Blogging Year 2015

50

Thursday 31 December, 2015 by Uncle Spike

Like many of you, 2015 has been an extremely busy year for us. The sad knock-on effect is that the blog has been neglected a bit, or at best, has had to be reassigned further down my neverending list of things to occupy my time.

Saying that, whilst the blog has undoubtedly changed, morphing from a narrative-based affair to more of a photo journal, I’m pleased overall to have been able to keep it going on a daily basis. After all, it may just be a hobby, but it’s arguably the only thing I get to call my own, so to speak, so an important hobby nevertheless.

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Most viewed photo entry this year

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I chose not to issue the ‘report’ – they don’t exactly make for exciting reading, and I’m never that convinced over the WordPress ‘stats’ anyway. Having worked in financial IT for many years, I know full well how stats are largely meaningless, with the ability of the analyst designer to manipulate data capture methods resulting in stats saying “whatever you want”! For example, when you suddenly get 400 ‘page views’ in one hour from a country you rarely see more than 50 views in three days, it gets suspicious.

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Second most viewed photo entry this year

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On the whole, assuming a level of trust in the figures, they still good overall, with no real spikes or troughs, so the ‘norm’ seems to be proven at least. Page views for 2015 amount to just under 190,000, taking the total since I started up to some 480,000. Based on that, I should plan a small party for early February; cakes all round 🙂

Followers come and go, same for all of us. With some 2,700 set to hear about the blog via WordPress, Facebook or Twitter. Of course, many are probably non-existent, something we all face, but there is also a proven core of loyal blogging buddies out there who keep me going. The camaraderie, support and friendship of the regulars (silent or vocal) make it all worthwhile 🙂

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Third most viewed photo entry this year

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I mentioned losses… well, as my blogging has ventured into new areas regarding my beliefs for a more peaceful world, this borders on the political for many, so obviously not all will agree. Of course, I do not expect them to either, after all, these are just my personal views, and so there has been a notable seepage or loss of ‘followers’ over the past three months, specifically in the 24-hours following each post of that nature. That’s fine. I too chose to follow or unfollow blogs as the content suits, or not, as the case may be.

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Fourth most viewed photo entry this year

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Mostly though, I’m really touched at the ‘community’ we have here on WordPress. Loyal followers: we all have them, and they are priceless. I know in advance who will ‘like’ and who will not for certain posts. That’s great, and sort of acknowledges how we are able to ‘get to know’ our followers, even if they are silent (i.e. non-commenters).

Finally, to those who are vocal, shall we say, I am gonna give a big shout out to the following five, for these gals are always there, always keeping in contact.

1st – Linda, from Life on a Colorado Farm (573 comments)

2nd – Julie, from Frog Pond Farm (301 comments)

3rd – Maureen, from Josephina Ballerina (178 comments)

4th – Yvonne, from Hello World (149 comments)

5th – Colleen, from Australia (139 comments)

Thank you one and all – see you in 2016 😀

Spike

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