Facebook Is Eating My Blog

When I decided to start my blog in March 2011, I wasn’t using Facebook at all. The primary purpose of my blog was to share my short stories, which were being published in online literary magazines; and the secondary purpose was to share real-life stories and photos about my travels.

A view of Old Town, Lucern, Switzerland

 

But when I say “share” in the world of blogging it means something different than it does in the realm of Facebook.

As a blogger, I was putting my posts up here for anyone to read, and if they wanted to, make comments. I was – and still am – extremely proud of the fact that I have a very international readership for my blog. I regularly get visitors from Canada, Northern and Southern Europe, Australia, South and Central America, the Middle East and even sometimes Africa. That’s something that I find very cool about blogging… the ability to reach an audience of readers that goes well outside my normal social sphere.

But the care and feeding of a blog takes effort. I have been lax when it comes to reciprocating readership in the world of blogs. I don’t comment on other people’s blogs too often, and much less so in the past two years, just as my Facebook engagement has increased. And people don’t usually make comments on my posts either, which I understand since I am not commenting on their blogs.

Despite that, my page views, visits and overall blog readership have been maintained at a fairly steady rate over the years. I can usually count on anywhere from 200-225 visitors a month, and if I’m posting more frequently that number goes up. But, I have a passive relationship between me and my readers. People visit, read what I’ve posted, they don’t (usually) comment, and click on to the next thing.

So, the reason my Facebook engagement has increased is obvious, or it is to me at least. I have made my Facebook page private. Only people who are my friends on Facebook are permitted to see my page. And my personal rule has been that only people I actually know become my friends on Facebook. I may have only met them once, but for me, ensuring there is a “real” in-person personal connection makes a big difference.

Over at least the past six months I have been posting to Facebook several times a week. My life has transitioned from focusing on writing to focusing on actively participating as a jazz vocalist in the jazz community in New Jersey and New York City.

I go out to sing in public, with a live jazz band, many times a week. I come in contact with dozens of musicians and singers, and I love to take photographs of the performers at these events and then share them with my friends on Facebook.

Carol Deminski, jazz vocalist

 

Since the people in the photos are also my friends, I get plenty of comments on them. Friends “like” my photos, and get excited and engaged by them. On top of that, my friends share the photos with their friends (the extended social circle) and suddenly there are friends of my friends commenting on my photos and Facebook postings, and liking what I put up.

It’s a compelling model of engagement, since it is based on a real social circle of people I know. Facebook has enabled me to network with hundreds of musicians, and stay in touch with people from around the world who I know personally.

This blog cannot compete with that (I’m not commenting on anyone else’s blog, since many other blogs may have much more active readers than this one!)

Now I’m left wondering how to use this blog. I’m not exactly sure what I still want to say on my blog, but there are topics that I want to cover in more depth – such as my ongoing struggles with being a vegan, for example – that don’t really lend itself to Facebook. I think there also may be things I want to express about jazz singing, and the jazz community, that need more space than the length of a typical Facebook post (which is maybe 3 sentences!)

I’d be curious to know if anyone has had this experience as a blogger (or even as a regular blog reader) and how you have managed to balance the care and feeding of a blog along with the care and feeding of a Facebook page.

After all there are only so many hours in a day to engage in social media activities!

2014 In Review – My Blog’s Annual Report

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,300 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Blog stats: 18,000 clicks and counting!

Every once in a while I’ll glance at the number of page views for the blog, and today I see that after three years of blogging I’ve just passed the 18,000 page view count.

It’s always hard to know how my page views stack up against “similar blogs” because bloggers do different things to promote themselves.

I’m probably not doing enough to promote my blog, but I’m content with knowing 38o people are subscribed to my blog today, and I’m getting over 200 visitors to the blog each month plus I have a group of regular readers who come by and comment – which I really love.

If you’re a blogger, how is your blog doing? What do you think you could be doing better? (And what do you think I could be doing better, for that matter!)

As always, thanks for dropping by. 🙂

It happened! Greenland visits the blog!

Thank you so much to Dani Henriksen from Greenland for visiting the blog today! WOW – what an awesome global community we live in. I’m stunned!

(I wonder if Dani from Greenland and my other friend George from the Netherlands know each other? :-D)

Here’s the amazing final screen shot of visitors from 3/20/14:

It’s hard to describe how amazing this is…call me old fashioned, but it hardly seems possible to put out the word on my little blog and have someone come and visit from Greenland, or any far flung country for that matter.

I’m blown away.

Thanks to everyone who participates in this blog. I’m really lucky to have such amazing folks come and visit from around the world.

THANK YOU!

Pursuing Greenland – the quest of a global blogger

The first thing I must say is that this post is about hubris, mine of course since it’s my blog.

I’m really proud of the fact that over the past few years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve attracted readers from all over the world. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve had readers from every continent (except Antartica, that I know of…) drop in at some point and read something from this blog.

As you can imagine, the U.S. and Canada represent my most frequent readers, but I have a lot of readers in Northern Europe from countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Ireland, Denmark, and Sweden … and a few from Iceland and Norway too.

But what about Greenland? Nada!

The nice folks at WordPress light up a map on a report I can pull up with all the lovely reader tallies from each country, and depending on the number of people who have viewed the blog the country color goes from white (no readers) to deep red (lots of readers.)

Greenland looks like a field of pristine snow on my color map … all white.

But in all fairness, how many times have I written about Greenland on this blog? Until today, zero times. And it’s highly unfair of me to expect the fine people of Greenland to come to this blog and spend their well earned leisure time (you know, after they shovel the sidewalk in front of their house in the dark for the two hundredth time, and feed their sled dogs) reading about me complaining how we’ve gotten “a lot of snow in New York City” this year and “how cold” it is here.

Yeah, boo hoo they must all be saying way up north. We have parts of our place that are above the Arctic Circle, so don’t talk to us about cold, they might sniff at me. I wouldn’t blame them one bit.

And so it was that I started searching around online for news about Greenland, and I found (no, I’m not kidding) GreenlandToday.com.

You want pictures of icebergs and polar bears? They got ’em!

This big boy looks fierce!

You want to know which Greenland based designers showed their wares at the Copenhagen Fashion Week and were well received? It’s in there!

Great Greenland designs at Copenhagen Fashion Week

And what blog post about Greenland would be complete without an image of the Northern Lights? Right!

Northern Lights over Greenland

In short, this post is my shameless appeal to the lovely people of Greenland to come on over and visit this blog … and maybe comment too, if they want to.

Since there are only about 57,000 people living in the country, which is about 20% of the city where I live (Jersey City has at least 250,o00 people) I know I’m appealing to a limited audience.

Still, I believe in the power of the internet and global communications.

Come on folks, let’s make it happen.

A Creaky Whirligig Addendum: the Twitter-machine

Way back in my personal time machine about a year ago, and prior to that, I was tweeting regularly (and potentially obsessively). I’d tweet for fun, re-tweet news, writerly advice, interact with a bunch of people, and of course tweet stuff from my blog.

Then, as you may know if you are a regular reader, things slowed down. I stopped writing for a long while, my blog posts stuttered to a near halt and I stopped going onto Twitter. The only thing my Twitter account was doing was posting my blog-tweets, and since those were automated I never had to actually log on to do it.

Now, I’m back from my hibernation (even though, ironically, it is the middle of the Winter) and I’m re-emerging from my den. Cozy as the Den of Procrastination may be, after a while you get leg cramps and you realize if you don’t get out of there, you may die from lack of movement. (And we all know Ernest Becker wouldn’t like that.)

Over the past few days I’ve re-acquainted myself with Twitter and I put a few tweets out there, started interacting with some editors of small press journals I know (they’re a friendly bunch!) and geared back up a little bit in that world.

I forgot how addictive Twitter is, but it’s one of those places you go and then you look up from the clock and realize an hour has gone by, or more, depending on how many interesting links you find. Why just today I’ve looked at a list of the happiest countries in the world (Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are #’s 1, 2 and 3 kids…) and a bunch of other random stuff I don’t need to know but which is entertaining and will be useful to whip out at parties (okay, I don’t really go to parties, but in my fantasies I’m invited to salon-style literary parties with writerly types in Manhattan.)

Meanwhile, I’m pleased to say I’ve also updated my submissions tracker. That’s my personal self-torture device to show how many places I’ve submitted short stories, the number of months I’ve been waiting for my standard form rejection letter (I kid, I kid! … sort of) and whether or not I’ve sent a personal query on the status of my work.

For example this morning I got my standard form rejection from the Fairy Tale Review, after sending only two polite personal inquiries at the 8 and 10 month marks (their website assured me I would get a response from them in 4 months.) Ah well, what’s 10 months of waiting for an unsigned standard form rejection between friends?

But I’m on the case! This morning I had 18 outstanding submissions, and now I have 17. I’m tracking. I’m following up, a few times if needed. I’m taking my lumps people. This is how we do it in small press literary journal land.

In order to keep the machine oiled, re-adding Twitter to my mix feels right. When I post this, my blog will auto-tweet this, and somewhere on Twitter somebody might read it. And who knows, somebody who read it might re-tweet it. It could happen.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to get back to writing. Not blog posting, not tweeting, not drinking diet cola beverage, but writing. That’s what we writers are supposed to be doing in between blog posts and tweets, remember?

The Magical Five Digits: 10,000 and counting

I finally made it to more than 10K page views on my blog! It took me a little over a year and a half, and given my reduced posting schedule recently, I’m glad I still get traffic when people troll the archives (which they seem to do regularly.) Now I have to find a way to get back to posting more frequently, and writing stories again (and with any luck, having them accepted for publication).

I’ve been spending a lot of time running through airports, on planes and in office buildings lately and I haven’t fully developed a creative “road warrior” strategy on how to balance my busy work schedule and my personal life. Yeah, I have no personal life to speak of these days.

It’s a bit frustrating to not be at home for more than 2 or 3 days at a time and run right back out onto the road, but it looks like this schedule is going to be the norm for me for the forseeable future. I’m going to have to suck it up and “get used to it.” (If anybody reading this shares this kind of schedule and also manages to write and blog, please add comments below and tell me how you are managing to juggle everything!)

My whining aside, I did manage to crawl past the 10K clicks “mile marker” and that still means something to me.

Hope you all are doing well out there in blog land…!

Catch Me If You Can…

My life is a bit hectic these days, not that you’d know it from reading my blog. On the blog, it’s all been a duck swimming on a lake – all the mad paddling has been going on under the surface.

To open a window of insight for regular readers, last week I flew to Nebraska for a few days (for work) and this week I’ll be flying to Arizona and California (for work) and next week I might have to fly to Texas (for work) … and you can pretty much tell I’m here, there and everywhere (for work,) but nowhere when it comes to updating my blog or writing new stories. (Unfortunately though it has not stopped rejection slips from arriving in my email in-box for pieces submitted many months ago…)

This level of travel probably won’t be the norm – although I haven’t quite figured that out yet given the exciting new stuff I am working on (for work) these days. I’d like to imagine things will settle down to a dull roar eventually, at some point in the mythical future I envision myself  jogging through airports with ease, doing all my work (for work) and writing stories in my leisure time (I know, I know. Tell me when you stop laughing.)

I think about the blog more than you might imagine. I know when my blogger friends get submerged into their lives I also wonder where they are and what they’re doing, and then when they post about where they are and what they’re doing I’m always interested. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily interested in hearing about my domestic wanderings, but perhaps it is enough to say I would like to think you could be interested in my momentary lapse of blog communication, regular reader.

My bags may be packed and ready to go, but I’ve learned that hotel internet connections are a wonderful thing (see my earlier post about Shrinkage, for example) … so I can reply to comments and engage with you all if you are still listening (I think you are… and thanks for your patience.)

Blog Rolls, Blog Awards, Blog-headedness, and other Curmudgeonly Offers

Now that I’ve spent a fascinating 10 months in the blog-o-sphere, I’m finally getting around to adding a blog roll. Most of you know what a blog roll is, but for anyone who doesn’t, it’s a list of your peeps, your buds, your pals: your favorite blogs.

Why add a Blog Roll now, Carol?

Well, I’m sooooo glad you asked. 🙂

Some of my readers, dear kindhearted souls that they are, in showing their enjoyment of my blog, they nominate me for any number of blog-o-sphere “I like your blog” award thingies. It’s a nice idea, isn’t it? Awww, so sweet…

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the appreciation. But…I’m a curmudgeonly person by nature (some of the nicer readers didn’t know this about me…until now) and I’m not too keen for jumping up and down three times while chewing gum and singing the national anthem. I’ll watch you do it though. Hey you look like you are having fun, good for you!

But me? I’m not so much for writing about the 14 reasons I like orange juice or the 9 most dastardly things to do with chlorine bleach. I won’t pontificate on how many brussel sprouts I ate last year, or the 6 most secret things I’ve done with a dust buster but never told anyone. I’m not gonna do it and you can’t make me. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

You, however, are all very nice people. You are MUCH nicer than me. But please, for the love of all that is holy, please don’t be offended if I don’t fire off numerous blog posts with an itemized list of the rules of x or y blog award, and the 92 bloggers who won it in the last seven minutes and then come up with a list on my own of 46 more people to nominate.

(Gosh, I’m really mean….I’ll probably go straight to hell for my bad behavior. Don’t try this at home.)

BUT!!

I do enjoy reading other people’s blogs. Woman does not exist in a vacuum, and I am no different. I get out there and read. I even comment from time to time.

I am amused by you, I marvel at your travels, I adore your stories and poems, I laugh at myself when I have no idea what on earth you are talking about (I might be talking about you, you wonderful sports fiend Patrick) and sometimes I even gasp or sit and think on what deep thoughts you have written. You are a very talented bunch, you know.

And so, without further ado, I give you…. drum roll…..the list of blogs I like to read.

There it is…

Over there…

In the lower right corner of my blog…

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Consider it a list of approved blogs for your reading pleasure, an “award” for producing consistently great content.

Unfortunately, Carol couldn’t be here tonight to accept your flexible, liebling, apple pie, double heart, blogging award, but she asked me to accept it on her behalf.

Thank you.

2011 Roundup – Highlights of My Inaugural Blogging Year

On March 26, 2011 I began this blog with the auspicious post: “Is This Thing On” with a two word revelation: Hello World!

Yeah, I had no freaking clue what blogging was about, or what I signed myself up for. Even though blogging is a ridiculous amount of work, I’m happy with my inaugural year results.

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THE NUMBERS:

• 134 postings created during 2011, and over 600 tags used. Some months, like June 2011 had only 1 posting, while others, like December 2011 had 23. (To look at the postings of a full month go to the calendar in the far right column of my blog towards the bottom and you can hover over any date to see what was posted, or move between months with ease.)
• Pages were viewed more than 3000 times in 2011! I’m proud of that stat! I couldn’t have done it without YOU the reader, coming to see what the heck I had to say. Which leads me to….
• There are 432 comments on my blog. Because I reply to nearly every comment, about half of them are mine. Of the rest, my top commenters are: Wren Andre http://wrenandre.wordpress.com, Patrick of Sporting Sense, Scribbla http://scribbla.wordpress.com and Louise Jacques of My Other Book is a Tolstoy. You four have been my strongest participants in this blog and have enhanced it tremendously with your inputs. THANK YOU! And thanks to everyone else who commented too!
• Speaking of participants, 47 people have followed my blog since inception. I had no idea 2 people would want to read what I had to say, nevermind 47. It’s exciting to see this number increasing over time.

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FLASH FICTION:

There are 10 flash fiction stories posted directly to the blog. Some of my favorites are: Fallen,  and Graduation Day.

Click on the tag “Flash Fiction” in my Tag-a-licious Cloud in the left column of my blog and flash fiction tagged posts will come up in a list.

AUDIO! On at least two of my posts, Flash Fiction: Traveler’s Journey and Flash Fiction: Consider the Pomegranate you can listen to me reading my work. I’ll be posting more of these audio clips in 2012.

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SHORT STORIES:

13 stories or flash pieces have been published by small press journals, or are forthcoming in Q1 2012. All of these are listed on my Published Stories page. Yay!

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PHOTOS:

I’m surprised by this number – I’ve got 175 photos posted to the blog. That seems like a lot to me, I hope you enjoyed them.

If you want to see a more composed view of my photographs, please visit my Shutterfly site: http://cdeminskiphotos.shutterfly.com

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HUMOR:

There are 15 pieces on the blog tagged as Humor. (Click on the Tag-A-Licious cloud under Humor.) These pieces are the hardest for me to write, and I’m never sure if they’re all that funny unless you tell me you enjoyed them (which you do, thanks…)

One of my most clicked posts is Funniest Tweets Ever. I’m not sure if this post still holds up, you can be the judge of that.

Here are the humor posts I like best:

• Girl’s Guide to Living With a Sports Fan
• What Upper West Siders Did During the Hurricane
• Reasons Why Fran Lebowitz Has Writer’s Block
• Reasons Why Your Short Story Was Rejected
• A Fairytale – NYC Style (a re-write of Snow White)

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I look forward to entertaining you all for another year. 2012 – here we come.

Countdown to 3,000 clicks! (AKA Derek Jeter’s got nothin’ on me!)

This has been an incredible year from a blogging perspective. It’s my inaugural blog year and I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.

I’ve gotten more than just my friends to sign up for my blog (yay readers!), and I’ve started building a regular regimen of posting (it’s still brutal, whine, whine, grumble). Oh yes, I’ve also upgraded the blog and made audio recordings available selectively of me reading my short stories (the jury is still out on whether anyone will listen to them though.)

Now that there are a mere 10 calendar days left in the year, I’m hoping to achieve one last goal with your help. I’d love to hit 3,000 page view clicks in this, my first blogging year (although technically I did not start blogging until the end of March this year…)

I won’t be able to do it without your help though! I’m less than 100 clicks away from my goal!

• Take a look now through my Categories, and pick one. Click on something that catches your eye.

OR

• Hover your mouse over the calendar entries on the bottom right of my blog and choose from postings I’ve put up this month. Click on some of the photographs from New Orleans you might enjoy.

Thanks again for all your support this year. I’m planning to do one more wrap-up post, looking back at my first year in blogging with some call outs for selected posts.

In the meantime, start clicking!

An Investigative Inquiry About Clickages

Dear readers, I’ve noticed something quite peculiar about my blog, and I’m wondering if you have experienced the same thing?

About 50% of my posts have Links to other things, whether references to places I’ve visited in real life, points of interest on the web, photographs, and most importantly to me – links to my stories – and guess what? You don’t click them. You don’t click them longtime. 😦

How is it I’ve come to know this, you ask? Well, on the WordPress Dashboard there is a “Clicks” area which shows which links were clicked (pretty sneaky, right?)

Why is it readers don’t click on any links, hardly ever?

Can some magical blog guru out there please explain why this is so? I thought people liked links?

I’m so confooosed about this one.

Thanks for listening…

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CODA – I found a Copy Blogger article online that says people need you to insert the words “Click Here” so people will know to click. Really? That seems too simple to me.  But according to the stats quoted, using “Click Here” can lift click rates by up to 8%. Soooo, if you’d like to read the Copy Blogger article….. uh, Click Here.