In 2025, my goal wasn’t to shout louder. It was to be seen more clearly.

That meant focusing my energy where it mattered most. SurvivingMexico.com became the main stage, while ceflores.com quietly stepped into a supporting role. After reviewing performance and profitability, I’ve decided to keep ceflores.com on WordPress’s free plan in 2026 and concentrate my efforts where growth has been steadier and more sustainable.

To see how that decision played out, I compared January 2025 starting figures with December 2025 totals across the website, social platforms, traffic, and sales. What emerged wasn’t a viral story, but something better: consistency with moments of surprise.

Website Subscribers: Holding the Line

SurvivingMexico.com‘s email list remained a quiet constant throughout the year.

• January 2025: 909 subscribers
• December 2025: 909 subscribers
• Stretch goal: 1,000 subscribers

While the number itself didn’t change, the list continued to represent a highly engaged core of readers who open emails, click links, and stick around. Hitting 1,000 subscribers remains close enough to feel inevitable rather than aspirational.

Social Media: Slow Burns and One Pleasant Plot Twist

Pinterest: Evergreen and Unbothered

Pinterest continued doing what Pinterest does best—sending traffic quietly, without much concern for follower counts.

• January 2025:
  • 613 followers
  • 317 following
    
• December 2025:
  • 611 followers
  • 318 following
  • 3.5K monthly views

Follower numbers barely budged, but monthly views tell the real story. Content continued circulating, being discovered, and doing its job long after it was published. Slow? Yes. Reliable? Absolutely.

Threads: A Polite Upward Nod

Threads remained small but showed signs of life.

• January 2025: 48 followers
• December 2025: 63 followers
• Original goal: 100 followers

Not explosive growth, but organic and encouraging—proof that showing up consistently still counts, even on quieter platforms.

Bluesky: The Unexpected Overachiever

Bluesky was the surprise guest who stayed late and helped clean up.

• January 2025:
  • 64 followers
  • 69 following
  • 68 posts
    
• December 2025:
  • 268 followers
  • 358 following
  • 537 posts

Originally, I hoped to reach 100 followers by year’s end. Instead, Bluesky turned into an active, conversational space that far exceeded expectations and became a genuine point of connection.

Website Traffic & Search Visibility

Beyond subscribers and socials, traffic and search data offered a wider view of how SurvivingMexico.com moved through the year.

Visitors & Views (WordPress Analytics)

From February through November, traffic followed a familiar rhythm: a mid-year lull followed by a strong autumn comeback.

• Visitors dipped to around 1,510 in early summer and climbed to 3,389 in November.
• Page views mirrored that pattern, reaching 4,391 views by November.

Late summer and fall brought renewed discovery, stronger seasonal interest, and deeper browsing, indicating more pages, more time, more curiosity.

Search Performance (Bing Webmaster Tools)

Search visibility steadily expanded.

• Impressions peaked in the final quarter, topping out at 30,000 in November.
• Clicks stayed relatively steady throughout the year, generally between 122–160 per month.

This widening gap between more impressions and stable clicks suggests growing visibility and clear opportunities to refine titles, descriptions, and search intent alignment.

What the Numbers Are Really Saying

Taken together, the data points to a site that is:

• appearing more often in search results,
• attracting more visitors toward the end of the year, and
• maintaining engagement even during slower seasons.

There was no single breakout moment. Instead, growth came from accumulation where content quietly was stacking, compounding, and finding its people in its own time.

Sales Goals

To keep things grounded, I set a simple benchmark: 20 books sold per month across all titles.

That breaks down to:

• 3 months: 60 books
• 6 months: 120 books
• 12 months: 240 books

The goal wasn’t virality but reliability.

2025 Sales Results

(Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in México series and
The Mexican Apothecary: Traditional Cold and Flu Herbal Remedies — English & Spanish)

• 243 herbal books sold in 2025

This closely matched the 12-month target, confirming that the 20-per-month goal is realistic and repeatable.

Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes!
(Bilingual and Spanish editions)

• 102 copies sold in 2025

More seasonal by nature, these sales still demonstrated steady interest and strong cultural resonance during key moments of the year.

Reviews & Reader Response

I also received reviews across Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and Muted Muse. There was no numeric target here, just the hope that readers would respond. They did, and that goal was comfortably met.

Quiet Progress Is Still Progress

2025 didn’t arrive with fireworks or viral moments, and that’s exactly why it worked. This year was about tending what already existed, showing up consistently, and letting the long game unfold at its own pace.

As I move into 2026, the work continues, writing, publishing, refining, and sharing, but with clearer priorities and steadier footing. Growth doesn’t always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it simply shows up, month after month, and that’s more than enough to build on.