The graphic shows the combination of visits and page views on this site. The yellow represents visits, the combination of red and yellow, the number of page views. You can see the big pickup from the start of January.
Two things have happened.
The first is that the blog has started to get a degree of traction among those interested in current New England events. I like that because it means that I am starting to write to a more defined group.
The blog along with its companion history blog is also gaining some traction among those interested in New England History. I like that too because when I started I felt that there was no-one out there who was interested. I was trying to create interest.
In fact, people were interested. I just didn't know who they were. That said, I do think that there has been a growth in interest over the last two years. That's nice.
One of the things about my writing is that a lot of it depends upon my previous research. While I do do some current reporting, I also try to combine this with interpretive material. In all this, I try to make my own views (my biases) clear.
This approach can be rewarding. It's nice, for example, that the Save Pambula Hospital Campaign picked up a health post I wrote using Bellingen Hospital as am example.
All this takes time. For example, I am a member of the Aboriginal Language Revival Movement Facebook page. I am so because I have a general interest in the topic, with a special focus on New England's Aboriginal languages. Cheryl Riley (creator) asked for greater support. I can provide this, and have some material that I can provide at once. But beyond this, I have to do some research and writing. Consider, for example, Introduction to New England's Aboriginal languages. That took time.
One thing that has suffered in all this is my purely professional writing. This is quite important. Not only do I have to earn a living, but my professional writing forms part of my interpretative strength. So some re-balancing required.
In all this, there is a sense of excitement. I do like the feel that I am making a contribution.
4 comments:
Jim, without your contributions there would be very little specific information and comment on the internet about New England affairs - past and present. That is needed if we are to create a unique sense of place.
Hopefully it can be a springboard to the eventual goal of self government. I look forward to the day and hope that it will come in my lifetime.
In the meantime I will keep following this site with interest and hope that a new movement gets up and running soon.
Thanks, Greg.
Jim, like yourself I too use graphs as I find them a convenient way to display performance data collected over a specified period of time.
I sometimes find it useful to turn the graph upside down as this filters out the bias (of the colours) and provides an obverse perspective in terms of what isn't there (try it). This technique can also be applied to histograms. A friend of mine who works in science has complimented me on this approach as much hidden data (cause and effect) was revealed using this approach.
I congratulate you on your successful blog, as indicated by the graph and look forward to many further issues.
Thanks, Augustus. I will try that - if I can work out how to do it with my current imited software!
Post a Comment