Happy belated birthday, blog
Over the weekend I realized that I had not marked the two-year anniversary of this blog’s inception on Dec. 20, 2005. (Probably because I was in airports all day on Dec. 20, 2007.)
So I looked up my “anniversary post” from last year and found myself kind of surprised at some of the progress the blog has made.
December 2006:
Feedburner tells me that 298 people are subscribed via RSS; 104 of them have done so through Bloglines. The others are using Rojo (19 percent), Firefox Live Bookmarks (11 percent), and a variety of other services.
Today: Feedburner tells me that 1,497 people are subscribed via RSS; 621 of them (44 percent) have done so through Google Feedfetcher, and 285 of them (20 percent) through Bloglines. What a difference, eh?
I would wager that the increase in subscribers is due as much to the increasing use of RSS readers as to any increasing popularity of this single blog. More interesting, I think, is the shift from Bloglines to Google. Kind of like “another one bites the dust”? Plenty of respectable people, such as Paul Bradshaw, still use Bloglines. I switched to Google Reader sometime last spring.
October, November and December 2006: 12,431 visits, according to Site Meter.
Same time period in 2007: 27,623 visits (Site Meter).
I have to say, some days I think about closing down the blog. I know a lot of people like it, but it does take a lot of time and effort to keep it up. Then I check the stats and note the growth of the audience, and I think, well, I guess it’s still useful; there are people who are still getting something out of it, so I’ll keep posting.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who takes time to read, and to those who also comment, and to those who send me good tips. I’m one of those folks who believes a blog is part of a conversation. If you-all weren’t in here with me, there’d be no point to the endeavor.
Thank you for your blog, Mindy. It’s been incredibly helpful to me and my colleagues. Please, if you ever do decide to stop blogging, don’t close up shop entirely. The archives are great also.
January 14, 2008 at 9:20 amLet me join the conversation to say a much overdue “Thank you!” I have gotten so much useful information from your site and your blog. It’s always on point and I can depend on you to provide solid, practical information. I hope you’ll keep it going!
January 14, 2008 at 10:40 amYou should start a business model around your blog.
With stats like the ones you mentioned, I’m sure it would pay for hosting and then some.
January 14, 2008 at 2:24 pm@Patrick: You’re joking, right? A total of 1,497 is puny.
January 14, 2008 at 3:38 pmBut that’s a steady regular audience that keeps coming back for more.
Of course if selling ads just adds to the upkeep, then it might not be worth the effort.
January 14, 2008 at 3:53 pmThe amount of time and effort you put into the blog certainly shows. I’m constantly learning new things here and discovering other sources of great information through your posts. Thanks for doing what you do.
January 14, 2008 at 4:47 pmCongrats on two years! Though I haven’t known about the blog that long, I’ve found it extremely helpful and insightful in the time I have been reading/subscribing. The archives are great too, as was said already. Your hard work is apparent, as is your dedication. As a student, I’ve learned much more about online journalism from this blog than anything I’ve learned in j-school classes thus far. My daily dose of journalism blogs would not be complete without it. Keep up the good work!
January 14, 2008 at 6:08 pmMindy,
I mean this in the nicest way possible: you are not allowed to close down your blog!
It’s simply too good and too useful.
Have a nice evening, and happy anniversary!
January 14, 2008 at 7:10 pm-Dan
Oh, please don’t ever close your blog! Believe it or not, it’s been an important part of my education, and I’m sure many others. Not only your original posts are informative and educational, but it’s also a great source to get to know what’s going on in the field. Who can the students trust more than a well-known online journalism professor to get to know what’s going on in the real field? Thanks for all the postings and keep up the good work
January 14, 2008 at 7:40 pmPor favor, no cierres el blog. I read it everyday and always find new things to know. Feliz Cumpleaños, amiga.
January 14, 2008 at 9:29 pmHave to keep the blog going.
How else can people like myself keep up with true-blue online journalism?
Best,
January 15, 2008 at 3:14 pm-Dave
Dave Cone!! When are you going to update your Web site, man?
January 16, 2008 at 8:35 amThank you for the blog! And please don’t close it down. Though I’ve only recently stumbled upon the site, it’s already been an important resource when thinking about online journalism as a career.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
January 18, 2008 at 1:49 am