The Top 10 LiveHacked.com Highlights of 2012

For today’s post, I thought it would be fun to go through those things that made 2012 great.

Some are cool, a few are awesome, and one isn’t so neat. Between hacks and massive growth, here’s what 2012 looked like from LiveHacked.com’s perspective:

#10. Building A Blog for Readers

My first book, Building A Blog for Readers was extremely fun to write. I got to interview top-notch and well-known bloggers in the industry, as well as authors I’ve looked up to since I’ve started blogging.

Part of the “highlight” of this was figuring out KDP Select (Amazon), exporting and formatting for Kindle, and the myriad little problems and issues that arise there.

#9. Hacks/moving site

2012 was the Year of the Hacks. LiveHacked.com seemed to always be down, and so I finally (like, last week) decided to do a massive server overhaul, patching holes and setting up strict security measures as well. So far (knock on wood!), it’s working great.

I use CloudFlare as a CDN, for those techies out there! Thanks to Teddy Otero for the recommendation!

#8. The Dead-Simple Guides

The Dead-Simple Guides are a series of short “articles” for Kindle about writing great headlines, “pillar content,” and guest posts. They’re available through Amazon, and they were another example of exploring the “new world” of KDP Select.

#7. Becoming a “real” blog

In April I reached growth numbers I’d never dreamed of hitting — and I haven’t slowed down since. Also, I made my first real product sale in May, and it sort of solidified my feelings of LiveHacked.com becoming a “real” blog.

#6. Growth!

Like I just mentioned, LiveHacked.com started growing wildly (compared to years past…) in 2012. We’re now sitting at around 2,800 subscribers, 4,000 Twitter followers, and a few hundred loyal fans, customers, and commenters.

2013 will hopefully not slow down much at all — I have major plans, but that’s for another day!

#5. Site relaunch

As mentioned, we completely relaunched, redesigned, and re-thought-out what LiveHacked.com was this year. You’re looking at it, and we think it’s here to stay.

The feedback we’ve gotten, attention from other bloggers, and general positive results have shown that you enjoy the site and the design — thanks!

#4. Top 10 Self-Publishing Blogs Competition

LiveHacked.com is a finalist in the Top 10 Self-Publishing Blogs Competition for 2012!

Thanks to you, we’re sitting between #1/#2 as of this writing, and hopefully we’ll remain there at the end of the competition! Again, this sort of thing is a great verification of what we’re doing!

#3. The Platform Firestarter

The Platform Firestarter is the first product we’ve released into the world, featuring three different package options (the most expensive one is currently on sale at the middle-range option’s price!).

It’s the best way to grow your platform online, because I used it myself. See below.

#2. 2012 Guest-Posting Frenzy

Like I said, this was the year I tried my little experiment: see if I could blog consistently here, while also reaching out to other bloggers and secure some guest posts on their sites. I was shooting for 50.

I nailed it, and the blog took off. I’m planning on doing the same thing in early 2013, so stay tuned (or let me know if you’d like to guest post here or invite me to your site)!

#1. Welcome Home: The Author’s Guide to Building A Marketing Home Base

For the #1 spot, I couldn’t pass up my proudest moment of 2012 (as far as LiveHacked.com goes!): Releasing my full-length nonfiction book, Welcome Home: The Author’s Guide to Building A Marketing Home Base.

After more than 20 positive (like, 5-star average!) reviews, I guess the world likes it as much as I’d hoped. It’s the nitty-gritty details about setting up a blog, website, or author platform, and it gives the full, specific, method I recommend (read: the one I used).

If you haven’t read it, it’s available in paperback and Kindle versions!

What are your “wins” or “fails” from this year? 

Do you have anything noteworthy about your blog? Maybe you launched or re-launched this year?

Leave a comment below!