It is the holiday season…..
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the blog…..not a creature was stirring with the exception of Chuq…..the professor, who just cannot let it go…….
All of us bloggers want a successful blog……we like to know that people are reading and appreciating our diligence….but how do we judge success? Some of us spread HATE….and they may call it anything they like…but if it smells like a turd…it usually is……do we want a certain type of person to visit and read or do we just like to know that all visitors appreciate the work it takes to post on a daily basis without being redundant….or are the visitors looking for crap that can feed the hate?
I admit that I spew a little hate from time to time….but if I single a person out for an insult or two I will email them a copy of my post and ask them if they would like to respond and that anything they write will be posted on my blog…..I give everyone a fighting chance to explain their thinking.
I try to give my reader news that is just not regurgitation of the day’s talking points but rather news that they may not be aware of….news that could have a profound result if it goes unchecked……all that is just ducky……but how does one judge success?
Some like a ba-zillion hits on their site……others like it when everyone feels the necessity to re-blog their posts…..some feel that they need recognition from outside entity in the form of awards………all these are indications of a successful blog and I too would like ALL of them……but for me….I judge success by the number of followers…..that means that the more followers one has the more people get each and every post by email……and most are never counted as ‘hits’….I like the idea that so many people will receive my posts and hopefully ALL are reading them…..but I am realistic…..probably only a small amount of people actually spend the time to read my posts…….But I feel good that that many people get them daily……and then I judge success by the comments…….not necessarily the quantity but the quality….and so far my visitors are of high quality and even when I do not agree…the exchanges are thoughtful and civil….and I thank those people from the bottom of my heart…..I have you guys and that makes In Saner Thought a success……..
Hopefully, they appreciate the work that goes into writing a post and ….once again hopefully it will give them an insight that they had not considered in the past……conversations will save this country from the insanity that it now has made for itself……the more we talk the better the understanding……the better the understanding the sooner we start working as a people and stop this tribal insanity…..
I would like to thank all my followers, commenters and friends that I have made…… writing this blog is a joy…..and that is why I do it and I consider In Saner Thought a success…….thank you one and all for all your help in making this blog a success.
Merry Christmas to all….and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas!
Thanx Lillian….
I do enjoy among other things your insights on the Mideast. Between you and Juan Cole I have learned quite a bit about this region. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Chuq.
THanx Larry and back atcha…..
Happy Holidays, Chuq! 🙂
Thanx my friend and may you anf yours have a joyous day….chuq
chuq…. Your method of judging your success is a good one, one that would perhaps lead me to see a better set of statistics than what I’m going by…. Since I send out the Daily Pearls via email myself, (as I’ve done for almost 15 years now) to about 50 folks, plus the 340 WP followers, plus my approximately 100 Twitter followers (I gave up on Facebook….), there are about 450-500 ffolkes getting notified when I post…But, it really is a moot point for me, even if all of them read it every day…. I started writing this blog to stay sane during my wait for Social Security, and found it worked only too well…. now I MUST write, or I feel insane…. hence, my obsession with “better out than in”…. I only wish that the truths I’m putting out would have more of an effect in helping society to undergo the changes we need in order to just survive…. I’ve calmed down a bit, but I’m still disturbed at the rapidity of the changes we are seeing globally, and don’t see humanity doing anything about any of it until the last few moments… which will be too late… Ah well…
Good post, and a good way to take all this…. stay sane, amigo, and take care out there…. 🙂
Thanx my friend….I have always been an opinionated SOB and in the earlier days it was excessive letters to the editor…..and then I discovered blogging and took to it like a duck to water……I want people to think not just bitch and in some small way I have succeeded…..
Have a good holiday season……chuq