9!

Today is my ninth blogaversary! Blogoversary? The spelling of made-up words seems a bit fluid…

This is my 1,682nd post. There have been 6,458 comments, 56,348 views, and 31,286 visitors from 126 countries and territories. There are 1,572 followers via WordPress with another couple hundred by email, twitter, and Facebook, with, I’m sure, a bit of overlap.

It seems like so many added up that way, but Top of JC’s Mind is still a small blog, averaging about 20 views a day. I remain grateful for all my visitors and followers. [Time for my usual disclaimer: I rarely look at my stats and don’t do much to actively gain views. In the crush of real life, I decided to devote my blogging time to writing posts and answering comments, so I don’t do the kinds of outreach needed to build up a large readership.]

I’m thankful to still be actively blogging at all. It seems that many bloggers start out but don’t continue for this many years or only post a few times a year.

Not that I post on a regular schedule but I’ve made it to 1,682 posts, so I do manage to say things!

I’ve been happy with my choice to be an eclectic blog. I know some of you visit for the poetry posts or for the family stories. Others might favor my political posts or pandemic posts or environmental posts. Some visit via Linda G. Hill‘s One-Liner Wednesdays or Stream of Consciousness Saturdays series. Some seem to arrive via searches of various sorts, which I find fascinating.

I know now that there are quite a few other eclectic blogs and I love knowing that there are so many of us rambling on about whatever is “top of mind” at the moment.

So, on to Year 10! Hope to see you checking in from time to time.

With thanks,
Joanne

One-Liner Wednesday: one thing leads to another…

“You should know be now that I cannot introduce any topic without also introducing the history of the entire world.”
~~~ Dr. Melody Ross in this twitter thread, although I feel that, while I don’t know Dr. Ross, I do know other people who could say the same thing.
*****
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2022/02/09/one-liner-wednesday-the-stuff-you-make/

1602!

I was never much of a stats person with my blog and have become even less so in the last few years as I’ve been needing to spend a lot of brainpower on caregiving, but, every once in a while, I do notice my number of followers which, as I write this, is now 1602!

Thank you to all of you and to anyone who reads any of my posts, whether you choose to follow or not!

I appreciate your patience with my haphazard blogging approach, where I post without having any schedule whatsoever about whatever is at the top of my mind – or was at the top of my mind at some point but took a few days to make it out onto the page. I realize that some of you are only interested in poetry posts or political ones or family ones, so thank you for checking back in to find your favorites.

Next week, I am headed back to North Adams for a few days to work on my poetry collection. Usually, when I go back there, I blog every day, but I’m not putting that pressure on myself this time. Maybe posts will start sloshing around in my head and I’ll post to get them out and have a change of pace from poetry – or maybe not.

So, I should close with instructions on how to follow me, for those who may be new to such things. There are widgets here to follow if you have your own blog or if you want to follow by email. You can also follow the blog’s Facebook page and/or my twitter, both of which always have links appear when I post. I also usually send new blog posts via ello, if anyone has a presence there.

I’ll spare you my LinkedIn…

stats and followers

I am mostly oblivious when it comes to my blog stats. It’s another of those things that I am supposed to keep track of but don’t. It’s also something that I should be methodically trying to grow, but I haven’t been paying attention to for months and months. I honestly don’t know if I will ever pay proper attention, concentrating on my writing instead of the searching, reading, commenting, and promotion it takes to accelerate growth of followers.

I did just happen to go to my stats page, though, and found that at the top it says I have 1,000 followers, which is my WordPress.com followers plus my email followers.

On my blog itself, it lists 1,168 followers because it adds in my Facebook and twitter followers, some of whom overlap with other categories.

Thank you to all my followers and all my readers. I appreciate your stopping by, whether it is occasional or on a regular basis, whether you comment or keep your thoughts to yourself. It humbles me to know that you think what I have to say is worth reading.

~ JC

Calling people from around the world!

A few days ago, I re-blogged this post: https://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/reaching-out-to-the-world/
from Jay Dee of I Read Encyclopedias for Fun. He is trying to get comments from as many countries as possible. So far, people have responded from USA, Canada, UK, Germany and Ireland. Let’s help him expand the list!

Here’s how you can help:
1) If you are from another country – and I know I have regular visitors from India and Australia – please click on the link and leave a comment, telling Jay Dee where you are from.
2) If you have a blog, are on Facebook, tweet, or engage in any other social media, please consider sharing the link with your followers. There are handy sharing buttons at the end of the post or you can copy and post the link yourself.

Let’s see if we can get visitors from dozens of countries for Jay Dee! Thanks!

500(ish) followers!

The most popular topic among bloggers is blogging! I admit that, while I read a lot of posts on blogging, I don’t often write one, but today I will because I have reached 500 followers for Top of JC’s Mind!

Or at least, 500ish. The numbers are a bit squishy. The number following through WordPress is 389 with email, Facebook, and twitter followers pushing the number up to 500. That means that some people who follow me on more than one platform are double or triple counted, but….

Let’s just say 500! Yay!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all my followers, especially those who visit regularly. There are even a few who comment regularly; thank you for keeping me from feeling as though I am talking to myself.

I also want to thank all the blogs I follow – all 750 of them. Some I get daily or weekly digest emails and visit frequently; others I don’t get to very often. You have all helped me to learn about blogging and gifted me with beauty, humor, poetry, stories, travelogues, photos, thought, and heart.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the Top of JC’s Mind,
Joanne

How many read your blog today?

I think that everyone should read Tric’s blog! You can tell her I sent you. 😉

My thoughts on a page.

I was toying between that title or perhaps,  ‘How not to increase traffic to your blog’. I’ve been blogging over two years and for the most part have enjoyed every day of it. However in the last month, due to life, holidays, my children annoying me and my husband expecting me to feed him, I’ve had less time to write, to read and to post here on wordpress. This has naturally meant my usually high stats, (not!) have nose dived, leading me to wonder, and wondering is not always a good thing!

For as I wondered I grew envious (and bitter). Why do I not have a following of thousands reading my blog? Am I not interesting? At times funny? At times inspirational? Ok perhaps not.

This week I read a couple of posts from bloggers who had big stats. They were kindly telling me, and everyone else, but I…

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The Blog Post Share Project – Share the Love

Jay Dee is helping out other bloggers by encouraging us to share each other’s work through social media. Are you ready to help out in this way?

I Read Encyclopedias for Fun

I was thinking yesterday, I’m usually giving blog posts I like a comment and a like. I get plenty of those myself on this blog. But there are other ways to show your appreciation to blogs and bloggers.

So, how about this? Whenever you see a blog post you like, don’t just like it. Leave a comment if there’s something you want to say, of course. But why not use social media to help get the word out to others about that post? At the bottom of each post in a blog, there should be buttons you can click on for various social media. Twitter is great, if you use it. Why not pin it on Pinterest? Or how about share it with your friends on Facebook? Or even Google+? If you think the post is really, really good, you could even share it on Reddit.

So, this is what…

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new twitter follower

I just got notification that I have a new twitter follower, Gas Industry Today, which just seems weird, given that I have spent years doing public commentary against fracking and continued reliance on fossil fuels.

I thought from the title that this was a pro-industry site, but when I checked it out, it is actually a news aggregator. Given that I post a lot of links, it makes sense that they would follow me, at least for a while.

I don’t usually promote following me on twitter here on Top of JC’s Mind, because my twitter is a mishmash of blog posts, links to things about global warming, fracking, and such, links on Catholic topics and women’s ordination, and the occasional personal comment. It’s even more eclectic than this blog!

But, if anyone wants to follow, on twitter I am @btmum.  I think that link will work. I am not so adept at twitter-verse protocol.

LOL – Probably not a surprise!

How to suddenly increase followers

I’m having one of my try-to-learn-to-be-a-better-blogger afternoons. I actually managed to get my publicize links connected.

Next, I was doing some work on my widgets and realized that it suddenly said I had 169 followers, when I thought I had 113. Then, I realized that my follower number now included my (tiny) twitter following and my (slightly less tiny) Top of JC”s Mind facebook page followers. I think my small non-Wordpress email followers don’t get included in counts at all, other than in my heart, where I love you all!

I guess if I really want my number to jump, I can connect my personal Facebook page instead of my public page. I have about six times more FB friends than I do followers for my page. LOL

I did decide to finally list the number of followers in my sidebar. I had hesitated to do so because I was afraid that people would not want to follow or comment on a blog they knew was so tiny. If I notice a drop-off in traffic, I can always hide it again!

Just in case anyone wants to expand their ways of following me, the WordPress follow button is near the top of the sidebar to the right. The email follow widget is just below.

My Facebook Page for Top of JC’s Mind is here: https://www.facebook.com/topofjcsmind. I invite you to like my page if you are on Facebook.

I admit that I find twitter a challenge. I have difficulty containing myself to 140 characters! Those who love to follow on twitter can follow me, though. I’m @btmum.

Maybe next time, I will actually work on exciting things like finally adding a photo of myself!