A New Milestone for the Site–And Me!

A little more than six years ago, at the age of 71, I launched this website, knowing virtually nothing about launching a website. At the same time, I began writing a blog, knowing little more about writing blogs.

We just hit 25,000-plus hits! And 16,000 unique visitors!

Amazing.

The odds were that it would last just a few months–a year or two at most. That’s typically the fate of similar ventures. But here we are.

I’m proud to say that for several years, the site has consistently been in the top 5 of Best Kidney Donor Blogs. When I was posting regularly, it was actually at number 2 or 3, behind two large national organizations. Ever since I began writing more frequently on Medium.com–kidney-related posts as well as personal essays and memoirs–I’ve admittedly neglected this site.

That’s why these remarkable stats took me by surprise last week:

I often say I’ve been fortunate to be having a second act as a donation advocate. Raising awareness of kidney disease and donation has been my passion for more more than a decade.

But, believe me, launching a website … writing a blog … speaking before groups never was–and still isn’t. But in pursuit of my passion, I discovered that I needed to–and could– learn to do all sorts of things I previously thought impossible.

Am I good at any of them? Good enough at most and getting better all the time.

My advice is neither profound nor original, but here goes: whatever your passion, your dream, your goal–go for it! Even if it’s outside your comfort zone–especially if it’s outside your comfort zone. The bonus just may be a few more skills that you never thought you’d accomplish.

For related posts and information on my book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website and my articles at Medium.com/@caroloffen.

Celebrating Milestones

Most of my kidney-related milestones mark the number of years since I donated to my son (2006), who was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease when he was in college. This month I get to celebrate a different kind of milestone: one year since I launched this website! I didn’t know what to expect when I set out to lend a helping hand to anyone who might remotely be considering being evaluated as a living donor. I wanted to offer reliable, accessible resources about donation, offering the candid perspective of someone who’d been there.

It’s been a rewarding learning process all the while, and I am fairly pleased with the results and the response. At this point numbers may not mean much, but they’re still pretty interesting. Here’s what the numbers tell us about the response (as of March 2020):

Visitors: 3,000+

Views: nearly 5,000

Countries: 41; the vast majority of visitors are naturally from the U.S., but Canada, the U.K., India, and Australia each had more than 50.

Ranking: no. 9 of “Top 30 Kidney Donor Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2020”

The Top Kidney Donor Blogs

A short while ago I came across “The Top 30 Kidney Donor Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2019.” It lists individual personal blogs from donors and recipients, plus from major organizations (nearly half of the websites listed, in fact) like the National Kidney Foundation and the National Foundation for Transplants. Last week I noticed that there was a way to submit a blog, and I did. So, guess who’s #10 on the Top 30 list now?

Sure, the Top 30 is a marketing vehicle, but it’s also a convenient way to find interesting donor-related blogs; you can click to see their latest posts. Each listing also tells how frequent the blog posts are (mine average four a month), the number of Twitter followers (I have a modest but growing 280), and such.

This blog went live just several months ago, in March 2019. I’ve been delighted to see how well it’s been received. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of number of views and visitors, but I’m pretty pleased to have surpassed the 3,000-views mark (and more than 1,700 visitors).

I’ve enjoyed sharing my living-donor experiences and recipient-family insights with you; helping to encourage living donation–not by proselytizing but by offering candid, clear, practical information; and fighting to protect the rights of kidney patients and donors (for example, check out these blog posts). I’m very glad that more people may find their way here.