What Surprises Me Most After Four Years as a Blogger

Last year, I posted a blog entitled “The Ups and Downs of Blogging Statistics” in which I admitted to checking out my blog statistics and keeping an eye on trends, but not obsessing about them, given that this was “rehearsal” time for me.

Blogging was a building block for me to refine my writing creative skills in preparation for my aspirations as a creative writer. My blogging was for the fun of it, and you were more than welcome to join me along the way.

But four years into the blogging journey, there is one aspect that often surprises me: the posts that keep getting viewed weeks, months or even years after I have originally posted them, and getting fairly consistent views over the long term.

As a blogger, I don’t sit down and think to myself, “This post will get a thousand views”, it doesn’t work that way. And even after posting the link on Google, Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard and sometimes Pinterest, we are sometimes at the mercy of the algorithms for how much prominence (and page views) a post might get.

I have read a good number of articles on blog promotion, and I have definitely taken experts’ advice to try to maximize clicks whether through a well-chosen title, a sharp picture to accompany it, adherence to a consistent posting schedule, as well as seeking lessons learned by the most viewed posts.

But writing a post that resonates, that gets picked up by social media and generates a lot of clicks is not always that scientific.

Just the same, I really enjoy the creative freedom that a blogging platform like WordPress offers me, in curating my own site with topics that I find interesting, curious or funny that could be of interest to others.

It is those blog posts that seem to consistently draw interest, long after their original posting dates that have me scratching my head.

In “The Colonoscopy Countdown” I take a humourous look at the dizzying steps required to prepare for a colonoscopy, a rite of passage for me when I turned 50. I’d like to think it’s a post that can make light of a crappy situation.

“50 Great Things about Turning 50” was just a reflection on the joy and gratitude I felt in turning 50. On average, this post seems to get a couple of views every week, whether I actively promote it or not. Who knew?

In trying to draw common denominators, I’d suspect that these two posts reflect on milestones in life experience, topics that affect different people on different schedules, and likely topics that elicit regular searches.

I am hoping it is the combination of life event and effective use of keyword tags that brings these posts into people’s search results, followed by that magical click of the mouse button.

“How Index Cards Became My New Writing Tool” is a fairly recent post about my shift to committing my writing ideas to index cards. To me, this was the answer to my ideas flowing like a leaky faucet at random times and the many ways I was capturing them, which left me the headache of scavenging through multiple platforms to find “that thing” I wrote two weeks ago.

Posts about writing tools, tips and strategies seem to draw regular page views. When I think back to how many times I have looked up writing tools, tips and strategies, I can only deduce that other writers and bloggers must be doing the same as well. For that very reason, I love this community that shares its experiences, which helps everyone in the long term.

“Is My Cat a Social Eater?” particularly surprised me, especially when there is debate as to whether this is actually fact or fiction. I can only suspect that I was not the only one asking the question, for it to keep popping up in my page views. Just the same, my posts about the joys of pet care and being a first-time pet owner receive regular visits as well.

Similarly, the collection of posts about running seem to do fairly well in late winter and throughout spring, likely as runners start thinking of escaping their winter cocoon and ramping up for upcoming races.

Blogging continues to be a source of fun and joy for me, thanks to YOU, the readers. I can’t say I envisioned I would still be at it four years later, but I am! I am so grateful for your comments, your feedback and the clicks on the topics that seem to interest you. You continue to inspire me!

For those reasons I thank you for your encouragement to stay true to myself and writing from the heart… even the quirky posts!

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, please know that there are plenty more where that came from! If you haven’t already, you can check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André