That's right, 13 years! I've said many times over that I do the blog purely as a record of what I've achieved. The fact it's proven valuable and entertaining to other hobbyists is an absolute bonus. Although I have no interest in the pursuit of numbers or followers I am fascinated by them, in part because my job requires some awareness of social media and a limited knowledge of metrics. When colleagues asked if a website we'd been doing for a few months was successful with 21,000 page views I wanted to check the blog as I roughly knew I'd been pootling along on 10-15k hits per month! And discovered last month I'd broken my previous monthly record with 58,860 views!
On what I have no idea. I can't work out which posts in September were so popular, although my free templates seem to have had a resurgence. So, although I will have a small whoop of achievement, I don't fully trust the numbers anyway, which brings me back to not caring one way or another. I'd still be doing the blog if no one was reading and as much as sometimes I feel like taking a[n extended] break you can clearly see some months I don't necessarily post as much as I have done. The bottom line is the blog is an outlet, not a chore and as with the rest of the hobby, I think I'm in a place where I can do as much or as little as I want without feeling guilty if I don't.
I've mostly kicked my Twitter habit too. Posts are still automatically going there and I check in once a week or so but it again speaks to the neediness for approval that I am uncomfortable with. That's not to say I don't appreciate all those that still visit the blog, or take time to comment - I really do. I'm just grateful that it's never been a driver for why I do this.
So, 13 year's on and I'll still be doing the hobby, blogging about it and sharing it with anyone who has a casual interest. There's not that many of us that have this kind of longevity, who are happy to share our hobby diaries in such an understated way. But if you're new to hobby blogging that's the lesson. You can enjoy it just as much with no followers, no views, but just pouring your creativity out for anyone to find, or not. Regardless, keep at it.
Congratulations on an other year around the blooging calender! 13 Years is quite the achievement and those stats do look good as well. But I also agree, you really can't get bogged down with those numbers. Having this archive of activities is what I do it for, really.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a great resource to have, but I always need to remember to use it! How many times have a I gone on to do something and then remember to check the process after the fact. Of course it's worse when you do remember and it turns out I waffled on about something trivial rather than record the actual 'recipe' or process...
DeleteFYI, October's views dropped from 58,860 to 11,968, so if numbers were important I'd be crying into keyboard right now. C'est la vie!
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