Wednesday, September 21, 2011

One Year!


So, today marks the one year anniversary of Bonjour Tristesse.  Wow, first of all I'd like to give a big thank you to all my fellow blogging friends, readers, followers, commenters, and even the lurkers.  It's amazing how encouraging and supportive the blogging community can be.  With your help, this blog has evolved significantly since last September (for evidence see my pitiful first post), and has provided me with a fascinating learning experience along the way.

In the beginning I didn't know what I was doing or what to expect, this started partially as a research project, at the time I was trying out various blogging platforms and content management systems in order to recommend one to a client.  To test things out, I decided to create a diary of recently seen films and a list of my favorites.  Something that I could also use as a handy link to pass to friends who always ask me for new film recommendations or what I've been watching lately. 


Gradually it has grown from a little experiment getting less than 500 page views in the entire first month (most of those my own) to a healthy blog with a decent sized audience currently averaging between 500-600 views a day and growing.  Certainly numbers far greater than I ever expected but I am happy to see, even if many of them are from random people interested only in the pretty posters and screenshots. 

Over the course of the year, blogging has turned into a full fledged hobby for me, not just writing daily posts and reviews, but also designing and implementing new features (which I started a second blog Stupid Blog Tricks to document), reading and commenting on the ever growing list of blogs I follow (228 according to Google Reader), and providing assistance to newbies over in the Blogger Help Forums

To commemorate this 1st Blogoversary, I've decided to take a new step and replace the blogspot address with a 'fancy and professional', and easier to remember domain name.  You may or may not have already noticed it in your browser's address bar, but henceforth this blog's address is officially changed to:


It's still a Blogger blog so going to the old address should automatically redirect you to the new one, but that might not work forever, so please update all your bookmarks and links to the new address.  Hopefully the transition goes smoothly and I don't lose too many visitors in the process.  Even though it was all planned out well in advance, sometimes you never know what can go wrong with these things. 

Finally, a special thank you goes to the top 20 blogs that sent the most referral traffic over the past year, listed below with total visitors sent in parentheses:
  1. The Large Association of Movie Blogs (209)
  2. The Angry Lurker (150)
  3. FrontRoomCinema (77)
  4. Genkinahito's Blog (58)
  5. www.jackiesekar.com (36)
  6. danzon2008.blogspot.com (30)
  7. blah blah blah gay - a movie review blog (28)
  8. Andy Buckle's Film Emporium (24)
  9. Jack L. film reviews (24)
  10. lyhiyhendused.wordpress.com (22)
  11. Le Mot du Cinephiliaque (21)
  12. A Hero Never Dies (18)
  13. Anomalous Material (18)
  14. Southern Vision (18)
  15. Never Too Early Movie Predictions (17)
  16. Beasts In Human Skin (16)
  17. The Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense (14)
  18. Mr. & Mrs. Wheatley (14)
  19. Cinematic Paradox (12)
  20. Rorschach Redemption (11)
Thank you all, and here's to another fun and successful year of blogging!!!


47 comments:

John LaRue said...

Congrats! I've only recently become a subscriber but I look forward to year 2!

Jason said...

Congratulations on reaching one year. You are a lady with impeccable taste in films and I look forward to more reviews covering the films people should watch but never get around to it. I'd be interested to know what you made of Three Crowns of the Sailor as well!

Stevee said...

Congrats! I'm telepathically sending you a birthday cake so you can celebrate!! Here's to another few years :D

CastorTroy said...

Happy blog anniversary! Congratulations on reaching one year :D

Dylan said...

Many congrats on this special day for you and your site!  :)

Hasidic Plubmer said...

Congratulations man! You have a great blog going and that has to be a big milestone. I've been here for less than a month, so i guess i'm still a noob.

Also, congrats on the new domain too!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Steven!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Loli - Ningen!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Chris,

Lol, it probably doesn't exist in any dictionary.  But there are over 3,360,000 Google results for it.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks shutterbug.  I did consider a contest or giveaway but was a bit too lazy to set it up.  Perhaps I will do it for a future milestone maybe for my 500th post.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Rorshach, I'm very honored to be your only source for movies. 
I remember following your blog probably a couple months after I started, and I'm glad I found it, as it has been a great source of entertainment and insanity.

Steven Flores said...

Congrats man!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Mark.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Much appreciated!  By the way, your blog design is one of my favorites.

Loli - Ningen said...

congratulations on your anniversary!

moviesandsongs365 said...

I didn't even know there was such a word as blogoversary, ha ha. Congrats anyway, and keep it up! You have a great site, so many interesting films

shutterbug said...

Congrats on your 1st anniversary! You totally deserve all the success that will come your  way!  I'm looking forward to your future blog posts! :D

p.s you could also celebrate your 1yr by hosting a giveaway! You could pick your favourite movies of the year and give them to your top bloggers or something. just a suggestion...

Hermann Rorschach said...

*applause*


I don't like to have too many media-related blogs.  "One of each," is my usual policy, and I don't even think I have any other movie blogs saved.  I can't say I was here from the beginning, but looking at your first post was a bit of a mindf*ck.You have steered me towards (and away from) movies that are well on the outside of my narrow "movie upbringing," so it is appreciated.  I'm glad to see I was a small vessel for movie buffs to find you.

Cheers.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah there isn't really a difference anymore.  Originally .com was meant for businesses and .net for networks and ISPs, but that is no longer the case.

Also thank you for being a loyal reader!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you D4, I very much appreciate your daily visits.

Mark Greenwood said...

Congrats on the year of blogging (I've moved the original contents of this comment to your other blog where it makes more sense).

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Dr Blood. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Well nothing else changed so its easy to overlook.

About the ads, they are useful, but at this point far from lucrative. 

Maria Sofia da Costa Teixeira said...

Congratulation! You run such a great blog - it deserves every praise and many more years of blogging! 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Cheers Custard.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Well happy blogoversary to you too!

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

Congratulations on the Blogoversary! Incidentally, I randomly thought about getting a domain name yesterday and I thought a .net sounded cooler than a .com. I don't know much about the diffrence though.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Many thanks Martin!

d_4 said...

Congratulations! Nice to see the domain name, too. I actually recommend this blog to people every once in a while and always forgot the blogspot address. This will be kept in mind now! :D

Dr Blood said...

Well done. Time flies by when you're having fun, doesn't it. ;)

Martin Naylor said...

Congratulations on your first year BT, looking forward to many more!

FrontRoomCinema said...

WOW 1 Year matey. I am so happy for you. a Massive milestone.

I am glad you are enjoying yourself and I look forward to another year of reading your brilliant reviews.

Nice to see FRC is referring enough people over to you as well!!

Take care my friend

Will said...

Happy anniversary. Congratulations on the domain name change. My blogoversary happens tomorrow.

blahblahblahtoby said...

congrats BT. who knew i sent so much traffic your way. cool. it's interesting how much traffic we both got from the down terrace reviews that ben wheatley posted on his blog too.

shows how observant ive been recently, i didnt notice your domain change at all.

do you mind if i ask about your advertising? does it pay well? are we generating a nice revenue for you?

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Wow thanks for the compliments, I really appreciate it!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Michael, for the traffic and your comments here!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you very much! 

Michael Parent said...

Congrats! May your blog perpetuate within the years to come! I'm glad to see that I'm in the 11th place of referral traffic source!!!!

Max Covill said...

Happy Anniversary! I've just started coming here regularly, but I love your selection of movies. I hope I can manage the same growth you obtained in your first year, but you had a marvelous beginning. Congrats. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Limette! 

It's pretty easy actually, just purchase a domain name, set up the appropriate DNS records.  Wait 3 days, and then go into your dashboard and publish to the new domain.  If you are planning on doing this and need any help just let me know.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you John, nice of you to stop by.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Jason.  I have not seen that yet.  But I will add it to my list.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Mmm tasty.  Thank you Stevee!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you CT,  I appreciate you stopping by.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Many thanks Dylan! :)

NeverTooEarlyMP said...

Congratulations! I had no idea that your blog was so new. You've got so much great content and such a great look to your page that I had assumed that you'd been doing this for aeons. Here's to many more years!

Mette said...

I'm also rather new here, but congratulations to you! By the way, how did you change your domain name?

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