JLR turns 1 year old!
Posted: February 18, 2010 | Author: Doug | Filed under: General | 5 Comments »Until today, I completely overlooked the fact that the blog has turned one year old as of January 22nd! Long time readers may recall my frequent tendency to delete blogs after I get frustrated or overwhelmed, and the demise of my last blog, the Level 8 Buddhist, came as a surprise for many. To be honest, I wasn’t sure this new blog would last long, because the topics were somewhat different than those on the previous blog. My readership these days, based on WordPress stats, is about one-half to two-thirds what it used to be and hasn’t improved. I know a large reason is because I tacitly rejected the online Buddhist community and the constant bickering over dharma-lineages, precepts, politics and so on, and many readers probably either felt betrayed or that I wasn’t worth their time anymore.
However, to my own surprise, this blog has lasted a lot longer than the L8B did (the last incarnation lasted 8 months, the previous version 7 months), and I expect to keep going without tiring. I guess I can attribute this to two factors:
- Writing about what I love, not what might draw lots of readers from a given community, even if it’s a big one.
- Keeping to a reasonable fixed, schedule, rather than forcing myself to keep churning out more and more to stay competitive.
- Staying away from too many rants or angsty posts I would be embarrassed by later. In other words, trying to be a bit more professional.
For those of you who have stayed on to read after the L8B was gone, or are new readers within the last year: thank you!
Your comments, links and just general interest really kept me going, even when I thought I should just give up. I sincerely hope the blog has been useful or interesting, and here’s toward a second year!
The Management
I enjoy this new blog a lot and I encourage you to keep on going. Your posts are very unique and informative, and your writing even feels more free. I tend to comment less here than I did on your last blog, but I routinely read your posts on Google Reader. Just wanted to let you know, this blog is great–Keep up the good work!
Congrats. It is definitely better to write about something that interests you and not worry about readership.
Hi guys,
Arun: I really appreciated the input, and it’s good to know the content is still relevant to people. That was one thing I feared quite a bit after making “the switch”.
Tornado: Amen to that, my friend!
I don’t comment much, but generally do read all your posts. I’ve just been behind these days as you can tell by how late this response is. Actually, I had read it a week ago, but my work place blogs WordPress blogs, so I couldn’t comment when I was reading it through Google Reader. Just wanted to make sure I did comment so you know we’re still here and think you’re doing fine on the blog. I haven’t been keeping up with my blog. Just too many projects. Anyways, keep it up.
Hi Kendall, good to hear from you! I think of you often when I write certain Japanese-language posts, so I hope they are useful.
Don’t feel about the readership. I know how it feels to get caught up in work and such and fall behind. No worries.
Take it easy