My Activity Report For 2016

It has been a long year being an advocate of technology and I thought it would be a good idea to share everything that has happened to The Polyglot Developer and all of its networks.

Last year, in 2015, I started a tradition of sharing my WordPress, YouTube, and course statistics. We are approaching the end of the year and it is that time again.

Below you’ll find statistics that may help you if you’re planning on creating a blog or developing a course. It will give you an idea of costs and what to expect.

My Written WordPress Blog

The 2016 year was a busy year for the blog. There have been a total of 139 new posts on this blog alone, not counting all the guest posts I’ve written on other peoples blogs. That is an average of 11 fresh posts per month on relevant developer content.

What do the stats behind the blog look like in the 2016 year? There was an issue with my analytics for a few months this year, but of the months that were tracked, the blog has seen 2,048,182 views and 3,723 comments. That is almost double what I saw in 2015 based on my previous activity report.

Below is a screenshot of my statistics take from JetPack for WordPress:

When it comes to blog hosting, I am still using a Digital Ocean VPS and the server specs have not changed since last year. The virtual private server (VPS) specs for my blog include 2GB of memory, 2 CPU cores, and 3TB of bandwidth transfer. At the time of writing this, I’m paying $20.00 per month, plus 20% for backups at Digital Ocean.

Something new happened this year on the blog. I created a members only section with premium tutorials that are are subscription based. As of right now I have 19 members on reoccurring subscriptions. This is great for the blog because it allows me to create better content for dedicated members.

My YouTube Channel for Video Blogs

Just like with the WordPress blog, the YouTube channel has been experiencing a lot of videos and traffic as well. I find the videos to be a huge success.

My channel received 523,239 views in 2016 and 1,985 likes. This is a huge increase in comparison to what it was receiving last year. On an even better note, the channel only received 63 dislikes for the year.

To date there have been 142 videos published with 38 videos published this year. While it is not as large as a number as the previous year, they have been of high quality and very engaging to users.

Here is a screenshot of my YouTube statistics for the 2016 year:

Based on popular request, I’ve upgraded my recording equipment. I am now recording all my videos with a Blue Yeti microphone and ScreenFlow for Mac. In my newer videos you should notice a significant increase in recording quality in comparison to my early work.

Courses I Published

This year I published 2 courses bringing my total course count to 4 courses. All of these courses can be found on Udemy and are directly accessibly via the courses section of this blog.

Of the two courses, one was a total bomb and one exceeded my expectations. My earlier course, Native Android 101, underperformed with a total enrollment of 8 students. I have no proof of this, but I don’t think my following was too interested in Java development. My second course of the year, NativeScript for the Angular Developer, did amazing with enrollment of 357 students making it my most popular of the four courses.

For perspective, my course, Ionic Framework 101, has 222 enrolled students to date and my course, NativeScript 101, has 266 enrolled students to date.

Based on all these metrics, I plan to continue developing courses on mobile, web, and game development.

Conferences and Events I’ve Spoken At

I had a busy year when it came to speaking opportunities. I traveled all around the United States speaking at conferences, user groups, and other similar events. Here is a list of the places I’ve been:

• DevNexus
• O’Reilly Fluent
• Droidcon San Francisco
• Mobile + Web DevCon
• Apps World
• DevNation
• JavaOne

Now, I’ve spoken at plenty of user groups this year, but above are just the conferences. I’m always happy to speak at events, so if you’re looking for speakers, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Conclusion

The 2016 year has been a good one for The Polyglot Developer. A ton of free and paid material has been made available, expanding the brand and teaching many great developers. I appreciate everyone who has left positive feedback on my blog, videos, or courses and everyone who has made it out to my speaking engagements.

This is where I’m asking you to give back. If you are using The Polyglot Developer as a free resource, consider donating via PayPal or purchasing something from my Amazon Wishlist. While I never plan to force donations, if you learned something, it would be nice to help keep this resource alive.

There are affiliate links on this article for Digital Ocean and Amazon. If you plan to purchase anything listed in this article, please use my links so I get some credit.

Nic Raboy

Nic Raboy is an advocate of modern web and mobile development technologies. He has experience in C#, JavaScript, Golang and a variety of frameworks such as Angular, NativeScript, and Unity. Nic writes about his development experiences related to making web and mobile development easier to understand.