Category: Uncategorized
The 2015 Annual WordPress Report
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 62,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
My 2016 Blogging Goals
I’m not a big fan of the whole New Year’s resolution tradition but I feel like setting measurable, achievable goals here on The Mad Reviewer is actually a productive exercise. So I’m going to do it yet again this year.
1. Migrate over to WordPress.org.
Yes, this is the year I finally transition from a free blog to a paid blog where I have more control over my content and WordPress won’t arbitrarily take down my site again. It will mean becoming a lot more tech-savvy but I think I can handle that if I keep up some regular maintenance. I’ve already purchased a domain name and a hosting package with Bluehost so I’m just about ready to get moving. But don’t worry! I’m going to migrate all of my followers over to my new address and I’ll put a link redirect here under the old domain name so you guys have plenty of time to switch over if you so wish. I’m hoping to fully switch over by my 4th blog anniversary on January 13th.
2. Get a total of 1,500 followers.
Last year my goal of 2,000 followers was a little too ambitious so this year I’m aiming for 1,500 in total after I migrate over to WordPress.org. I’m currently sitting at 1,300 and I’ll be posting much more regularly so this should not be too terribly difficult. I just need to get back on the self-promotion bandwagon again.
3. Write more in-depth analysis articles.
After I write that Jon Snow article I’ve been promising for months, something I want to work on in 2016 is writing more in-depth articles about specific books or series. I’d love to do a better analysis of the similarities between the entire Hunger Games trilogy and the Roman Empire. Or try to compare some of the events in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Series to their various historical inspirations, particularly the Wars of the Roses. I love history and I absolutely love books so this is the best of both worlds.
You know what? Instead of five goals this year I’m going to keep it down to a manageable 3 goals. Of course I’m going to strive to post every day and clear my review backlog but those are things I should be doing anyway. My official goals are a little something more to strive for and will require going a little above what I consider regular blog maintenance. And still, I think they’re achievable.
So what are your blogging goals for 2016? What do you think of these goals?
Lazy Sundays: Audiobooks
There are many people that love audibooks, some that hate them and many that haven’t ever really tried them. I fall into the third category. Although Marc Secchia was kind enough to gift me an audiobook copy of Aranya, I never really had the time to listen to it. But lately while I’ve been doing housework or even just working out I’ve been giving it a try. The narrator is articulate and amusing and of course the sheer beauty of Marc Secchia’s writing style lends itself to being read aloud well. But I still wasn’t sold on audiobooks until I listened to an audiobook of The Carnelian Legacy, which was gifted to me by Cheryl Koevoet a few days ago as a way of thanking me for helping out with the cover reveal. This one combined with Aranya has me sold on audiobooks: they’re a great way to absorb a story while not having to physically sit down and read. And some of them are quite elaborate, with sound effects and their own theme music.
I don’t think I’ll ever really buy an audiobook in place of a physical copy or ebook but who knows? I never thought I’d really read ebooks either.
So what do you guys think of audiobooks? Do you love ’em, hate ’em or haven’t ever tried ’em?
Lazy Sundays: Winter Sucks
Even though I’ve moved over 400 kilometres (250 miles) south, I find that my new home is much colder. Which is odd, because you’d think that the further south you live, even if it’s just a couple hundred kilometres, the warmer things would be. Apparently not. I find that my new city is colder than it is up north because the wind blows right off the frozen river. So although the ‘real’ temperature isn’t that low, the windchill quickly makes things unbearable. At least up north I wasn’t near a river and had trees for shelter.
Or maybe I’m just being more curmudgeony than usual because the windchill has prevented me from going outside much lately. I’m geting slightly stir-crazy but at the same time I’ve been reading much more than I normally would. So I guess that’s an upside?
I hope you guys are warmer than I am! How was your Sunday?
Discussion: Blog Traffic Patterns
One odd thing I’ve noticed over the years is that Mondays are my absolute best traffic days but Fridays are my worst. This isn’t that odd when you think about it: people love to procrastinate at work on Mondays whereas on Fridays they’re more focused on going out. But what’s interesting to me is what happens when there’s a holiday in North America (primarily in the United States): traffic goes down.
With everyone at home, you’d think my traffic would go up. Yet the week of American Thanksgiving always finds virtual tumbleweeds blowing across the expanse of my blog. What gives? Do people only visit during work hours to procrastinate or when it’s a holiday do more people spend time with their families instead of on the internet? It’s an interesting question and I wonder if it’s the same for a lot of other blogs or even larger websites.
Well, what do you guys think? If you’re a blogger, do you have this happen as well?