Tuesday, October 25, 2022
blog upgrade
Every month I tally up views on my blog system and report here. Really I have concluded that the variation in number comes more from general people movement, i.e. more time indoors at certain times of year, than anything I do. Sure, I can decide whether and how google will notice my blogs, and how they will appear to people when they do search. I can prevent them from getting on the blogger carousel (which gives each blog a bump if it happens to get on there). I can link them better to each other. But aside from that, there isn't much I can do.
But month after month of seeing them fall into a steady disrepair, I finally decided to do something about it. The first problem is that my life has changed enough so that I have to make the blogs reflect that. "Cloudcroft" pictures and links will be changed to "Galesburg" pictures and links. I'll put forward the blogs I like and the ones I still actively use a lot. I'll make sure the others are linked to those. One of my goals is to make a canvass of all my pop art and make sure that pop art that I like and want to preserve is all up on those blogs somewhere. Get it all to the surface. It's not doing much good buried deep in my dropbox.
One thing the blogs have is something I call squares. Be there or be square. The squares are actually links to other blogs and other places too, they just don't tell you where. If you like the square, you click on it. They get outdated with time, and have to be updated. But I can also add a number of them, if I get the time. Update the squares. Make new ones and put them around.
Finally, there's the blog museum. I have a number of blogs I oversee from having put so much esl work on them. It's possible that my former students are embarrassed about them and would really prefer that they just go away. But it's really a huge and interesting supply of data, and a snapshot of the early days of blogs and the use of them. Better, to just organize them and show where things are. That also is a long-range goal.
The work has just begun.
But month after month of seeing them fall into a steady disrepair, I finally decided to do something about it. The first problem is that my life has changed enough so that I have to make the blogs reflect that. "Cloudcroft" pictures and links will be changed to "Galesburg" pictures and links. I'll put forward the blogs I like and the ones I still actively use a lot. I'll make sure the others are linked to those. One of my goals is to make a canvass of all my pop art and make sure that pop art that I like and want to preserve is all up on those blogs somewhere. Get it all to the surface. It's not doing much good buried deep in my dropbox.
One thing the blogs have is something I call squares. Be there or be square. The squares are actually links to other blogs and other places too, they just don't tell you where. If you like the square, you click on it. They get outdated with time, and have to be updated. But I can also add a number of them, if I get the time. Update the squares. Make new ones and put them around.
Finally, there's the blog museum. I have a number of blogs I oversee from having put so much esl work on them. It's possible that my former students are embarrassed about them and would really prefer that they just go away. But it's really a huge and interesting supply of data, and a snapshot of the early days of blogs and the use of them. Better, to just organize them and show where things are. That also is a long-range goal.
The work has just begun.
Labels: blogs
Friday, October 14, 2022
Little Free Libraries with their own character
St. Louis’ Little Free Libraries offer literary treasures, August 16, 2019, St. Louis Magazine.
The essence of this article is that the nature of a neighborhood - and St. Louis is definitely a "neighborhood" city - can be revealed by the kinds of books that can be found in its little free libraries. I found the article very stimulating if only because I've been thinking along the same lines.
I am in the business of dropping off spare not-for-sale books at little free libraries, and I am going to St. Louis in mid-November, which led me to find this article. The question is, should I make any effort at all to put my books in a St. Louis L-F-L? If so, which one? Is it worth driving across town to find one that would have the right audience? Are audiences similar for L-F-Ls throughout the city?
All of these, good questions which I am not prepared to answer. I have no idea if some of these L-F-Ls just sit there undisturbed for six or ten months at a time. In fact my inclination is to believe that if a copy of The Jungle, for example, has been sitting there for a while, then it's a good bet that nobody literate has pawed through it in most of that time.
I found a book of Kafka's stories in a Monmouth L-F-L, and that led me to speculate. Probably it was left there by a Monmouth College student or possibly even teacher. Perhaps it was a textbook in an English class. But in any case, nobody in Monmouth saw fit to snatch it up, so I did. I brought it home and read a few stories. I reflected on the possibility of putting it back in an L-F-L somewhere - if so, where? Do you think St. Louis could use some Kafka?
So the question for me is, do you think the audience for any given L-F-L is really the neighbors of that area, out for a stroll, or is there any deliberate scanning of L-F-Ls citywide by people who are as able to read a map as I am? Again, I have no answer.
I will say that Galesburg as an example has only one official L-F-L (listed in the directory of littlefreelibraries.org) whereas in reality it has at least a half dozen that I know of that are functioning in the sense that they have books in them and are maintained. St. Louis has dozens that are in the directory. But many of these are proprietary in a way. We can see that some people have put some money into some of these, and put good care into their upkeep. Is a proprietary L-F-L better than one which is just sponsored by the city or some Rotary Club?
I have put books in three nearby L-F-L's - the one up Broad St. is in the directory, Galesburg's only official one. One a block away is sponsored by the Rotary Club, but I noticed that when the door was broken, it actually got fixed. I put a book in there too. A third is by our only park, a small park about five blocks away. I have no idea if that one is sponsored or not.
I plan to read this article - it's interesting to me that a city can have so many and have them be so different. Now my question remains: I can make a half-hour extra on the night of my trip to St. Louis (I will be there at about 11 pm). My inclination is to not go driving around, although I'll be back in the city for my son's return flight (basically, he is flying in and out of STL Thanksgiving week) and that return time will be more reasonable, maybe in the morning. It will be cold but there would be nothing stopping me from familiarizing myself with whatever L-F-L looks good to me. The map shows clearly how to find them, and even what they look like. It seems to me that an L-F-L is a place a visitor can go to, and hang around, and fish through, and see what's shaking in a literary sense. It is interesting to me what the literary quality of the fare is, in various parts of the city. I'm not quite like this article - I am not going to pull things out, snap a photo, and make judgements about the neighborhood. But if I can put my books in front of people who will actually read them, it's worth my time. I of course will grab a book in return - I drop mine, I take some random book, and I don't care if it's The Jungle, or Kafka, or what. To me that's a thrill - trading my book for a classic - it's like putting them in the same sentence. Ultimately I hope to get an audience. That would be the goal.
The essence of this article is that the nature of a neighborhood - and St. Louis is definitely a "neighborhood" city - can be revealed by the kinds of books that can be found in its little free libraries. I found the article very stimulating if only because I've been thinking along the same lines.
I am in the business of dropping off spare not-for-sale books at little free libraries, and I am going to St. Louis in mid-November, which led me to find this article. The question is, should I make any effort at all to put my books in a St. Louis L-F-L? If so, which one? Is it worth driving across town to find one that would have the right audience? Are audiences similar for L-F-Ls throughout the city?
All of these, good questions which I am not prepared to answer. I have no idea if some of these L-F-Ls just sit there undisturbed for six or ten months at a time. In fact my inclination is to believe that if a copy of The Jungle, for example, has been sitting there for a while, then it's a good bet that nobody literate has pawed through it in most of that time.
I found a book of Kafka's stories in a Monmouth L-F-L, and that led me to speculate. Probably it was left there by a Monmouth College student or possibly even teacher. Perhaps it was a textbook in an English class. But in any case, nobody in Monmouth saw fit to snatch it up, so I did. I brought it home and read a few stories. I reflected on the possibility of putting it back in an L-F-L somewhere - if so, where? Do you think St. Louis could use some Kafka?
So the question for me is, do you think the audience for any given L-F-L is really the neighbors of that area, out for a stroll, or is there any deliberate scanning of L-F-Ls citywide by people who are as able to read a map as I am? Again, I have no answer.
I will say that Galesburg as an example has only one official L-F-L (listed in the directory of littlefreelibraries.org) whereas in reality it has at least a half dozen that I know of that are functioning in the sense that they have books in them and are maintained. St. Louis has dozens that are in the directory. But many of these are proprietary in a way. We can see that some people have put some money into some of these, and put good care into their upkeep. Is a proprietary L-F-L better than one which is just sponsored by the city or some Rotary Club?
I have put books in three nearby L-F-L's - the one up Broad St. is in the directory, Galesburg's only official one. One a block away is sponsored by the Rotary Club, but I noticed that when the door was broken, it actually got fixed. I put a book in there too. A third is by our only park, a small park about five blocks away. I have no idea if that one is sponsored or not.
I plan to read this article - it's interesting to me that a city can have so many and have them be so different. Now my question remains: I can make a half-hour extra on the night of my trip to St. Louis (I will be there at about 11 pm). My inclination is to not go driving around, although I'll be back in the city for my son's return flight (basically, he is flying in and out of STL Thanksgiving week) and that return time will be more reasonable, maybe in the morning. It will be cold but there would be nothing stopping me from familiarizing myself with whatever L-F-L looks good to me. The map shows clearly how to find them, and even what they look like. It seems to me that an L-F-L is a place a visitor can go to, and hang around, and fish through, and see what's shaking in a literary sense. It is interesting to me what the literary quality of the fare is, in various parts of the city. I'm not quite like this article - I am not going to pull things out, snap a photo, and make judgements about the neighborhood. But if I can put my books in front of people who will actually read them, it's worth my time. I of course will grab a book in return - I drop mine, I take some random book, and I don't care if it's The Jungle, or Kafka, or what. To me that's a thrill - trading my book for a classic - it's like putting them in the same sentence. Ultimately I hope to get an audience. That would be the goal.
Labels: LFLs
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
acx woes
Got a book published on ACX late last night - One Woman's Voice, narrated by Yarnell Henrie, but I have a problem - I don't have much of a promotion machine going for an ACX book, and all the sites I used to know about have disappeared.
Those were pretty bogus sites, anyway - people would post about their audiobooks, and most likely nobody bought any of them. I know very few of my posts were even noticed. So, if you're in the market for an audiobook, where do you go?
I find my audiobooks unrated, unappreciated, just sitting there most of the time. I do sell a few, every once in a while. But I put this new one out, and I don't even know how to get it in front of the audience where I want it.
J will spend some time on this question.
Those were pretty bogus sites, anyway - people would post about their audiobooks, and most likely nobody bought any of them. I know very few of my posts were even noticed. So, if you're in the market for an audiobook, where do you go?
I find my audiobooks unrated, unappreciated, just sitting there most of the time. I do sell a few, every once in a while. But I put this new one out, and I don't even know how to get it in front of the audience where I want it.
J will spend some time on this question.
Sunday, October 02, 2022
Oct. 1 report
Did my blog stats on the run this weekend, since we went to Chicago for a Cubs game on Saturday the first. I started Friday night and finished upon my return. As of this writing I have 28 personal, 8 commercial, and 4 dead - actually more than that are dead, but there are four I keep track of.
Views were down across the board. I have a theory - that it has a lot to do with the weather, and whether people are inside, scrolling around, nothing to do, etc. Cold weather, i.e. mid-November, is good for blogs, so is FEB, MAR, etc. AUG is good. Sept. and June are bad, the weather is too good and people are out in it. In Sept. they go back to school. Blog traffic is down.
The commercial ones actually experienced a slight rise, as did 6 of the top ten personal ones. In the second tier though, it was nine out of ten down. You can't bet on these anemic stats to bring me any sales. I'll have to shake up the blogs a bit.
The best correlation is simply that if I keep using them then google picks up on that and puts them on their search pages. Blogs that are being used and keep publishing are consistently higher in google's estimation as more likely to have current information. Of course what would help the best is publishing every couple of days. Keep it coming, that's the lesson I've learned.
I do all my stats, all rating, 27 books, US and abroad, over the weekend. What with a long slog to Chicago and all, I'm exhausted. More later.
Views were down across the board. I have a theory - that it has a lot to do with the weather, and whether people are inside, scrolling around, nothing to do, etc. Cold weather, i.e. mid-November, is good for blogs, so is FEB, MAR, etc. AUG is good. Sept. and June are bad, the weather is too good and people are out in it. In Sept. they go back to school. Blog traffic is down.
The commercial ones actually experienced a slight rise, as did 6 of the top ten personal ones. In the second tier though, it was nine out of ten down. You can't bet on these anemic stats to bring me any sales. I'll have to shake up the blogs a bit.
The best correlation is simply that if I keep using them then google picks up on that and puts them on their search pages. Blogs that are being used and keep publishing are consistently higher in google's estimation as more likely to have current information. Of course what would help the best is publishing every couple of days. Keep it coming, that's the lesson I've learned.
I do all my stats, all rating, 27 books, US and abroad, over the weekend. What with a long slog to Chicago and all, I'm exhausted. More later.
Labels: blogs
