Happy Blogiversary to me!

Six years ago this week, I waded into the world of social media. Life outside in the real world was very different for me then. I was living in a city that I disliked immensely (sorry Edmonton), during a season which I always dislike immensely (sorry winter), working at a job that I disliked immensely (sorry EPCOR), and to boot I was taking night courses at a community college which—you guessed it—I disliked immensely (sorry Grant MacEwan).

I think when I first started blogging, it was a creative outlet to distract me from other “stuff” that was going on. Six years later, my operation has grown slightly more sophisticated...but only slightly. My first-ever blog post was short and sweet, and a was a clear testament to my complete lack of technical know-how, and up to the most recent, my computer savvy has only barely advanced.

technically, I can hardly call myself a blogger. I've only produced 139 posts in six years. A drop in the bucket compared to those who update daily.

Despite this, people “read me” anyways, and hey, I just wanted to stop in this month and say “thanks”. In a world that has more social media applications and ways to share stories every month nowadays... Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MySpace, RSS feeds channelling news every which way... well, it’s more than easy to go somewhere else. It’s estimated that there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of more that 300 million blogs out there, and then some. Closer to 400 million now, I’m sure.
Which makes my blog tant amount to the speck of dust that clings to the speck of dust that clings to a slightly larger speck of dust. I’ve never been aggressive about trying to add readers to my blog, but some growth has happened anyway.

Over the last six years, I’ve had about 11,500 people stop by the blog, with about 19,000 page views. I can’t track the readers that check my post as it appears on my Facebook RSS feed, so I can factor in a few more hits from there, I suppose. I don’t imagine it’s anything to write home about. In any case, by no means do I produce these numbers as bragging rights, as not all of those hits are unique visitors. Most are folks like you who’ve come back time and time again to check in with StuLand once a month or so.

And thanks for doing it.

Writing makes me happy, and from what I get in feedback, my writing makes some of you happy, too, which again, makes me happy. Even if no one read my musings, I know I’d still be doing this stuff because it’s what I love to do, and I guess that’s why six years later, I’m still blogging.

Life is totally different now, of course, from what it was “back then”. Different city, career well underway, married, kid avec one on the way, house, dog, etc. So that must mean that I’m not really writing this blog because I need someone to “pay attention to me, dammit”, but just because it’s what I like to do.

It’s a good place to be. So, here’s to six more years and beyond!

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Fast Facts about Stuland usage (yes, I’ve been spying on you):

• Canadians account for 65 per cent of my readership. “unknown” comes second
with a 17 per cent share, followed by the good ol’ USA and the UK after
that.

• The average reader stays on my blog for about six and a half minutes. That’s
pretty good considering how fast people jump off most web pages.

• I get about 15 hits a month from people who are 11,000 kilometres or further
away from me.

• For the nearly two hundred hits I get in an average month, Only 1-3 people
will leave comments ON my blog, with a further 18-20 sending comments to my
email inbox. The rest of you are just voyeurs I guess! Don’t be afraid to
stop in and say hi!

• Telus internet account holders make up about a quarter of the readers.

• 95 per cent of the readership uses English as a first language. Coming in
second... Russian, at three per cent. Me thinks we can safely call these
people internet spammers who are not on my blog for its fine content ;)