Blog Post No. 536
Something happened at the end of February that lasted until about a week ago. I don’t want to say it’s unexplainable because I’m sure there is an explanation, just not one I’m capable or willing to explore. During those three weeks I had a huge increase in views and visitors to this website. In one week I got more views than I usually do in some months. Most of those folks were American and most of them here came from Facebook. It was as if I paid for one of those Facebook ads, but as far as I know, I didn’t.
I always try to come up with interesting weekly topics and do my best to promote them in catchy ways. Sometimes posts that I think will take off, flop terribly, and some weeks when I think my best effort wasn’t terribly enticing, I get a swell of visitors. I’m not particularly good as self assessment and I tend to get easily overwhelmed with tracking any statistics, so I don’t have any good metrics on which to adjust what I write based on what tends to get the most attention.
Overall, I try to be personal without giving up too many personal details and I try to make as many of my weekly post about writing related things since that’s the whole purpose of this blog. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about writing when there seems like such little progress in a single week. I’m currently writing the novella for the Adventure Worlds Anthology planned to come out later in the year and while I’m making good progress, I’m not currently capable to write 20 000ish words in a week, so all I can say is that I had started it a couple weeks ago and if I keep this pace, I should be done the first draft by the end of this week.
But things come up. Roadblocks to progress like the day job or other responsibilities. I might not get the first draft done when I said. Maybe I’ll have more to write and I’ll go over the word limit. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. More chaff to cut from the final draft. But it’s also more work and what do I say about it on the blog that I haven’t said about every one of the Synthetic Albatross Novellas?
Was there something in the posts I wrote that led to the increased readership? Not that I can tell. All I know is that at the end of the year when I’m measuring the views compared to previous years, I’m going to have to take this anomaly into account. It might end up being a good thing that helps me trend upward or it may be a thorn in the side of my 2024 statistics. I really can’t worry too much about it. There are more important things on my plate like finishing this novella in time for our first draft deadline (and potentially giving myself enough time for a rough and rushed second draft) and ultimately finishing the edits on the Invasion Novel before it kills me.
I’m going to keep wondering about that uptick in visitors, though. It’s nice to think I make a connection with others, even on a blog. More people means more implied worth of my continent. That’s hard to ignore. I’m just too lazy and uninterested in maximizing my potential audience to give it too much thought. I’ve got a story to finish!
Ben Van Dongen 