A Like A Dad Update

Back in the heyday of blogging, it was very common to see endless blogs teaching people how to build a blog. There would be tips on POV, content, templates, what CMS to use, and of course, the results. That meant stats. Listing off how much traffic, comments, and overall engagement you were getting. It was the secret sauce to building a following. Show people how it is done and have the goods to back it up. Having authority was also the way to climb the ranks (especially Google). Those days are long gone. Blogging is still a thing, but there are far fewer people showing off how to be a “blogger” than there used to be. Now it’s pick any get-rich-quick scheme that has some kind of paid course and endless drip email campaigns.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, I thought today would be a good day to take a peek behind the curtain and give you a Like A Dad update.

The Quick Backstory

For those who have followed the journey since the beginning, you know there were quiet months. I essentially stopped for a few years. But since the pandemic, I have made an effort to get back into writing. It’s my creative outlet, and even though I don’t really do it to build an audience, it’s hard not to look at the stats and then do what it takes to grow.

A brief backstory on Like A Dad. I started the blog in 2012 because I saw the great success of mommy blogs and didn’t see a lot of dad versions. I had just come off a very successful run with my sports blog – Cuzoogle – and thought, why not? It was also around the time we had our second son. After 6 months, the blog essentially became a daily journal of my parental leave, which I did for 6 months. I wrote about the good, the bad, and the stinky. It gained me some public attention in the newspaper and even had an in-studio interview on CBC radio in Halifax. I guess I was part of a movement called “the modern dad“.

But once my one-on-one time with my little guy was over, the blog evolved into more of a grab bag of topics I enjoy. Sports, BBQ, and television. Even though the POV was still that of a dad, it really was just a place for me to write about whatever interested me and ideally entertained you.

I still wrote about the dad life. One of my biggest posts was about toilet training our first son. I covered different milestones of dad, like teaching kids to ride a bike, what food they started to eat, and even some of the more frustrating parts of parenting.

May Day, May Day

Now, after 13 years of hosting this domain, I have been looking back at what has gained traction with my audience. I have also been wanting to share just how successful May 2025 was in terms of traffic and even actual money made.

Way back in the day, my only real goal was that the blog earned its keep. That it paid for itself in terms of the domain and hosting. The cost was anywhere from $100 to $145 per year, thanks to inflation and the rising cost of everything.

In the beginning, this was kind of easy, not to brag. It was the wild west of companies having huge advertising budgets and blogs were the shit. They were the way to go for brands to get attention long before influencers on TikTok.

But then life got busy. Work got busy. The blog became a chore, and there were years where I may have done a post or two just to make sure everything worked. I considered turning it off. Why was I paying money to just keep it sitting there? But I didn’t want to erase the history. I liked being able to call up any number of memories in a few seconds. I think one day I will be very happy to have it all.

I also wish I had not taken my foot off the gas. I had real momentum to turn it into something big. Oh well.

Anyways, over the past 3-4 years, I have really jumped back into being a writer and creator.

Posting a photo on Instagram is much easier, but I get a lot more satisfaction from writing, even if nobody reads it.

Why I Am Being Found At All

Over the years, the blog became very much a place for people to find recipes and information on the Big Green Egg. Every holiday, the traffic would spike thanks to people looking to smoke a ham.

During these years, I also got lazy as a marketer. I stopped pushing content on social channels. I let my AdSense slide. I didn’t get back to people looking to do a collaboration on some products.

Traffic dropped to pretty sad levels.

But fast forward to today and I can now say, the blog paying for itself is back in business.

May 2025 was one of the best months in a long time. I almost reached 20,000 views. Sure, that doesn’t sound like a lot when you put it in the context of the Internet. But, there were corporate websites at companies I have worked for that a good month was hitting 10,000 views in a month. And that was with actual money behind it.

I have also been working on my Google AdSense, so all this hard work pays off, so to speak. This year the blog has banked almost $300 cause of those ads that may annoy you (sorry).

Now, will it continue trending up as it has for all of 2025 so far? That’s the rub. It’s very hard to do, especially when you are strictly working with organic traffic. The SEO battle can all fall apart in the blink of an eye, and a post that was at the top of Google search one day can get bumped the next.

You have to ride the wave when you can.

So what posts were driving all these page views?

Here is the top posts of 2025 to date:

What is the takeaway? My audience is made up mostly of people looking for something to watch on TV and something to grill in the backyard. I am happy there are a few parents who are looking for something to do with their kids in Toronto.

It was the Power Rankings post that really took off. For a handful of search terms, it was first or second on Google, which can really increase traffic in a hurry.

Does it have anything to do with parenting? Hardly, although I bet a lot of parents are searching for what to watch when the kids finally go to bed.

Going Forward for Like A Dad

But traffic is traffic, and then it’s up to me to try and capture the attention of the visitors for other posts, maybe even about parenting? Like, for example, one of my favourite parenting posts as of late was What I Miss About My Kids Being Little. Inserting related articles into TV-themed posts, listing eye-catching titles on the sidebar, or at the top of the website can help expand my readership.

I have received some comments from parents who say they have found my TV posts helpful for knowing what there is to watch. That is a win.

Would I prefer to be entrenched in Google for something parenting-related? Totally. That would probably mean product collaboration and more newspaper interviews. Maybe even “Modern Dad” fame??

But I still get at least one reporter contacting me per year for something which is pretty cool. I am pretty sure it is because I show up on the first page of Google if you search “Toronto dad blogger”.

So that is where I am at. The blog life is going strong again, even in an age where anyone under 30 doesn’t know what a blog is. Maybe I need to work on a Substack??

No thanks, I will stick to my OG WordPress site. 745 posts to my name and counting. That is a lot of words. Between the challenges of having teens, BBQ, watching TV, and of course the NBA, I have plenty of topics to keep that going for a long, long time.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

But even though I write for the enjoyment, none of this is possible without an audience. Even if it’s a text from a family member saying they enjoyed reading a new entry, it keeps me going. So, whether you have been here since the very start when I was just figuring out how to customize a template, or recently just subscribed (yes, it does happen), thank you for sharing your time and reading something of mine. As Ernie Johnson would say, I appreciate you.

To close, I have to share a screenshot of an article I was in a few years ago that includes a photo that will always make my wife laugh. The journalist told me to send a photo of me looking disappointed. I feel like I nailed it?

Have a great day.

If you want to read it, feel free.

Discover more from Like A Dad

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

A Like A Dad Update – 13 years later