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| Pic courtesy timeshighereducation.com |
I've been blogging, gentle reader, since October 2007.
Maybe it's time to review my experience with this strange method of communication, and to note some of the highs and lows, the costs and rewards, and the benefits.
Initially, I was blogging using a clunky Telstra platform, but any record of that that seems to have vanished without trace. We're told that the internet is forever, but I seem to have found the exception to the rule, as I haven't been able to dredge up any trace of the original blog.
The statistics are interesting. Years blogging amount to fourteen, unique page views are 253275, there are 1282 posts, and 3037 comments. I even made a small amount of money through the advertising, about enough to buy one cup of coffee each week. I avoided the temptation to advertise initially, but found (after a few embarrassing and inappropriate ads) that I could control the material. Then I became tired of eliminating the stupid ads, and removed the facility.
I have more readers in the USA than in Oz which is surprising (click to enlarge) -
There aren't regular followers, which is OK by me. There have been a few trolls down the years, but they seem to fade away after a while. That's a pity really, as they are an endless source of entertainment.
There were two persistent posters, one who took serious exception to my posting on another blog (Catallaxy) and attempted to attack my posts on that blog by commenting on this one. That kind of missed the point unless you were a regular subscriber to both blogs, but it kept him busy for a while.
The irony is that the original Catallaxy disappeared, so has been outlived by this one. The best summing up of the content of Catallaxy is this by John Quiggin -
Catallaxy was an early example of the decline of libertarianism into what we can now call Trumpism. By the end, the comments threads and quite a few of the posts were a toxic mix of racism, misogyny and conspiracy theories comparable to Sky After Dark or even Alex Jones.
There's a message in that somewhere. There have been attempts to resurrect Catallaxy, but now my posts there are censored. There's a lesson in that as well - something to do with free speech, I suppose.
I try to put something out there every week, but feel no obligation to do so. That is one of the benefits of this style of blogging. You post only when you are in the mood, or when you think you have something to say.
My memoir began as a blog, posted chapter by chapter. The responses to that original blog encouraged me to self-publish, and the original 1000 copies I had printed have almost sold out. There are only 180 copies left, and I recouped my printing costs in a month after publication. This blog is my one and only marketing strategy (apart from Facebook) and it works.
So I will continue to blog, gentle reader, as the mood finds me. It is great fun, and full of surprises.
