2015 Year in Review for Exchange Server Pro

Usually at this time of year I write one last blog post to wrap things up before I take a few weeks off to enjoy a summer holiday down here in Australia.

This year, for something a little different, I thought I would also share some numbers with you at the same time.

But first, it’s fair to say that starting this blog nearly 10 years ago was one of the better decisions I’ve made in my life. Writing content here on Exchange Server Pro has opened up many doors for me over the years, from interesting job opportunities, to being awarded as a Microsoft MVP (four years running now), to speaking at conferences here and overseas, and several more that are still under wraps at the moment.

In addition, it has allowed me to do something that I genuinely love doing – writing, creating, and being deeply involved in the global community of IT professionals. The community as a whole is so incredibly generous with sharing of knowledge and tools, and I’m pleased to be able to play a part in that.

Most recently it has allowed me to work independently as a self-employed consultant, writer, and trainer. I have my family ties here in Brisbane, and no plans to move anywhere that might have better career opportunities, so I’m grateful that for the foreseeable future I can work like this and enjoy a balanced work/family life.

I also want to add my sincere thanks to everyone who has supported Exchange Server Pro over the years by buying an eBook, providing sponsorship, engaging me for consulting or technical writing work, or simply by spreading the word to others. I hope that I can continue to provide you with content that you find useful.

Now, onto the numbers! I’m often asked how much time I spend working on this site. I don’t track it that way, so all I can say is “a lot”, but here’s a few stats that might give you an idea of what it’s like running Exchange Server Pro.

• In 2015 I published 139 blog posts. That is up from 116 in 2014, and 110 in 2013.
• I also write occasionally for other sites, but I’ve not tracked those properly this year.
• There were 3349 comments in 2015. That doesn’t include comments that were not approved or that were spam. I don’t know how much spam was blocked, but my dashboard claims 1.2mil spam comments have been blocked in total, so that’s an average of 120,000 per year I guess.
• 992 of the comments were written by me.
• My contact form was used 2132 times in 2015. That’s a mix of questions, customer service, consulting requests, and a few spammy submissions.

I am genuinely sorry that I can’t always reply to comments or contact form submissions. As you can see, I get quite a lot of them.

What about traffic? Well, in 2015 (according to Google Analytics):

• 2,263,797 individuals visited the site
• There were 4,646,669 sessions
• A total of 6,810,677 page views were generated

In October I also launched a podcast, which has had 12,929 downloads so far.

The most popular content? Here’s the top 10 most-visited posts for the year (not all of these were written in 2015):

1. How to Export Mailboxes with Exchange Server 2010 SP1
2. How to Configure a Relay Connector in Exchange Server 2013
3. Exchange 2010 FAQ: How Do I Install the Exchange 2010 Management Tools?
4. Exchange Server 2010 to 2013 Migration Guide
5. How to Configure a Relay Connector for Exchange Server 2010
6. Exchange Server 2010 Room Mailboxes Step by Step Guide
7. How to Install Exchange Server 2013
8. Installing Exchange Server 2013 Pre-Requisites on Windows Server 2012/R2
9. How to Send SMTP Email Using PowerShell (Part 1)
10. How to Configure Exchange Server 2010 Outlook Anywhere

Not what you were expecting to see? Well, according to the results I’ve seen from the latest survey so far, nearly 65% of you are still running Exchange Server 2010 in your environment (or your customers’ environments). So it’s not surprising to see some of the older posts about Exchange 2010 still getting a lot of visitors.

So it’s been a busy, fun, and very challenging year. As I said earlier, I’ll be taking my usual summer break with my family now for a few weeks, returning in January to kick off what will hopefully be another exciting year.

Have a safe and happy new year, and I’ll see you in 2016.