Hello the Last Day of 2024, Let's See What We Achieved This Past Year!

The Issue

Hello! Another year is about to pass, just a year ago today, I was still struggling to outline plans and goals, and in the blink of an eye today, I am sitting here sharing with you what I have accomplished.

But first, I will reveal to you some statistical figures of mine.

Statistical Figures

In 2024, I wrote an additional 56 new articles, totaling over 100,000 words. Amazing! Even I couldn't imagine writing that much. I welcomed 89 new members. Especially after launching the anonymous commenting feature, I received an additional 95 new comments across all articles. Additionally, I committed to maintaining one article per day in the Threads section for over 5 months. So far, the number of short articles has reached 159 and will continue to grow in the future.

A bit disappointing is that the email newsletter subscription feature "flopped," only recording 4 subscribers. On the other hand, the number of people subscribing to new article notifications in the browser is 142. Among them, about 60 are actively engaged (frequently receiving notifications for new articles).

So what about the readers' activity?

There have been over 77,000 reads across all articles, along with over 40,000 new users. The number of active users is over 44,000. This means 4,000 readers are returning to the blog more regularly.

Can you guess which article was read the most? It is Using GPT-4 for Free with Github Copilot with over 9.5k reads. Next is the blog's "signature" article How to Delete a Commit After Push?. The most visited page is the Homepage with over 12k visits. Impressively, the Threads page, despite being new, still made it to the "top" 9 most visited pages.

Compared to 2023, how did these figures grow or decline?

Fortunately, most metrics have increased. According to statistics from Google Analytics, the number of active users has increased by nearly 73% compared to last year, with new users increasing by 60%. The only slight disappointment is that the average reading time for articles has decreased by 30%. I wonder if it's because I wrote poorly so no one wants to read anymore, or if people are gradually losing patience with lengthy articles 😅.

When it comes to traffic sources, users discovering the blog through Google still ranks first, increasing by over 50%. One thing that surprised me is that the number of direct visits has increased by nearly 190%. Wow! This means they are proactively visiting without going through Google anymore.

Additionally, the blog has begun to show up in search engine results based on artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and even Bing...

What have I learned?

2024 was also the time I became interested in the concept of Serverless. I learned and worked more with this new architecture. Serverless helps me minimize costs while alleviating worries about system operations.

I became interested in Rust and learned it. During the learning process, I took notes and created a series of articles about my self-learning journey. I'm glad it has gained a lot of attention. Although I still haven't mastered it, to be honest, it's very powerful. I hope to apply Rust soon in the near future.

With the help of a brother, I learned a lot about large language models, RAG, and Generative AI. Applying artificial intelligence in many features of the product while enhancing my work productivity. Notably, the blog is integrated with many features like smart search or related article suggestions to enhance user experience.

Finally, I "Tear Down and Rebuild" my blog, replacing it with a newer technology stack. I documented this process in an article. So far, everything is working perfectly.

Reflecting on the Goals of 2024:

In 2024, I will maintain all activities just like last year. Still, I will continue to learn, write, and inspire, enjoying the pleasures of coffee & books.

How wonderful, that same spirit and momentum have not diminished at all. I have learned many new things, many new technologies, and especially released an open-source personal note-taking application within 3 months. It is called OpenNotas. Simple, secure, focused on writing. Many articles you read came from here 😄.

I have read many new books. Among them, I must mention works of both Vietnamese and foreign literature. Very good! One cannot deny how important reading is to one's writing skills.

Not stopping there, I hope that in 2024 I will elevate my personal brand, making more people know about me, even more!

I have actively participated on social media, especially Facebook and recently Threads. I have been reading more articles, interacting with more people, and proactively making friends and exchanging with many whom I didn't know before. Wow, I wonder if that has been enough to make people know about me more? Surely a little bit 😅.

Another memorable milestone was posting on Dev.to and receiving a lot of attention from everyone. I have over 6,000 followers. Thank you all for your attention.

Goals for 2025

In the new year, I will definitely maintain old habits. At the same time, this is also a time of challenge to break through, reaping more results from what has been laid down for a long time. Thank you and wish everyone achieves all their goals in the new year 2025.