Friday, October 14, 2011

Singularly rubbish at blogging - a review of my blogging life so far

Once upon a time, there was a blogger who blogged so often that she was able to conjure an annual number of posts that averaged at approximately 2-3 per DAY.

Let's look at the stats (they're in the sidebar but they make for salutory reading):

2004 - 47 posts. Heck I didn't start till the Autumn...

2005 - 762 posts. Phew - seriously addicted. January, March and August were the lowest productive months at 49, 41 and 40 posts respectively --- but December ended the year on a WHOPPING 90 blogposts.

2006 - 824 posts. The high water mark of regular blogging. It was ALL downhill from there. However, it's useful to note the two lowest months were April (26) and December (37) with the peak of activity in the summer (122 and 100 respectively). April was when we made our first NZ trip; December marked the the kind of average number of monthly posts I'd hit in 2007. The decline started there.

2007 - 478 posts. It's not exactly half, but it is close enough to look like a massive drop. On the other hand, it was a year where we hit bereavement AND job changes.

2008 - 245 posts. Eek, that trend of 'halving' is getting worse. Again, summer was the high point (though a shadow of its former self) with May, June and July hitting 53, 54 and 66 respectively. The average was around 30ish. We ended on 12 in December. Pathetic.

2009 - 173 posts. We're not getting much beyond 20 posts per month, and by the end its single digits. At this point, we can't even really blame 'other forms of social media are available'. Worse than pathetic.

2010 - 141 posts. Meh.

And so we come to where we are now. We hit 33 in January (thanks to some strategic planning) and 31 in May (thanks to some plays I think. But by and large this has been an equally disappointing year on the blogging front.

At this point it is possible to be honest and acknowledge The Facebook. With smartphone in hand and much greater ease accessing Facebook on it than anything else, I've been able to tap into that to do quick links and comments sat on the sofa at the end of anything good on TV or even just in response to a friend's remark.

On one level, that's great and it has proven super-useful at times.

But I do regret that I've neglected reading and especially writing blogs as much as I have enjoyed in the past (and in many ways still do). Partly, this comes out of the more limited time I have available and my desperate need to not spend hours on computers at home after a day at the office. The Facebook is 'easy' in that respect. Partly it is also rubbish idleness - a trait I frequently stumble into despite appearances to the contrary.

But I do miss it. I miss keeping up with people and writing expansive reviews.

I haven't even covered the latest Doctor Who finale - and I seriously disavow any sense that this was out of 'meh'-ness as it made me applaud each time I watched it. And I also haven't commented here on The Fades (frankly my new favourite programme).

Will try better?

4 comments:

JoeinVegas said...

Yes, have noted the absence. (and missed you). A lot of people have stopped blogging and moved to Facebook. Sorry, quick sentences (even a great many each day) are not the same as a thought out long post.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Agreed - and it shames me. I'm trying to vow to do better, but I know how rushed things are.

Will be trying, nevertheless, and hope to not disappoint too much. I miss you guys too!

George said...

It's all relative Lisa! I think as well as competition from FB we need to acknowledge how unfriendly an experience using the blogger interface can be. Even their newly released app is awful. I thought I'd updated a draft post but my update was nowhere to be seen the next time I was on through my desktop. Notice how I'm resisting blaming blogger on being a Google product and definitely not saying that if only Apple had developed it.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

You're very restrained G! But I don't even like the Blogger version on Android (ha ha I know --- Android...)

It's much less friendly but for anything substantial I want to write online - pace Joe's comment - I really still need Blogger.

Of course I could move to Word Press but then I would lose all my history and comments...