Daily prompt : Stats influence on writing

Tags

audience, popular, postaday2013, traffic, writing

Go to your Stats page and check your top 3-5 posts. Why do you think they’ve been successful? Find the connection between them, and write about it.

I looked up my top four of “all time”, all time being the two and a half years that I have been blogging, and my home page/archives was number one with 5492 views. It surprised me that it would be number one because I haven’t written anything about myself that would be a crowd pleaser. One of these days I will edit the page, but for now it is still the most basic of descriptions, perhaps that is the appeal, the bare bones of me.

The next three are interesting in the sense that the viewership is relatively high and the number of likes is sooooo low. Case in point, number two is “Describe your favorite restaurant in the world” with 1403 views but only two bloggers liked it. The third most popular is the one “People too dependent on technology; agree or disagree?” with 1214 views and only three bloggers liking it. The fourth is “Why are reality shows so popular?” with 1144 views and this time an astounding 7 likes, woo, hoo! The common thread between these posts is that they were generated by the Daily Prompt, the questions themselves are basic questions and my answers are my opinions, that simple.

What does this tell me about my blog? It tells me that my blog is definitely a blog that serves as my personal journal and features a mish mosh of things that are important to me, things that happen to me and my opinions on a variety of subjects, thanks in part to the Daily Prompt. It also serves as my log to catalog my gardening successes, failures, new tips and discoveries. The same goes for my cooking and baking, I have quite a few pictures and vague recipes that I can refer back to, to remind myself of what was a hit and which baked goodie wasn’t worth the effort.

I am not the most popular and not the most viewed, but that is okay. I still like writing my posts and I like the open ended feel of my blog, I don’t have to adhere to a specific subject. I write about what makes my days unfold, slowly or quickly, lackadaisical or busy, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I write about something.

Inspiration provided by my readers

Tags

audience, inspiration, NaNoWriMo, postaday2012, writing

I received such a wonderful response to my post titled Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Slacker that this morning I decided to grab the bull by the horns and sit myself down in front of the computer and not stop until I got to 20,000 words. I did it. I wrote 9,900 words today, I have to admit that I am a little cross-eyed right now and my brain feels a little fuzzy, I think that my brain overheated a bit today. However I do feel good about plowing through writing today.

I was initially going to title this post Walk and Write, Walk and Write because essentially that is all I did today; I walked Jack and then sat down and wrote, walked Jack, sat down and wrote and then I walked Jack again. I did this pattern until I got to 20,000 words. It wasn’t difficult per se, the story is unfolding nicely and I love my characters. That being said, it is challenging to sit down for hours at a stretch and type word after descriptive word.

As I was walking Jack, it came to me that I had to title this post in honor of my readers who provided me with the support and the proverbial kick in the bottom to stop complaining and sit down to write. Not question, not analyze, not procrastinate and as in the words of the wise Yoda, no try just do.

So thank you all of my readers for helping me in my hour of need. I really appreciate it. 🙂

Who are you really blogging about?

Tags

audience, blogs, postaday2012, you

• What would you be blogging about if you had a completely different blog? Does that connect at all to what you usually blog about? Even a teensy bit?

• What do you really want to blog about?
• I have two blogs; my personal blog, laurieanichols, and my political blog, A Progressive’s Thoughts at WordPress. My writing friend and mentor advised me to separate my blog into two because I was packing all my thoughts into one space and it wasn’t clear where I was going with my original blog. I have to say that it was a tremendous piece of advice and I am so happy that I followed it. My personal blog became, I think, a more intimate place for me and about me. My political blog reflects another side of my personality which is more serious and demanding. I like having the two, separate and yet the same, just different venues for the one person.

Dear reader

Tags

audience, blogging, daily life, letter writing, postaday2012, posts

• Who do you picture reading your blog? Write them a letter.

• Dear reader,
  Thanks for stopping by and visiting. It makes me feel really happy to think that you took the time out of your busy day to come see what I have to say about myself and my life. It makes me feel special and I hope that I gave you something to smile about or laugh about or even dare I hope, something to think about? As I write my little posts every day, you are always in my thoughts, I wonder will you be interested or will you even care. As my day go by I often find myself thinking “oh I have to write about that to tell my readers, I wonder what they might think” So you see, even if I don’t know you, I think about you everyday.

Change in the menu

Tags

audience, dinner party, menu, postaday2012

Yesterday I wrote my post speaking about the menu that I was expecting for the dinner party that my cousin Didier and his wife were throwing for us band of young cousins; I arrived at Didier’s, kissed everyone hello and Didier said that I had made a few errors in my post describing the menu. I laughed because ever since I arrived in France, my cousins have been reading my blog and they aren’t shy in their comments. I think that having my cousins reading my blog and getting interested in what I have to say is a huge compliment and makes for great conversations. Didier’s one sentence about my post was a gift for writing a new post, so here is an editorial correction of yesterday’s post.

First I have to say that Vivianne outdid herself in the kitchen, everything was faites maison, or homemade, and was delicious. For starters, at the aperitif or before dinner drinks, Vivianne served us, on several plates, these tiny little bowls, each one contained a different hor d’oeuvre, one was a tiny cubed salad of cantaloupe, cucumber and cheese, the cubes were tiny, tiny and the vinaigrette was light, it was so good and refreshing, the manual labor involved in that tiny salad was impressive. There was also a light presentation of smoked salmon over a herbed creme fraiche that was very good, there was also an Asian version of a tartare of salmon with a sauce, that was light and elegant as well.I almost forgot my favorite, I am a huge fan of the foie gras and breast of duck.Vivianne made a terrine of smoked breast of duck and homemade foie gras, she sliced the terrine very thinly and put them on small toast rounds, it was to die for, if I could have, I would have eaten much more than I did, but it isn’t good manners to hog a plate all to oneself, so I shared, begrudgingly.

After all that, we went to the table and the entrée or appetizer wasn’t the famous cantaloupe and prosciutto, it was a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad with basil, nice and light, perfect start before the famous kebabs. Leon, he who must be mentioned as much as possible lest he pout again at being left out of the conversation, he got a plate of cantaloupe and prosciutto as a joke, it was quite funny, he complains about everything, so Vivianne teased him quite a bit last night. The desserts after the kebab, salad and cheese course, I have to mention all the food we had before the desserts to give you an idea of how stuffed I felt by the time dessert was put on the table. Now if it had been ice cream, I could have said no thank you, I am so full, there isn’t any more room in my little belly, but these were homemade by our hostess with the mostest; I could not in good conscience refuse. She had made two tarts, one a simple apple tart and the other was an apricot tart with a beautiful custard filling, how do you say no, you can’t and they were delicious. When we all said good-bye, I made sure to compliment the chef, Vivianne, profusely because she had put a lot of work and time, we were twelve for dinner so it was a lot of preparation. I know that when I spend all that time and energy cooking it really makes me happy to hear all good things afterwards.