This website has been actively in use for 1 month now which means it is time for a brief review. I cannot believe that it has only been a couple of months since I first started to develop this site. It feels much longer right now. An important thing I learned is that writing takes more time than expected which probably explains why the frequency of posts has slowed down a little. A big factor is that I am back at work as well and have less time during the day to blog. It is suddenly all very busy with everything else that Kerstin and I are trying to do. Anyway, we will try to keep posting frequently.
One reason why we will try to do that is that this site seems to be working and hopefully will help in a small way to shed more light on the topic over the years to come. We have received much feedback from many people who have told us how much they appreciate to read the posts. This includes people we meet regularly here in Vancouver who find it helpful to know how we feel and find it easier to speak to us about the topics we have blogged about as well as other bereaved parents who can relate to our experiences. Moreover, we have received emails from people we have not seen or spoken to in years. It is very moving to know that so many people from around the world are thinking of us. They found the site through our social media accounts and have very often written us heartfelt and sympathetic emails. The blog has opened up opportunities for people to share their thoughts with us which is therapeutic for Kerstin and I as well. On top of that this project already reaches more than our immediate family, friends or local community which is equally inspiring. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read our blog, writes comments and sends emails to us as a result of it.
Everyone who knows me will anticipate that I cannot get around a little bit of data. Within the first month this blog had 511 unique visitors. They visited the blog a total of 908 times, looked at approx. 4 pages per visit and stayed more than 5 minutes on average. Given that we have lived in several countries and have friends all over the world, it might not be surprising that we had visitors from Canada, Germany, Australia, US, UK, New Zealand, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Austria, Spain and Denmark. I did not expect Indonesia, Mexico, Uganda, Japan, Panama, Singapore, Taiwan or South Africa though. But I guess the internet does not know any boundaries and word spreads quickly.
The most read blog posts so far are:
I will conclude with a funny anecdote. Do you remember the post about annoying TV commercials? Our number one ranked annoying commercial was the Chevrolet spot with a boy named Lucas. It turns out we are not the only ones who are annoyed by it. Several people found our website with search phrases such as “annoying children in TV ads”, “annoying lucas chevrolet commercial” or “chevrolet lucas annoyed”.
Kerstin and I love to read your feedback. Please keep commenting and sharing the site so that we can reach more people.
