2023 Restrospective
31 Dec 2023 » Opinion
Here we are again, at the end of another year. I remember a conversation with my grandmother many years ago, where she told me that, for her, the days just flew. As I grow old, I am beginning to feel the same. Just looking at this blog, I started it almost 9 years ago, with my first post in February 2015. A lot has happened since then, but today I will only cover the events of 2023.
Life
In February 2022 I relocated from the UK to the USA. This means that 2023 has been my first full year in the USA. I am very happy living in New York, I almost feel local, although I am sure there is still a long way to go before I really am local. In any case, I can confidently say that I am very comfortable where I am now. The Adobe community has also helped, as I enjoy going to the office and meeting people there.
Just when 2022 was finishing, I was assigned to a client and it has been my only client throughout 2023. The project has been very complex, and I had to exercise every consulting muscle I had. It has had its ups and downs, as there is a lot to do, with many stakeholders, changes in the requirements, new tools added… That being said, I think I have done a good job and the project is moving forward in the right direction. The team I have been working with has been exceptional, which has also made it easier to manage.
The last update of this year is that it has been my first year as a part-time manager. Besides the project above, I have 5 direct reports. A friend of mine, who has been a manager for longer than me, told me about his experience in the role. While he complained about the difference in performance within his team, my team has been great, with no exceptions. They have made my life easy.
Blog
Let’s now review how this blog has been performing for the past 12 months:
| Metric | 2023 | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Page Views | 51,854 | +0.8% |
| Visits | 36,517 | +1.9% |
| Visitors | 23,602 | -7.0% |
I guess the previous numbers just show that my blog has reached a stationary state. The number of visitors has fallen significantly, but visits and page views have actually risen. I am not sure about the reason for these contradictory changes, but one thing is for certain: my visitors are coming back more often and reading more posts. I’ll take it!
There are no surprises regarding the location of my visitors, very similar to last year:
The top 5 countries are:
- United States: 33.8%
- India: 21.3%
- United Kingdom: 6.0%
- Australia: 4.8%
- Canada: 4.3%
This list of countries makes sense, as my blog is in English. However, positions 6 and below are for non-English speaking countries like Germany, Spain, and The Netherlands.
Finally, these have been the most popular posts in 2023:
| Pos | Post | Position 2022 | % Page Views | Time Spent Per Visitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Adobe Journey Optimizer vs Adobe Campaign Classic vs Marketo | N/A | 3.0% | 401 |
| 2. | RTCDP vs AAM | N/A | 2.7% | 282 |
| 3. | Understanding AEP Identities | 11 | 2.1% | 366 |
| 4. | Tutorial AEM-Launch Integration | 9 | 2.0% | 477 |
| 5. | Segments vs Audiences | 39 | 1.9% | 575 |
| 6. | Segmentation in AEP | 30 | 1.9% | 273 |
| 7. | Segment Evaluation Methods in AEP | N/A | 1.9% | 334 |
| 8. | The demdex cookie | 3 | 1.8% | 323 |
| 9. | How to debug an Adobe Analytics implementation | 2 | 1.8% | 221 |
| 10. | The Event-Driven Data Layer | 17 | 1.7% | 307 |
| 11. | Metrics and dimensions in Adobe Analytics | 5 | 1.7% | 351 |
| 12. | The XDM Schema | 22 | 1.5% | 351 |
| 13. | Server-side Implementation | N/A | 1.5% | 272 |
| 14. | Server-side Adobe Analytics | 6 | 1.4% | 293 |
| 15. | Introduction to the Adobe Admin Console | 1 | 1.3% | 98 |
The biggest surprises are the top two posts. There is a clear demand for posts comparing similar tools side by side. I am particularly impressed by the post Adobe Journey Optimizer vs Adobe Campaign Classic vs Marketo, which has climbed to the top in just 3 months. Topics around segmentation are also popular.
At the other end of the table, the Introduction to the Adobe Admin Console is falling out of favor, which I think is a good thing. I can also see that server-side posts are less in demand, although still in the top 15. My take is that there was a lot of hype about server-side a few years ago, but it has slowly waned.
The special mention goes to How to debug an Adobe Analytics implementation. It has been in the top 15 since I wrote it in 2016. It seems it still is very useful for a lot of people, even when I have stopped writing about Adobe Analytics.
What does 2024 look like?
That is a very good question. I believe that there will not be any major changes to what I have been doing in 2024. My plan is to continue to write a post every two weeks, although I know that some weeks will be impossible for me and I will be delayed by a week. Also, given the previous rank of posts, there is an appetite for comparisons, so I will do a few more of them.
Happy 2024!