Last November, I reblogged this post.
Checking my stats sometime later in December, I was surprised to discover it had well over 1,000 views before Christmas.
Since then, it has been getting around 20-40 views most days, and is usually the ‘Most viewed’ post on my blog every week. Total views since November 2022 now stand in excess of 3,600 as of today.
And I have no idea why.
My recent serial Four Lives concluded yesterday with the 30th episode. As usual, I like to look at how it was received, and the stats it generated on my blog.
This serial was written mainly from the point of view of four very different women, not that easy for a 70 year-old man. It was inspired in part by those women who are badly served by the justice system, and others who befriend and marry prisoners, denying their crimes and background.
Although it contained themes of domestic violence, controlling behaviour, and sexual assault, I tried to make sure it was not graphic enough to upset readers. As usual, I had the ending in notes first, and worked back some years in the story timeline to get to that ending.
So far, it has achieved daily views averaging 50. So not one of the favourite serials with readers. Views for the later parts are still coming in, but if I take 50 views as the benchmark, then the story generated a total of 1,500 views.
Reader interaction and engagement was good; with regular comments, some involvement with the characters, and also guessing of the outcome. That is the most satisfying thing for me as the writer.
I would like to thank everyone who followed it all, and shared parts on social media.
The complete story is now available for those who like to wait to read the whole thing at once.
In 2016, I published a post about a British Acid-Jazz band, Jamiroquai.
This soon became something of a phenomenon on my blog, with an incredible number of views. Since then, not a single day has passed without that post getting at least one view.
Today, I noticed that it had been viewed twice, so checked my all-time stats. Sure enough, it is still there at number one, with total views of 5,847.
I had just started to compose a post when I noticed the number on the top bar. So this will be the 5,001st post on beetleypete, and the serial episode the 5,002nd.
Ten years of blogging means that I have posted at least 500 posts a year, 9.6 posts a week on average.
Stats don’t mean that much, but some are definitely worth noting.
I have still not been posting much, awaiting some inspiration, the return of my blogging mojo, or just a change of mood. I have no idea why I feel so ‘unsettled’ at the moment.
—————————————————————————————
Ollie’s groomer appointment has been put off until Friday now, because of staff problems. One day won’t make much of a difference I suppose.
—————————————————————————————
If I have missed any of your posts this week, or failed to comment on them, my apologies. The same goes for Twitter, which I have not really been following for a while now.
—————————————————————————————-
The weather has been quite good. In fact on Friday it got to 22C and very sunny. It felt like Summer, despite some torrential downpours the night before, and rain early on Saturday.
—————————————————————————————–
It interests me to look at my blog stats when I am not posting. I have often advised new bloggers that ‘Content is king’. No posts = no views. I have gone from around 375-450 views a day, down to 70, then 50, then 21. I have never had 0 views of my blog since it started in 2012, but could be heading in that direction. This is not a complaint, just an observation.
—————————————————————————————–
After all this time, I was finally contacted by the DVLA about my driving licence. They rang me the other day, and it was not good news. They want to send me for an ‘independent’ eye test. I told the lady that my Opthalmology Consultant at Norwich Hospital is happy for me to drive, and I have been told I am safe to do so. That was of no interest to her, and she told me that “We do not accept that, only the opinion of our nominated optician”. So they disregard the opinion of a qualified doctor, and take the word of an assistant in a high street Optician’s shop. More bad news followed. She advised me that if I fail their ‘designated eye test’, my licence will be permanently revoked.
Perhaps that is why I feel ‘unsettled’? Never being able to drive again would impact my entire wellbeing.
—————————————————————————————-
I hope you all have a peaceful Sunday. If you have a driving licence, make the most of it while you can.
——————————————————————————————
I checked my Stats earlier, and realised that I am fast-approaching 9,000 followers on WordPress.
8,395 WP followers.
47 following by email.
382 following on social media.
Total : 8,824.
Okay, we all know that most of those don’t really ‘follow’. Some probably don’t even exist, or have long since stopped blogging.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I have 2,000 active followers. They produce around 325-475 views a day, and generate a lot of comments, depending on how many posts I publish.
Many people begin blogging hoping to get 10,000 followers. Some would like to have 100,000 followers, or ten times that.
But if you love to interact with the community, as I do, and if you love your fellow bloggers and cherish them, as I do, then how many followers is too many?
Would you have time to comment on all the blogs you follow, or to reply to the comments you receive from your own followers?
If you are a serious community blogger, with a love of blogging, and a sense of responsibility to your followers, then there is a limit, based on what time you have available on a given day.
So I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but almost 9,000 followers, active or not, genuine or not, is enough for me to cope with.
***UPDATE. I now have the answer, so please ignore this post.***
Does anyone know what has happened to the list of the most popular posts on the Admin pages?
At one time, I used to click on ‘View All’
then ‘Insights’,
then ‘All Time’
On the next page would be lists of various things, including most popular posts in order.
That part seems to have disappeared, or maybe I am doing something wrong.
If you can still access that, I would appreciate knowing how.
Thanks in advance, Pete.
If I make it to this (my 70th) summer, I will have been blogging for ten years. I know many of you have been bloggers for a lot longer than that, but it only feels like last week since I tentatively pressed ‘Publish’ on my first ever blog post.
A lot has happened since then.
I have made amazing friends, and lost quite a few of them too soon too. I have had stories/articles/blog posts published online, in paper magazines, and even in a published anthology book. Outside of my family, and Ollie of course, blogging has become ‘what I do’, and I have even been recognised in Beetley by strangers, because of the photos I have published of Ollie.
I have published 4,608 posts, including this one, and had 580,000 views of my blog from 188,000 visitors. On one day, I had over 820 views, still the best so far.
My posts have been shared almost 16,000 times on Twitter, 6,800 times on Linkedin, and 6,700 times on Facebook. I am not even on Facebook, so that’s a bonus!
I have been ‘Press This’ 42 times, and I still don’t know what that means. 🙂
16 of my posts have been shared by email, and each post has averaged 45 comments. (As I reply to all comments, you can halve that to 22)
As of today, the lovely Jennie Fitzkee at https://jenniefitzkee.com/ is currently my top commenter. But Jennie is American, and very polite, so always adds ‘You’re welcome’ when I thank her for her comments.
Could there be a better hobby/pastime than blogging? I don’t think so. You can do it anywhere, inside or out, and you will meet some marvellous people from all around the world, if you do it right.
So, to all you ‘New Year’ bloggers. Keep at it. Don’t give up.
It will enrich your life.
My latest serial concluded on Sunday with Part 24. One of my shorter serials, constricted by the need to have the ‘showdown’ that was necessary for the story.
I would like to thank Jon at https://wilfredbooks.wordpress.com/ for his first line suggestion that started it. This was the first time I have used a ‘first line’ outside of a short story, and I felt it needed a longer serial to do it justice.
Some readers will be aware that my inspirations for the style of this story came from various well established detective fiction, ‘Cosy’ mysteries, and some TV shows. I had in mind the Agatha Christie ‘Miss Marple’ stories, the old TV series ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’, and more modern detective television shows such as ‘Murder She Wrote’, and ‘Midsomer Murders’.
There were quite a few characters, as well as a second plot involving characters from a book being written by the main protagonist. Old-school detective stories always seemed to have a lot of characters, and most of them were suspects at one time or another. They also usually feature some kind of showdown, everyone assembled in a room as the hero explains how he solved the case.
This time, I tried to turn that around, with the suspects explaining to the hero how he ended up where he did. On the way, I gave few clues, and took readers on a tour of some nice parts of southern England as the main character was given the run around on a circular wild goose chase. I had a lot of fun writing this, and attempted to inject some humour too.
It was well-received, with views never dropping below 110 for each episode, and some parts exceeding 130 views. Total views so far, given a score of 120 per episode, come to 2,880. Different parts are still being viewed as I type this, so I am confident the whole serial will have reached 3,000 views soon. As well as that, comment engagement was very good. Some readers tried to guess the outcome too, which is always rewarding.
Extra thanks to everyone who shared any part on social media, which is always appreciated.
I have the first part of the next serial already written, but I will give everyone a chance to catch up before I start that one. This week, I will compile all 24 parts into one complete story, for those of you that like to read the whole thing at once.
Best wishes to everyone, Pete.
As we come to the end of the month, and Autumn looms, I felt prompted to have a review of my blog once again. Regular readers will be aware that I cut back on my posts recently, and that has a significant effect on views and followers, just as I had expected. That isn’t a complaint, as that was my intention. And it worked.
On my Home page, WordPress now lists my follower total as 8,481. I am happy to report that I have had a reduction in ‘fake followers’ lately, and only a few companies trying hard to promote their goods by following my blog. There are also fewer followers without Gravatar links or posts on their own blogs. That’s great to see.
Including this one, I have posted 3,482 posts since 2012, and had 541,620 views of my blog. Even after posting less, I still get between 225-400 views a day, much easier to deal with than the 600+ I enjoyed previously.
I am currently following 114 other bloggers, and with six exceptions, they are all posting and active. If nothing arrives from those six bloggers by the end of 2021, I will follow six different ones after Christmas.
Guest Posts are still popular, and I would like to remind all my followers, old and new, that the offer remains open indefinitely. If you would like a guest post here, just send me an email to petejohnson50@yahoo.com
The latest series of fictional short stories has been well received, with views more than comparable to my usual serials. Each first line was suggested by a fellow blogger, and this is a good way to engage with others in the community. Using links to their blogs also helps make us all better known to each other, further developing the feeling that we are all in this together.
Any post about my dog Ollie guarantees a lot of interaction. As he gets older and slower his popularity never wanes, and he remains very much the heart and soul of my blog, with his many admirers and his ongoing adventures on our dog walks.
My blog trundles along in the same old way, and I still love being a blogger as much as I ever did.
beetleypete 