2012 is almost over... Time to think back and evaluate my progress.

This post was inspired by the posts of my colleagues. I thought it would be good to look back and see what I did right and where I didn't do such a good job. That would probably give me some basis for defining my goals for the next year.

Overall, I can say that 2012 was a good year for my business.

1. I met a few new clients, both direct clients and agencies. I learned to say "no" to some projects and some clients and embraced new opportunities.
2. I tried to serve as a ProZ.com moderator. I figured out that it's not for me. Can't really say that I failed, but that's definitely not something I'd like to try again in the near future.
3. I started my cooperation with Sharp End Training. This is a huge blessing for me. This work is clearly making me stretch my limits and move out of my comfort zone, but isn't that what freelancing is all about? ;)
4. Thanks to my work with Sharp End Training I was able to meet a few interesting people. I was able to learn from Corinne McKay, Megan Onions, Judy Jenner, Joy Mo, Marta Chereshnovska, Tess Whitty. 
5. One of the greatest blessings was recording my own free webinar for beginning translators and working on Complete blogging toolkit for translators. Joy Mo, a real pro in marketing, networking and blogging, has recently shared her opinion about the blogging toolkit. Here's what she says:

I really like the practical information provided in the package.  I wish I had known some of the valuable tips in the toolkit earlier.  The fact that it was all segmented for different sub-topics makes it very easy to read. Having been blogging for the past 3 years, I can say this - blogging has helped my business tremendously.  But it may take years and years of practice to get it right.  In fact, I'm still struggling with a few things myself, but this toolkit just helped me correct a big mistake I had made over the years without even realizing it. Thank you. 

Joy's testimonial really made me happy. Jonathan and I did our very best to make the toolkit nearly an ultimate guide, working on it for several months, doing the research, conducting interviews etc. By the way, right now you can get our Blogging toolkit with a 50% discount. We can call it a pre-Christmas sale :) It will last till the end of next week, so if you would like some help with blogging you might want to grab the chance!
6. I am happy to see that our Marketing for freelance translators group on LinkedIn is gaining more and more popularity. Right now we have 537 members and new people are joining every day! You can learn more about the group here. Next year I'd like to see more members, more comments, and more interaction there.
7. I am thankful that the number of my readers is growing. That means that this blog is valuable not just for me, but for you, too. This is a great joy. In 2012 the most popular posts in my blog were:

• 15 interesting facts about the English language
• What do successful freelance translators have in common?
• 5 business mistakes that beginning translators often make
• Cool facts about the French language
• Fun facts about the German language from the point of view of a Russian
• Master's degrees in translation
• Did you know these facts about translation?
• Some lessons I learned after I started subcontracting work
• What has my freelance life taught me about finances?
• 10 interesting facts about the Russian language

Top 10 countries where my readers came from in 2012 were:

• Russia
• United States
• United Kingdom
• India
• Spain
• France
• Canada
• Germany
• Italy
• Ukraine

Dear readers, I have said that many times and I will never get tired of saying it: this blog wouldn't exist without you. You rock!

I asked you for the same favour last year and I am asking for it again: could you please share what's your favourite post in my blog? Not that I need it for any research or anything, I'm just curious ;)