400 Entries
I’ve been blogging for almost 20 months now and today the totals on my blog dashboard went over 400 entries. Half of them are posts and the rest are fairly equally divided between pages and comments. I really enjoy blogging, though sometimes it takes more time that I thought it would. Though it has proven more difficult than I thought to keep counting software that works well, I have learned from watching reader counts what blog articles are read the most.
Popular articles
My most popular articles have been some in my series on seeking God. My sermon series outlines are always popular, especially holiday series; and a few of my articles on difficult passages have proven to have ongoing appeal. On the other hand, sermon visuals and news commentary have received little traffic.
However, I believe that I blog best when I write about things that I’m genuinely interested in rather than when I write about things that I think my readers will be interested in. So my blog is most successful when both conditions are true.
On the comments
I have also been surprised at the paucity of comments. I delete many times more spam comments than I receive in genuine replies. Readers seem to be interested in reading the articles, but not really interested in discussing them. I have received some feedback by email as well. In fact, it has become nearly as popular a method of contact as leaving comments.
My purposes
In my very first blog post I set forth three purposes for my blog:
1. To help me connect with church family and other friends
2. To provide a forum for written contemplation of a kind that might be useful to others
3. To disseminate information, especially the kind of tidbits that are interesting but don’t seem to have a forum at the time.
Reflecting on the purpose of blogging
I believe those three purposes are still very valid though I might reword them a little. However I think there is a fourth one that has been active all along that I have become increasingly conscious of. Blogging is a very personal journaling. One purpose, not always conscious, is to chronicle life as I see it, to record experiences and perspectives with words and often pictures. This recording is not just for others, but very much a healthy and deliberate self-expression.
Current Purposes
So here’s how I would write my purposes today.
1. To help me connect with family, church family and friends.
2. To provide a forum for written contemplation of a kind that might be useful to others.
3. To disseminate information, especially the kind of tidbits that are interesting, useful or helpful and that fit this forum.
4. To create a personal journal, chronicling life from my perspective.