I'm bemused...
The viewing figures for this blog have risen steadily over the last month and this week (ending Sunday) will top all previous records for not only unique visitors but most importantly, for those readers who return on a regular basis — those treasured souls who magazine publishers bribe to subscribe. What has caused this rise I don't rightly know? It's all good though - I can now say, without feeling faintly ridiculous, that Idlers Quest has a genuine and loyal readership.
The 10,000 visitor mark was passed a fortnight ago but right now a thousand a month and climbing is the rate. Over a hundred regular readers drop in every week now and long may they continue to do so. It's all very, very encouraging and the trend is ever upward. I suspect too, that the news is good for all the other bloggers, as everyone shares links to each other on their sidebar blogrolls.
The last time this blog experienced a substantial hike was back in January, and then the cause was quite clear - I had a good story running at the time that I publicised on a large forum by pointing visitors to the blog with a link out of the forum post. This time I have done nothing remarkable, and not publicised anything, but the figures continue to rise regardless...
These upward swings have occurred regularly over the two years the blog has been up and running; they seem to happen about every six months or so. When I first started off back in 2008 I was talking to myself for the best part of a year with viewing figures that you'd expect for watchpaintdry.com and there were just a handful of other British coarse angling blogs to choose from, but now there's a choice of hundreds and the figures are growing inexorably towards the thousand mark. Interestingly, the upswings in blog numbers seems to occur at roughly the same time and intervals as the upswings in the viewing figures for this blog.
What all this means is not quite clear. I think that the angling blogosphere will continue to balloon to the point where readers may want, or even need, to have quality articles and selected blog entries presented to them in 'blogazine' format so that the full breadth of the material out there is not lost to them. I mean, it is now almost impossible to follow every blog in the local vicinity let alone even a fraction of the total available.
To that end I have begun work on a blogazine by the name of Anglers Post where I hope to pull together a number of blogging anglers to create the future of Angling publishing on the net.
It's all new to me, I haven't a clue what to do next, but, if anyone out there is interested in getting involved or contributing ideas or some material then please don't hesitate to contact me or even better, start a discussion in the comments on the first post.
Thanks, Jeff
To visit the site Click here
Seems like the beginnings of a good idea Jeff, here's my initial thoughts
ReplyDeleteWe all seem to have similar links on our blog lists anyway,so compiling the best existing posts/articles from each blogger into one space might work well? Catagories for each species, techniques or subject etc could be created to group them for ease. Then later specific articles for the magazine could be submitted by contributers as time progresses.
nb: (like the bit about "talking to myself" made me chuckle).
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI am one of your regular readers, i find them fasinating and informative? Admitingly i have used some of your blogs to identify pools to fish, and have indeed done that. But the way they are written often brings a smile to my face too.
Keep it up mate : ).
Gaza
Lee, I think that is the way to go. I was wondering if you'd like to contribute something from your material, I liked the series about the Blythe perch - that would make a good article, I think.
ReplyDeleteGaza, glad you not only read and enjoy it but use the info for your own purposes too . Since everyone started keeping blogs it has become so much easier to research some good local fishing prospects hasn't it?