Here are the highlights from March 2014.  Thanks to everyone who read along and commented.  Your readership and participation in the daily discussions are what make The Stretched Community.  Thank you!

Overall, traffic was up dramatically from February (25.15%).  Traffic was up 8.41% compared to a year ago.  The top 10 posts included two posts from 2012, one post from 2011, and one post from 2013.  If you missed any of these posts, I hope you’ll go and check them out now by clicking below.  The post with the most engagement was a post related to my book project from March 6, 2014 – Help Me Book A Book Cover Design.

Top 10 Posts:

1. Help Me Book A Book Cover Design March 6, 2013 (225)
2. Ten Things Every Small Group Leader Should Know  March 7, 2012 (125)
3. Ten Reasons To Attend FamilyLife Weekend To Remember February 27, 2012 (90)
4. I’m Losing My Patients – 6 Ways To Rediscover Patience  April 2, 2013 (88)
5. Second Chances – Does Pete Rose Deserve A Second Chance? March 11, 2014 (75)
6. I’m Turning Into My Dad March 10, 2014 (73)
7. Book Release – Learning To Release / A Call For Your Help March 12, 2014 (70)
8. The Power of the Next Question May 20, 2011 (69)
9. On Track Book Launch Update March 24, 2014 (67)
10. Ten Things I’ve Learned About Writing A Book March 25, 2014 (66)

Top 10 Commenters:

• David Paul Stolpe (30)
• Larry Carter (21)
• Steve Y (21)
• Matt McWilliams (14)
• David (7)
• Heidi Bender (6)
• Leah Adams (5)
• Coach Brown (4)
• TNeal (4)
• Lily Kreitinger (4)
  

As promised at the beginning of the month, I have randomly chosen someone from the top commenters list to receive a copy of Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage by Allison Vesterfelt.  The winner of this book is…(drum roll)…Heidi Bender.  Congrats to Heidi!

For the month of April, I’ll be giving away a copy of Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff.  This month, the winner will be chosen randomly from the top 10 commenters.

Thanks to each and everyone for reading and for commenting.  I’m looking forward to April with The Stretched Community!  The month of April will include more STRETCHING posts.  If you’re interested in guest posting here, leave a comment to connect with me.  April should be another great month!

How was your month?  If you’re a blogger share a link to your top post in the comments?  What was your favorite Stretched post this month?  How were you STRETCHED in March?

In case you’re interested, here are a few other interesting stats about March (based on Google Analytics):

• Visits – Increased 20.15%
• Unique Visitors – Increased 25.04%
• Pageviews – Increased 22.92%
• Pages Per Visit – Increased 1.80%
• Average Visit Duration – Decreased 23.38%
• Bounce Rate – Decreased 3.18%
• New Visits – Increased 0.90%

Don’t forget to sign up for the Stretched newsletter.  Check out this post to find out how to sign up.  On April 22, 2014, I plan to release a book called On Track – Life Lessons from the Track & Field.  All subscribers to the Stretched newsletter will get it for a discount on the eBook of On Track which will also be available in paperback.  So sign up, if you’re not already on the subscriber list.  The newsletter goes out periodically with extra STRETCHED content.)