- Starting the BLOG: I started this BLOG as a vehicle to express my ideas, albeit some of them harebrained, to the masses. I had written letters to editor on a regular basis but it seemed I could only get them posted in my town's local newspaper. My local paper is so desperate for printing material that they would publish a letter on hair styling tips from Kim Jung Il
- Followers: Upon publishing my second blog posting, I noticed that my blog had obtained a follower. For a little bit I found this to be quite disconcerting. Just what is a follower? Would my followers be gathering around a shrub in my backyard in orange snuggies ? Did I need to start living a better life? Followers... that seems like a commitment and it is. Of the thousands of Blogs and websites to read online three people have signed up so far to be followers of my Blog. I am grateful for their support.
- Mommy and Daddy How is my Blog?: After I did my first few postings I sought opinion and comments on my Blog from people who make their living giving opinions, talk show radio hosts. I sent my blog to several of them on both a national and local level and all I could hear was the chirping of crickets. I am sure that some of them may actually be extremely busy. I also believe receiving an email with the link Barbarians Near the Gate could be akin to receiving a male enhancement Enzite email from Bob. . I also sent a few of my postings to large conservative websites as letters to the editor. Those sites seemed to publish a lot of letters that read like " Death panels , communists , arrggh!!" but none of mine.
- Facebook gateway to friends: Facebook is a phenomenon and to an extent I would say I am addicted. I really do care when my friends kids are home from college or seeing the pictures posted from my niece's birthday parties for her kids. I post my Blogs, and my friends God bless them get them. One thing though I have found out is that many of my friends are busy and read my Blog sometimes or not at all . I have also found out that many of them are a lot more interested in taking surveys like " Which Old Testament plague are you?" I also get a lot of postings such as "You have received the gift of a fruit bat". There is nothing wrong with this as Its just part of being on Facebook and having fun is part of the experience.
- Facebook gateway to the masses: I joined several political celebrities Facebook pages when I saw that they had membership in the hundreds of thousands. Lots of useful information is posted on these sites. Unfortunately, lots of stupid people post there with the most idiotic postings - being from the extreme left and right of the political spectrum. I really don't care if you think University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow would be a good husband for Sarah Palin's daughter or if you believe the Reptilians are controlling the world under the direction of Dick Cheney. ( OK I will admit Cheney may be cold blooded)I added a site visitor counter to my Blog after several postings and to my surprise I was only getting about 100 hits a week on my site and not the thousands I thought. Ehhh , In the words of the late Fred Rodgers "Boys and girls can you say reality check? Sure, I knew you could."
- Blog envy: After I came to the reality that 10s of thousands were not waiting on my next next blog posting with the excitement of a child on a Dicken's Christmas morn, I asked myself what could I do to get my readership up? When you do a Blog you tend to read Blogs done on a professional basis. The sites are slick with great graphics, links and ooh yes advertising . What could I possible do to compete with them? Could I add an application with a chorus line of cockatoos doing the can can? I even thought about buying myself a horned Viking helmet and reading my blog as The Barbarian on Utube . I might have gained 15 minutes of fame but I would have lost my self respect and yours. Some of the scariest U tube videos I have seen are angry white men ranting in a dark room. Not a club I want to join and not an audience I want.
- Being a Blog slut: Nothing naughty here. But if you are only mining 10 to 25 hits every time you post on a Facebook site how do you get more readers? It's simple! You post again and again on various pages - in effect throwing yourself at the site members like a floozy. I did this recently with my Christmas post. I did this partly as an experiment to see how just many hits my site could get in a week ( About 600) and posting the story of the birth of Christ over and over and over was fun for me to do. It looks like the henious activity of talking about the birth of Jesus has gotten me banned from the Sarah Palin site. I guess I won't be invited to the Tebow/Palin wedding.
- The future of the blog: I work 60 hours a week as a construction manager. I do volunteer work at church with kids and I BBQ chicken for the homeless most every Saturday at 3:00 AM. I also have a lovely wife and daughter who command my attention. That means they glare at me when I spend too much time on this blog. My wife has a degree in English and she edits my writing and grammar. ( She actually believes that commas are required and never leaves my participles dangling. )Let me say this: I really enjoy writing this blog but it's not my life. I will try to do regular postings but I am not going to blog for the sake of blogging. I expect to be involved in the Tea Party movement in 2010 and many of my postings will journal that experience. I know that God gave me the gift of communication which includes the ability able to read between the lines while connecting the dots on current events while providing unique historical perspectives. I promise you my insight and my wit and nothing more.
A Voice In the Wilderness
PS: Please check out the chorus line picture and the dancing cockatoo videos
I'm not a follower (wouldn't know what to do if I was one) but I do enjoy reading your blog postings!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Mindy