150293 & 365 – Thank you.

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Joe

I was doing that maintenance thing on the blog today where you clean out the spam comments and cobwebs. That was when I noticed that this post would be number 365.

Does that make Commotion in the Pews 1 year old in blog years? Nah. But since I threw this nightmare out on the web in November of 2011 I have had 150,293 visits. If you trash 1/3 of those as spiders, web engines, etc. (and that’s being really harsh) that still leaves me with 100,000 visits to the site. And most of them visit a page or two. The “dwell time” tells me that they actually read, not just zoom on the page and click past my gibberish.

In the past 8 months I’ve seen the traffic more than double. That’s really a blessing. Part of it is you are putting out the word about what I write, part of it is silly games like keyword bingo. But I’m going to let you in on a secret – keyword bingo has been a flop. It hasn’t drawn so much as a 1% increase in traffic and so I’m going to drop it effective today.

The lesson is to keep true to my voice and let fly with whatever creeps into my fevered little brain. I’ve put up some controversial topics in the past year and lost a few readers as a result. Such is life. I’m not going to pander just for some readership. My theory is that if I write what I care about and write it well I’ll gain more people on the subscription list every day.

Tomorrow’s post will be a good example of one of those entries that either thrill you or make you want to strangle me. So be it. I do promise that it will get your juices flowing regardless of your “side” on the matter.

Finally, I promise to continue to write about my own life. My spiritual journey. My marriage. My writing. My dogs. All of the things that have colored my life and influenced my relationship with God.

In honor of my “first blog birthday” of 365 posts I offer you a picture of my dog. And my favorite instant coffee. And … well, how about just a snap of the colored “Easter lights” in my cube?