I'm fickle--I like to redesign...like a Feng Shui thing going on. So every weeks, out of boredom, I try out on a new look/template for my blog. The reason I resorted now to my orginal style after a short-lived, appreciated template, was 'cause I SCREWED UP. Sometimes you just hit the wrong button and life don't look the same. My blog was being cut off, my comments cut off -- I took it as a personal thing and yesterday I took on a old/new look to correct matters.
It wasn't long ago that I learned how to link and show my fave sites, and only a few days ago was I guided in how to use the traffic meter. But you'll notice they're both gone from my current blog. Yes, I'll try to figure out how to list my faves once more, but I won't add the traffic meter. For what reason? To see if I'm popular, if I beat the number of hits your blog got this past hour or today, to see if someone in South America chooses to read my words? Really, what difference does it make? Popularity contests were supposed to be over with school, or at least when I gave up the dating life for marriagehood. I'm popular among my family and friends and co-workers and some of you bloggers out there who pat me on the back once in a while. That really should be enough.
I don't have to be the BLOGGER OF THE WEEK pinup--I just have to put some smiles on people's faces, or frowns on their forehead, or just give them an idea to carry further.
Why not try to get "back to basics" yourself and kick the habit of a traffic meter? The people who read you before will continue to read you, the people who critiqued you before will continue to do so, too.
Try it, you might like it....
4 comments:
Pearl: You are a brave woman to set sail on the un-chartered waters without a traffic meter ;)
thanks for taking time to write thoughtfully. a traffic meter is a tool - can be used selfishly to boost ego, but also can help give by showing if people are enjoying what we offer.
Hi Pearl,
I use my traffic meter not only to count the number of hits, but to see which readers are coming and are most interested. For example, it interests me to see if someone who links to my blog from Seraphic Secret, or Cancer Kids Network, etc. reads more than one page at a sitting. I do like to know whether it's friends or strangers reading, and I can figure that out to a certain degree from the site meter's statistics section. So for me it's not a question of popularity at all, but rather seeing whether my blog is reaching the readership I hope it will reach.
Sara
Sara, I understand your personal comment, and I think a blog like yours sits in a different class than most of the ones I read. Yours has essence, substance, pathos, base human interest qualities. You are encapsulating a life/lives with a very serious subject matter. Many blogs out there seem to be competing in their presentations and want to win awards...and the bloggers are not shy to proclaim so, hoping you'll vote for them. It seems to be an online political fairground at times.
I think it's tough for most people to write about deep, personal or family difficulties, and for readers to read that...unless they have reasons to relate to what they're reading. Often readers want to bypass that in search of light, fluffy pieces. Perhaps I am, for the most part, an exception to that general kind of reader. That's why a blog such as yours leaves such an impression on me.
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