Tuesday, September 02, 2025
Sept. 2 blog report
I want to take a minute to describe what I'm doing on this blog and maybe use this post for general reflection about the blogs and book marketing.
There are about 26 blogs that these reports are about, and I'm an author with about 30 books published, one just out and another coming. Most of the blogs precede by far the authoring. I started writing just for the sake of writing and started the blogs, sometimes with linguistics or language-related purposes, to discuss what was on my mind. Very few were overtly commercial though I made one for my press and one for blatant self promotion. Gradually I came to see the need for promotion but most of my promotion efforts were directed at Facebook, Twitter, and a few more.
When I saw all the social media goons lined up with the big orange goon I got disillusioned particularly with Twitter and just stopped. One thing that happens on Facebook is that if you put a post out there you get dozens of people wanting to be your friend and chat with you, and I got disillusioned with that too. All are marketers; most are from a certain country; all are quite friendly and most are not your friend. What's the point? I got tired of giving them the cold shoulder, my shoulder got too cold.
But I looked back at these blogs and, lo and behold, over the years, viewership has risen. Sixteen of them have over a thousand views a month; the main one has fifteen thousand. This one has only seven hundred but hey all I'm doing is blah-blah-blah though it has a history of being used for other purposes as well. In other words, just to take this one as an example, if someone comes in for a link you put on here way back in 2005, it doesn't matter, they're still a visitor, and if I make the blog attractive with links on it to other places, they may just follow them and go ultimately where I'm peddling something really good. In other words I could be using these blogs as my own effective marketing tool, but I'm really not. I resolved to make them more effective, but, month after month, didn't.
Keeping track of them is at least reminding me of the potential, though. They were up again this month, but I didn't really see rising numbers throughout. Comparing Sept 1 rolling averages (AUG-JUL-JUN) to Aug 1 rolling averages (JUL-JUN-MAY) is really comparing August to May and August could be higher only because of weather. But it makes it appear that they're doing well and the blatantly commercial ones are doing at least as well as the rest. In fact, even the dead ones (I keep track of seven dead ones, some not posted on for over fifteen years) are doing better which is some evidence that some people are simply clicking around because it's hot outside. It's hot outside mostly in California and the West; back here, as I know from my time in Minnesota, it may be the only time to really get outside and leave the web alone.
On the theory that most traffic is shopping-driven, one wants to get one's books on the table by about Oct. 1, because only bad planners like me wait 'til December to do their shopping. And most shopping is done online these days. Sometimes I go off my own behavior and say, generally not off Facebook and Twitter, but I don't really buy many books, but rather throw mine out in trades for reading others'. So I operate in a unique ecosystem and don't generally sell a whole lot.
So every month I look at these numbers and say, wish I could use these views more effectively. 1000 views => one click; 1000 clicks => one sale; let's get more views and see what happens. What else can one do?
There are about 26 blogs that these reports are about, and I'm an author with about 30 books published, one just out and another coming. Most of the blogs precede by far the authoring. I started writing just for the sake of writing and started the blogs, sometimes with linguistics or language-related purposes, to discuss what was on my mind. Very few were overtly commercial though I made one for my press and one for blatant self promotion. Gradually I came to see the need for promotion but most of my promotion efforts were directed at Facebook, Twitter, and a few more.
When I saw all the social media goons lined up with the big orange goon I got disillusioned particularly with Twitter and just stopped. One thing that happens on Facebook is that if you put a post out there you get dozens of people wanting to be your friend and chat with you, and I got disillusioned with that too. All are marketers; most are from a certain country; all are quite friendly and most are not your friend. What's the point? I got tired of giving them the cold shoulder, my shoulder got too cold.
But I looked back at these blogs and, lo and behold, over the years, viewership has risen. Sixteen of them have over a thousand views a month; the main one has fifteen thousand. This one has only seven hundred but hey all I'm doing is blah-blah-blah though it has a history of being used for other purposes as well. In other words, just to take this one as an example, if someone comes in for a link you put on here way back in 2005, it doesn't matter, they're still a visitor, and if I make the blog attractive with links on it to other places, they may just follow them and go ultimately where I'm peddling something really good. In other words I could be using these blogs as my own effective marketing tool, but I'm really not. I resolved to make them more effective, but, month after month, didn't.
Keeping track of them is at least reminding me of the potential, though. They were up again this month, but I didn't really see rising numbers throughout. Comparing Sept 1 rolling averages (AUG-JUL-JUN) to Aug 1 rolling averages (JUL-JUN-MAY) is really comparing August to May and August could be higher only because of weather. But it makes it appear that they're doing well and the blatantly commercial ones are doing at least as well as the rest. In fact, even the dead ones (I keep track of seven dead ones, some not posted on for over fifteen years) are doing better which is some evidence that some people are simply clicking around because it's hot outside. It's hot outside mostly in California and the West; back here, as I know from my time in Minnesota, it may be the only time to really get outside and leave the web alone.
On the theory that most traffic is shopping-driven, one wants to get one's books on the table by about Oct. 1, because only bad planners like me wait 'til December to do their shopping. And most shopping is done online these days. Sometimes I go off my own behavior and say, generally not off Facebook and Twitter, but I don't really buy many books, but rather throw mine out in trades for reading others'. So I operate in a unique ecosystem and don't generally sell a whole lot.
So every month I look at these numbers and say, wish I could use these views more effectively. 1000 views => one click; 1000 clicks => one sale; let's get more views and see what happens. What else can one do?
