Today marks three years since I started this blog. During this period there have been 74 posts on a variety of subjects which have generated 334 comments from different readers. The blog has had well over 24,000 hits – most were during the second and third years of the blog.
This is not a high traffic blog – most blogs that cover a variety of unrelated subjects tend to have a limited following. The traffic this blog has experienced is relatively good given the generalized nature of the blog. The blogs that have repeat visitors are those that address a specific subject whether it is travel, computers, investments, cuisine, humor, children or anything that is focused on a specific area of interest. Most visitors to this blog are those who googled a specific subject and they literally come from all over the world. However, they don’t tend to be repeat visitors – but I knew when I started this blog that the regular readership would be limited.
As my nephew, Vivek, said half-jokingly in an email, commenting on the range of subjects covered: “I can’t think of too many blogs that would cover the Tudors and Nair weddings, a couple of entries later”!
The post that generated the most comments by far was the one that I did on Allidina Visram High School – my alma mater – and they were mainly from alumni of the school around the time frame when Kenya was still a colony of Britain. The posting that generated the most hits in the shortest period of time was the most recent one about the controversy relating to Smith College. Perhaps, the saddest and most poignant was a comment by the son of the pilot of the Pan Am flight which crashed in 1968 – I had a friend who died on that flight. Then there was the post which generated a gracious comment from the bride whose wedding I criticized as being overly lavish.
There have been periods when I have taken extended breaks from posting …….. more as a result of laziness than anything else. I had hoped to average about three posts a month and I would likely have achieved this goal had it not been for the months that I went silent.
When I started this blog, I was intrigued by the whole concept of blogging. I decided that it would be a good vehicle to offer a personal perspective about things that had garnered my attention. I had already started writing a series of personal and private letters to my children which I intended to share with them in the future. As I wrote these letters, I realized that while some of what I wrote was too personal to include in a public blog, there was other information that could reasonably be shared with others …… and the title of this blog reflected the nature of these writings: namely, a series of personal reflections, ruminations, recollections and a few rants and raves!
I have never really made any effort to publicize this blog other than to include the link to it below my signature in the emails that I exchange with family and friends. One thing that does surprise me is how high this blog ranks on google searches. I have no idea why this happens – it is certainly not anything that I have sought to do to improve the ranking of the blog. But the high ranking certainly explains the wide range of hits that the blog receives from all over the world. If there is one thing that I would like to do differently it is to reduce the length of some of the posts – it would certainly reduce the time I spend on posting. The average post takes me about one hour to complete ….. not a lot of time but shorter posts would likely lessen the time it takes.
So this blog moves into the fourth year of its existence…….
