What I wish I'd known before I started blogging - nothing
(idea courtesy of Clayboy, and others).
There's nothing I wish I'd known before I started, mostly because I still don't know a great deal. There are some things I'd really like to know, though. Like:
1. Why sometimes you can write something good (modest as ever) which gets ignored, and then something really silly and ranty gets loads of attention.
2. How some people (you know who you are) post 900 times a year and still appear to lead an external life of some description.
3. Why one post that I wrote last year has had more hits than any other, by a factor of 5.
4. Why there is isn't a simple ranking site that ranks blogs by the most obvious criterion of quality - how many people read them.
5. Why backlinks don't work on blogger.
6. Why more clergy, especially those in public roles like Bishops, don't blog. Or, to put it another way, why we don't choose more who can.
There's nothing I wish I'd known before I started, mostly because I still don't know a great deal. There are some things I'd really like to know, though. Like:
1. Why sometimes you can write something good (modest as ever) which gets ignored, and then something really silly and ranty gets loads of attention.
2. How some people (you know who you are) post 900 times a year and still appear to lead an external life of some description.
3. Why one post that I wrote last year has had more hits than any other, by a factor of 5.
4. Why there is isn't a simple ranking site that ranks blogs by the most obvious criterion of quality - how many people read them.
5. Why backlinks don't work on blogger.
6. Why more clergy, especially those in public roles like Bishops, don't blog. Or, to put it another way, why we don't choose more who can.
Comments
1. Because if it is silly and ranty then it provokes a response. Being distinctive and holding a view that is different to the mainstream is something people want, even if they don't agree with you.
2. Is that me? :) Because I don't have a husband, I only have my kids half-time, I never watch television and I blog when I am tired last thing at night as a way of relaxing.
3. That is interesting - hasn't happened to me.. which one is it? Sometimes a post gets put on a site like the BBC that makes the hits go up tremendously.
4. I think Alexa does that. I too thought that was the most obvious criteria for a long time. But then I thought about my research papers, which also were ranked, but only on citations.. it didn't matter how many people read it - only how many people linked to it... Perhaps this is a better criteria.
5. Ah.... good question - I don't know either! Almost nothing works on blogger for me unless I get into the code - I think it is because my template is not 'standard' but 'custom' - try here
6. Because being known is scary - especially to the 'modern' generation (as opposed to postmodern), and the tipping point between the two is around 55 - so those above 55 who are postmodern are in a minority. Plus the CofE is biased towards being 'modern' and not 'emergent', so it is a racing certainty that 95% of the bishops are modern and wouldn't therefore blog.
:) imho ofcourse
Thanks for your kind comments on the trinity blog.
I too am confused by the way blogging runs. I tend to use my blog as a scratch pad which enables me to dialogue with issues inside my head and outside my door. It is primarily for me as an early morning/late night reflection.
I too have been amazed at the comments, and hits, some posts get (especially those you'd think would be passed by) and the fact that some people can write as they do and have a life (and better still a ministry). I meet people who appear to live for that quote, comment of event so they can blog and it seems to consume their whole life - a luxury we on the ground don't have (or is this just our choice?).
Not sure about ranking as some who boast high places and being 'the' place for information, opinion, being quoted and the like are also often the places where real life isn't to be found. I guess that's the problem of blogging - who do we blog for and what do we want our blogs to achieve?
Thanks for your blog though, always a good (and stimulating) read.
Pax
Lesley, it might have been you in number two, but not just you - soem people seem to have so much time at their disposal!
The post which gets so many hits is this one about the healing of Delia Knox - hundreds of google search hits every month. One of my better efforts, fortunately.