little ole’ blog has such and impact on people! You can start with 1 because, you’ve inspired me to do both, so thank you! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man, that would be fun. Might feel like we’re fishing for a compliment, haha. But it’s so fun to hear what you guys are up to!
xo,
s
Jennifer Darling says
Sherry,
Regarding the question someone had about finding you on Pinterest…. Laura and Kevin at The Lettered Cottage have a link button that takes you right to their Pinterest page. Maybe you can set one up one too. (As if you didn’t have enough to do already! haha)
Congrats on 4 years and here’s to many more.
I would LOVE to see Clara doing the sloth. That little girl of yours makes me smile. She is just too cute!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah! Duh. We have a button on our sidebar too! I should just direct people there. Haha. It’s the one with the grid that says pinterest. Totally forgot about that!
xo,
s