Today is the one-year anniversary of the Fuchsia Woman Blog: America Commentary with a Kick! Yeah! (I have enough shoes. I’m sure I’ll think up something else to buy to commemorate this auspicious occasion. [I’d like to buy back my “before the change” brain. See my “menopausal blogs” for that story…)
In the last year I have written 307 blogs. At an average of 650 words, that’s almost 200,000 words total—the equivalent of two novels. That’s a lot of writing. (And a lot to remember. I tried not to repeat myself. But can’t remember if I did or not!)
To my surprise, my most popular blogs are reviews, especially my posts about the TV movie, Grey Gardens; the animated film, Up; and the documentary, The September Issue (about Vogue Magazine and an additional rant about Anna Wintour).
In the second tier of popularity are my posts about the amazing writer Michael Chabon; famous milliner of yesteryear, Lilly Daché; and an obscure one I wrote about human nature: Does the Success of Others Make You Happy or Sad?
The other 300 get little attention. Personally I think my best blogs are the ones about my childhood memories (like the one about the Black-Haired Spaghetti); the ones about Frankie in the “Tales of a Tumultuous Tummy” series; and a few of the political screeds. If I had to enter a Blog Contest and could only submit ONE blog, I would choose the one I wrote last month about the Russian spies living in America—who got caught and shipped back to the Land of Borscht. (Boy, those chumps bugged me!)
After a year of blogging, what have I learned? What do I know now that I didn’t know then? PLENTY!
I wish I had started blogging years ago. I have so many blog topics stored in files I would need to post two per day for years to just to catch up.
I wish I had more readers. I started at 0. Now I average about 100 people per day. I think to have a popular blog you need about 50,000 people. I wonder how long that takes?
I wish the Google Guys were my neighbors so I could go next door and bug them to move me up in the Google Search Rankings. I started at 0. The last time I had a Blog Administrator check for me, I was at a 2. I’m not sure what the top level is. But I know I’m not close.
I wish I had more time. Don’t we all? Time to edit, rewrite, and write other things (like finish the fourth book in my Percy Veerance series). The only solution I see for this is less sleep. (Not gonna happen…)
I have learned I am more technology-challeneged than previously thought. I need another neighbor who is a Twitter/Flickr/WordPress/YouTube/Internet geek.
I already knew that I can’t NOT write. But in addition I have learned that blogging is addictive. I think if I say, “I have to blog about that!” one more time, Ye Ol’ Hubby Man is going to toss my laptop out the window. But then I’d have to blog about it. (A vicious cycle…)
I know I’ll keep writing. I get a kick out of the fact that SOME PEOPLE read my stuff. I believe stories are valuable. They tell us about ourselves.
I also think in my own little way, unknown to almost every living creature, I am making America a better place. Or at least shining a light on the issues.
So for more Filosophy with the Fuchsia Flair, I hope you’ll stick around for another year!
One of my favorite blogs:
http://fuchsiawoman.com/blog/live/american-russian-spies-a-bunch-of-wackos/
