Confessions of a Slightly Obsessed Blogger (or, “I want more Google followers”)

I have several small thorns in my blogging flesh. One is that the post which Google places in the “most popular” position at the top of my sidebar is an essentially meaningless little announcement. Its apparent popularity is due to the fact that it contains a Beatrix Potter image that somebody has pinned to Pinterest. That one announcement continues to rack up views and to skew my statistics. Thus, the posts that I consider much more interesting, important, significant, and literary are displaced by a drawing of a mouse in a dress. Alack. Someday, I hope, my real articles will outpace that image. If I was less obsessed with my blog, I would think about this fact a great deal less.

Another little thorn is shaped like this: when I put extra effort into crafting an especially serious, thoughtful little article that I am quite fond of, it tends to get far fewer page views. Isn’t that just like life?

The truth is that I am a little obsessed by blogging. My husband’s eyes glaze over when he hears me mention the word “blog” (he just walked by, saw me typing this, and said that I should remove the word “slightly” from the title). I’ll even lie in bed at night and tell him how much I want more Google+ followers. Why? Just because I do. Badly. Very badly.

My interest in this blog went up a notch when my son was born and it became much harder to be a productive blogger (typical!). I do try to type up articles one-handed while nursing, but it gets really hard when only the left hand is free, and so usually I give up and go back to dreaming dreams of blogging glory. Blogging is fulfilling because it gives me a chance to clarify my own opinions and thoughts. I love being able to edit my writing. Not only does it sharpen my ideas, but it also makes me sound a lot smarter than if I merely burbled my thoughts aloud. It is also a chance to connect to people who like to think about the same things that I do. I love reading the comments that people leave me. Being part of the blogging world has also been a impetus to find and read other blogs that are far cleverer and more interesting than mine. 

I look forward to another year of clicking “publish.” Hopefully my posts will continue to improve, and hopefully I will grow as a writer. Hopefully, also, I will get a lot more Google+ followers.

*****

As a Year in Review exercise, I am joining the “Most”Posts of 2013 linkup. You can find great blogs by clicking over there.

The linkup supplies five categories:

Post with the most clicks

I am going to ignore the Beatrix Potter post that I discussed above. Other than that, the one with the most clicks is “How to Homeschool without Warping Your Kids: Adult Grads Report Back, part I: Are Homeschoolers Raising Judgmental Twerps?”

It was fascinating to interview a variety of homeschool graduates to hear their views on the helpful and the destructive things that they have seen in homeschool families.

Post with the most comments

Two posts tie for this honor: "Dilemma-Framing: Why the Hunger Games Needs Yellow Boots" and "The Over-Zealous Plans of an Inexperienced Mother."

Post with the best picture

I must say that I like the cat pictures with which "How to Train a Discerning Reader" is illustrated.

Post that was hardest to write

It took a long time to decide on the structure for my three-part “How to Homeschool without Warping Your Kids” series, but there is another, much shorter post that was harder to write: “What if I Hate Wuthering Heights?” It was a challenge because I was trying to express some of the uneasy doubts that I, an ardent enthusiast about old books and classical education, have about the classics.

Post that was your personal favorite (not your readers' favorite- your favorite)

Hmm. I really do like "Why I Will Tell My Children That They’re Ugly," not because I think it is the best thing that I ever wrote, but because it was one of the first times that I tried to address current issues. After seeing Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign all over facebook, it was a relief to sort through my own response to Dove by writing this post.