After I hit Publish , I compulsively check the stats (number of pages viewed) and audience (the countries the readers are from) and immediately pageviews pop-up from the United Kingdom and the United States as soon as I post. I don't know anyone in the UK so I don't know how they have managed to get what I've posted. I tried to help my friend Lynn Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) as it's listed at the bottom of the blog page so she could automatically get my posts, but neither of us could figure out how to do it.Other than those I know and email to every time I post, for a long time I couldn't figure out how anyone found my blog — let alone someone in Serbia, Saudi Arabia, or Slovakia. Now I think that you can click onNext Blog» and somehow (magically) a mechanism (somewhere) selects a blog from the blogosphere for you to read — gives you a way to randomly try out different blogs and see if you like them.
Most of my faithful readers in Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Chile and Canada, I personally know (thank you Oskar, Frank,Irina, Kate, Marilyn, Michelle, and Therese)...but now I have a small contingent of readers in Latvia, Romania, the Netherlands and Poland. I wish I knew whom you all were. I'd like to see your faces, hear your thoughts, learn what your lives are like.
Every month I'm surprised by a reader from a completely unexpected place — Columbia, Ireland, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Mongolia — Mongolia! Exciting! To think that someone in MONGOLIA is reading what I wrote. Out of the millions and millions of blogs on blogger.com (not to mention the other hosting sites) someone in Mongolia was reading my blog. GEEZ! But I shouldn't get too excited. They read once and then they go. Never to return. I wish they'd give me another try.
Tales From Denise James
I'm always happy when a person (Kris) says, "I LOVE your TV and movies reviews!" and then confused when that very same day someone else will share, "All that film stuff is fluff — I wish you'd stick to the personal stuff." Then a high school buddy (Margee) will tell me, "Honestly, I love your writing but it keeps jumping around and I get into a story and then you jump elsewhere and I never know where the story is going." Only to be countered by a college friend (Laura) who says, "I LOVE that you jump around! Whenever I get an email I NEVER know what's going to be waiting — something about your kids or your collections, your art or your travels."
And speaking of the travel posts — "Frankly, those posts when you're traveling? I find them boring (Lee, Random House friend); I'd much rather you stick with the relationship writing." versus (Barbara, Random House friend) "Oh, when you write about your trips, I feel as if I'm there with you." Or early on from my college Professor (Tony — I found him after writing about him and now he writes me after every post — wonderful, supportive, often scholarly feedback), "I think the two most difficult kinds of writing are instructions (you know, like how to put that Chinese-made wine cooler together) and travel stories...Read theBerlin story — A nice read. Congratulations."
When you're sharing your life on a blog, everyone reading it feels in touch with you. They're hearing about you regularly, they're keeping up with what's going on, they feel connected to you, and that's great except for one thing — they know about me but — I don't know anything about them. I don't feel the connection because I'm sending it all out there but very little is being sent back. That's something I've come to realize about blogging. For all the good it does for me, basically, it's a one-way conversation.
As I was writing this, I went out to run some errands and ran into Sally, a friend from the neighborhood.
"Hi Sally!" I gave her a hug because I was glad our paths crossed and I hadn't seen her in quite a while.
"Hi!" she said hugging me back, "I know I haven't seen you, but I feel I'm keeping up with you because I read your blog..."
See what I mean?
In some ways this technology has connected me to a wide world of readers near and far, ones I know and ones I don't. And while I can't say how many readers, I can say I'm almost at 18,000 pageviews — which isn't much in the blogosphere but honestly — it's the universe to me.
SO — why do I still feel so d-i-s-c-o-n-n-e-c-t-e-d ?
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[On a less cranky note: I had a reader from Finland this week!]
[AND two days after posting, a reader in Iraq and another in Tunisia ...amazing.]
And speaking of the travel posts — "Frankly, those posts when you're traveling? I find them boring (Lee, Random House friend); I'd much rather you stick with the relationship writing." versus (Barbara, Random House friend) "Oh, when you write about your trips, I feel as if I'm there with you." Or early on from my college Professor (Tony — I found him after writing about him and now he writes me after every post — wonderful, supportive, often scholarly feedback), "I think the two most difficult kinds of writing are instructions (you know, like how to put that Chinese-made wine cooler together) and travel stories...Read the
When you're sharing your life on a blog, everyone reading it feels in touch with you. They're hearing about you regularly, they're keeping up with what's going on, they feel connected to you, and that's great except for one thing — they know about me but — I don't know anything about them. I don't feel the connection because I'm sending it all out there but very little is being sent back. That's something I've come to realize about blogging. For all the good it does for me, basically, it's a one-way conversation.
As I was writing this, I went out to run some errands and ran into Sally, a friend from the neighborhood.
"Hi Sally!" I gave her a hug because I was glad our paths crossed and I hadn't seen her in quite a while.
"Hi!" she said hugging me back, "I know I haven't seen you, but I feel I'm keeping up with you because I read your blog..."
See what I mean?
In some ways this technology has connected me to a wide world of readers near and far, ones I know and ones I don't. And while I can't say how many readers, I can say I'm almost at 18,000 pageviews — which isn't much in the blogosphere but honestly — it's the universe to me.
SO — why do I still feel so d-i-s-c-o-n-n-e-c-t-e-d ?
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[On a less cranky note: I had a reader from Finland this week!]
[AND two days after posting, a reader in Iraq and another in Tunisia ...amazing.]
Blogging is one way by nature of the medium. Same as tweeting I think. At least on FB people "like" or better yet comment. Keep writing in your own way and style! As a writer, you have to get out in words what you are feeling in the moment. Your best work is unlikely to be an "assignment" to write more travel, less travel, more kids, less kids, more work, less work. I personally enjoy all your subjects because it opens insight into your variety of experiences and things you value to share with us. Not many of us want to be publicly out there, in the same way you put yourself out there. So understandably not a lot of people respond. BUT can tell you I love your writing and it is a highlight to my week to savor another new blog article from you. (for the record, yup I am one of your supporters from HS!)
ReplyDeleteWell THANK YOU to my HS supporter for such a supportive comment! I feel "connected"! I don't do FB or Tweet so I can't compare the experience but I can say I didn't go into this thinking it was one-way. Not sure why I didn't...I DO appreciate comments but often people email me directly and then no one else sees their comments (and they're often so GREAT or insightful!) so that limits connection too I think. I SO appreciate your reply!
DeleteI think this is telling the Romanian readers how to access films online....!
ReplyDelete