I started this blog in September, 2010. Last September, three years later, my blog experienced a milestone...1,000,000 page hits. Curiously, it has taken only
four months to rack up another half million hits. The counter passed 1,500,000 a couple of days ago. I don't mention this as another milestone, but rather as a comment on the interesting phenomenon of social media.
I'm no expert in social dynamics, but I'm guessing that sometime in the wee hours of who-knows-when, with no balloons, confetti or fireworks, critical mass was achieved. One person sitting in the glow of a computer opened one of my posts, and the magic number occurred. Or maybe there's been a massive influx of spammers. Or a glitch in Blogger's counter. There could be a million explanations.
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All I know for sure is that literally overnight the number of hits increased tenfold on a normal day...and up to twentyfold on a busy day. At first, I though it was a fluke, but as one week led to another, the page views have kept coming. And it has nothing to do with me or my blog; that's why I find it so fascinating.
When I first started blogging, I could picture my posts floating around in cyberspace, alone and unread. It was a bit of an eerie feeling, to be honest. These days it's just as peculiar to picture the eyes of thousands of strangers in faraway places (or, unbeknownst to me, perhaps only a few blocks from my house) looking at the words I type...words I doubted would find an audience at the beginning.
I'll never interact with most of those people. Others will be come my friends. This is yet another fascinating aspect of blogging that keeps me coming back.
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What fascinates you most about blogging, and what keeps you posting or reading...or both?
The aspect of blogger friendship was the most surprise for me after starting to blog. You have the possibility to connect to people you may never have the chance to visit in person and for me blogging and commenting is a little bit like having a lot of pen friends.
ReplyDeleteWish you a wonderful day with lots of hits, new readers and lovely comments.
You always make my day!
Send you all my love, Ria
I also love the blogging friendships I've made, and I count you among those friends, Ria.
DeleteI don't think you glitched out Blogger Dana - with so many great articles about past and future notable designers and amazing pieces of furniture, you most likely pop up in a lot (and I mean A LOT) of Internet searches. Just the few blog posts JT has done about specific guitars are what seem to get a large chunk of the search traffic for us as people go out and research a guitar they want to buy or want more information on. And -- you have a lot of repeat customers because you're yourself and that resonates through the screen and makes us all feel welcome here, like an (internet) hostess with the mostest. Cheers - CT
ReplyDeleteCT, I think a big part of it does have to do with position on the search engine pages, but what I find most interesting is that after you get there, math takes over. Hits generate more hits until the whole thing becomes self-sustaining.
DeleteStill, I love your kind words. Being the internet hostess with the mostest is a nice aspiration! :)
Thing is Dana: it's you who caused that critical mass. If you weren't the warm, welcoming, real person you are there would never have been enough hits for critical mass to occur...modesty is a wonderful thing but don't forget to give credit where credit is due.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Jacqueline. While I do think my blog contains valuable, well-researched information for people who are interested in modern design, what fascinates me is the math...and how page hits can suddenly start to increase exponentially. Not having much of a math brain, I find it inexplicably magical.
DeleteI agree! You are successful because you are yourself, and it comes across sincerely. Plus, you do so many well-researched posts, you can't help but come up near the top of the search pages! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your kind words!
DeleteI see your blog as your virtual mid century mod home. We are your guests and you make us feel at home.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting comment. Most of us do show our homes in our blogs to some extent, and maybe that's why we start to feel that we know each other, because we get such personal insights into each other's lives.
DeleteI think all those hits have got everything to do with YOU dear Dana! Nothing fluke-ish or spammer-ish about them! x
ReplyDeleteYou're too, too kind...but it's that overnight escalation that fascinates me.
DeleteYou're being too geeky about it :)
Deletehahaha!!! Busted! I'm really a geek at heart.
DeleteWow, go Dana! I agree with everyone else...it's all you.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much...but I think there's a lot of math involved that's too complicated for me to understand.
DeleteI think if you are pro-active in the 'sphere and originate good material about your subject niche, regularly and often, your website (that's all a blog is, a website with posts) can become a 'go-to' place for information. This factor and your 500+ registered followers makes mid2mod something of an information hub. Oh yes, and name dropping. You drop Eames, Sottsass and van der Rohe into a piece, you'll get traffic. Congrats on the big 1.5Mil, you don't look a day over 500,000 :-)
ReplyDeleteI guess posting every day eventually pays off. :)
DeleteBlogger friendships are great! When I started my blog in Nov of 2009, it was like yelling "echo" into a cave... not sure if anything was going to come back or what might happen. But people started following and commenting (and pardon my Sally Fields but) "They liked me! They REALLY liked me!" It became a wonderful place for me to share about things I care about but not many of my friends at the time had no interest in. My how things have changed! I can relate with the slight uneasiness of ones posts being "out there", but most of what I post I would share with people anyways. Most all of my blogging experience has been a good one! (I have an Aunt that wouldn't speak a word to me in real life, but I can tell by her IP address she check in on my blog almost every day.) What fascinates me most though, Is that people really read and comment on my posts. Haha most kindly ignore my horrid spelling, and armature photography and come back time and time again to see whats going on "Here at Mick's!". Here's to another (and growing) 1.5Mil!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I've been blessed with some really good online and in-person friendships that have developed as a result of blogging. After all, without the blog, I wouldn't have met you and Patricia! :)
DeleteWell Dana, I really have to comment on this post. I read your posts on my i-phone via bloglovin'. I find it really difficult to comment on the i-phone so don't leave as many comments as I'd like. I like your blog for many, many reasons. I admire your taste (and that off your SIL and daughter), I admire your stock, I am agog at your MC knowledge and well-written posts, but most of all I like you. You're pleasant and funny and smart and caring and honest. You're genuine and friendly and generous and loving towards your family. You're also very pretty. If it weren't for you I wouldn't keep coming back. So credit's all down to you, sister! Carmelxo
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote this post, I thought it might not get any comments, because it delved into an abstruse "geek culture" topic. I promise that it wasn't meant as a fishing expedition for compliments...but, damn! Who can resist compliments like these? Thanks, Carmel!
DeleteI enjoy writing about artists and designers, discovering new ones, sharing their stories. You seem a kindred spirit in this. I think of the idea of the " long tail" where the Internet allows us to find others interested in more obscure topics along the trailing end of the bell curve, and all the fascinating stories.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy all of that too. A blogger I follow usually writes about typewriters or English beers. Recently he took up carving spoons, and he just posted today about how interesting...and a little odd...it has been to uncover a whole sub-culture of spoon carvers.
Deletehttp://typewriterheaven.blogspot.com/2014/01/spoon-3.html
Your incredibly impressive number of hits have everything to do with you, Dana!! You are a sweet person and your blog is fab, those two qualities don't go by unnoticed:-) It's so fascinating to see how some blogs become epicentres and meeting points for others.
ReplyDeleteI was totally taken by surprise by the blogging thing, I never thought it was for me, but now, connecting with all you wonderful people, it reminds me so much of having penpals in my teens! Meeting like- minded people with with similar interests is so great, and the aspect of learning from eachother's shared information is really valuable.
Here's to 1 500 000 more, Dana!!!
Thanks so very much, Tove. You know, it is very much like having pen pals. You become friends even though you're unlikely to meet in person. That was fun as a child, and it still is. Add to that how much we learn from each other, and it becomes a very worthwhile endeavor.
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