State of the Blog - November 2014
"Bueller ... Bueller ... Bueller?" One of the challenges of writing this blog is not knowing if anyone is out there. I spend a fair amount of time researching and writing for the blog, but I have failed to follow the first rule of running a business... know your customer. (Maybe this is OK since my blog is not a business!) Who visits the site? What are they interested in reading? How often do they come to the blog? How did they find the site? Are they residents in the district? Has my 11 year old written a computer program to trick me into thinking I have more visitors than I really do? No idea. It would be nice to know more. Who are you?
"Help me help you." Despite having over 600 page views in the first 3 months, no one has left a comment on any of the posts. Few visitors use the 'like' buttons at the end of articles. I regularly read several other blogs (ones with thousands of readers) and I never leave comments there, so I understand the mentality of consuming content without leaving one's own imprint behind. It would be great to have more 2-way dialogue, either in the comments or by email, or at least more use of the 'like' if an articles resonates with you. Did you know comments can be left anonymously, without signing up with the blog platform or giving your personal info?
"These are not the droids you are looking for" The Jedi Mind Trick, according to Obi-Wan Kenobi, is powerful but is effective only with the weak minded. I think my readers are probably smart and well-educated (but I don't really know, see point 1 above !) so my mind trick will probably not work. But let's try it anyway .... You should subscribe to the blog and have every new entry emailed to you. Just click on the follow button in the right margin. Yes, the button under the text that says "Follow my blog by email." Yes.... yes....
"It's not personal. It's strictly business." I am working on a number of different topics for future blog posts. But I would rather post on topics that are of interest to my readers. How about letting me know which topics are of interest to you? I will post an occasional survey asking for you to pick my next topic. When you see such a request, please click and give me your opinion. I just did this a couple of days ago here.
"I'm on vacation." I will take a break from the blogging during the week of Thanksgiving. The blog will pick back up on December 1. So ... that's the state of the blog as of November 2014. By the way, can you name the movies from which the bold quotes were taken? You could always post your answers in a comment! Takeaways:
If you like an article, click the 'like' button at the end. Or use the Facebook, Google+ or other social media buttons to post a link to the article. Thanks to those who do this already - you know who you are! Or email an article to a friend.
Leave an occasional comment. Let me know what you think. Or provide a different point of view. Comments can be anonymous.
Consider subscribing to the blog. If you subscribe, you will be emailed each time there is a new post. What could be easier?
See my post of Nov 23 to vote on my next topic / series.
Thanks for reading!