I’m not always very good at sticking to long-term projects, so I really didn’t expect this blog to still be here today. And certainly not with 333 posts! Funny how things work out.
Tomorrow marks one year of blogging! I had never blogged before, so I can tell a large difference from the beginning to now! I’m still learning how this crazy world works, and I’ve even been drawn into the workings of the social media/branding world. At this point, I actually consider this a part-time job. One day, maybe I’ll write a book 😀
I’m glad you guys seem to like it here. I certainly do. I admit, a stray typo may pop up sometimes, but I literally spend a ridiculous amount of time preparing content for y’all. G-d-willing, I will be employed soon but will still be able to take the time this work deserves. Whatever you may think of what I post (or how I write about it), I put a lot of thought and effort into what I do here. And contrary to modern nihlism, I really feel like I have been fairly rewarded for that work. So rarely do you get a statistics page that gives you immediate feedback about your impact! Of course, a living wage from blogging here would be awesome, but I think I’m going to keep my day job. …Once I find one.
…And now for something completely different!
Statistics are fun! You can compare to the 100 postings post and the 100,000 views post.
- First post: October 20, 2010
- Over 147,500 page views (Feed views are counted separately, but Adsense won’t give me stats on feed views for more than 2 months anymore.)
- Over 27,500 views in the last month (back to September 19)
- 3,280 views in November 2010; 5,539 views in January 2011; 9,974 views in May 2010; 15,601 views in August 2010; 19,560 views in September 2010.
- 207 Facebook subscribers
- 64 Blogger subscribers (Does anyone know how to get feed and/or email subscriber numbers??)
- The United States is still the clear readership leader.
- Facebook remains the clear traffic-causing leader. I still don’t understand Facebook’s page statistics, if anyone wants to help a sister out.
- $107 earned. As I said in the 100 postings post, I only get a check once the blog’s revenues (from those two ads on the page) pass $100. They passed that threshold on October 4, which means I’ll have a check at the end of November! Depending on the job situation at that time, it will pay for either a) a massive steak and wine dinner with friend/commenter Leah Sarah or b) my utility bill.
- I still reject practically no comments. I have only rejected three comments from my “normal” content (two as spam and one for revealing way too much personally-identifiable information about the commenter), but there were several rejected during the recent A Set Apart Life mess, either as unnecessarily inflammatory or revealing too many details about the other blogger’s life. However, even the unnecessarily inflammatory comments were still very tame by internet standards. My readership continues to surprise me with how civilized and reasonable they are!
- My Google search terms continue to give me laughs regularly.
- A Google search term that worries me: “do they do background check before converting to judaism?”
- Thing I’m most thankful for: Being able to approve blog comments on my phone via email and its browser! I feel like that makes the conversation flow much better and allows for a better discussion.
On the other hand, I have had a failure too. I am still incredibly backlogged on reader emails. I sincerely apologize for that. If you haven’t received a response from me, it will come. I do respond to all emails. The problem is that I put the same amount of thought and time into emails as I do the posts. So…I can easily spend 2 hours on a detailed email (with normal home distractions, of course). This means I am incredibly inefficient at responding to your emails. I hope that the wait is worth it to you!
Hopefully the next year will be equally rewarding!
Re: the background checks, in some European synagogues, a background check is run on you before you're even allowed to enter. I think they're very un-Jewish, no matter how concerned about security we might be.
An acquaintance of mine in Wales who was studying for conversion at a Reform synagogue passed her official security check by an independent U.K. organization that provides background checks to shuls. But because she is Muslim, the synagogue board did its own check and barred her from the synagogue over opinions she expressed on her blog as a teenager (she's in her late 20s now.) Besides that being a disgusting practice, it may also be against the policy of the shul's movement, and may be investigated.
I think that's the real scary part about the background check search–that it puts lay synagogue officials improperly in charge (by dint of controlling building access) of halachic/rabbinic decisions regarding conversion (i.e., who get to convert and who doesn't) which are not in their purview.
Mazzeltov! Sounds like you have a good thing going here 🙂 Wishing you much naches for the blogging years to come. Yishar kochech and keep 'm coming!
TGL
> In some European synagogues, a background >check is run on you before you're even allowed to enter. I think they're very un-Jewish, no matter how concerned about security we might be.
What's so unjewish about it? Especially after all the attacks in European synagogues. (The great synagogue of Rome and etc.)
Normal people have nothing to be ashamed of…
> the synagogue board did its own check and barred her from the synagogue over opinions she expressed on her blog as a teenager (she's in her late 20s now.) Besides that being a disgusting practice
Disgusting, disgusting practise… How dare they keep flat-out antisemites from conversion to Judaism…
Also, wonder what one had to write in one's blog to get them kicked out from a synagogue…