The Big Five-Oh

Well. Perhaps not really that big. My blog, yes, the one you are reading right now, raced past the 50,000 visitor mark today. It’s a pretty big five-oh for me, although I might reserve the actual party for 500,000. Or maybe even 5 million!

Not that the number of visitors is really all that important. I started keeping a blog to give my writing more focus, way back in June 2006. And it has done its job and then some. I don’t think half of what has happened with writing since then would have without this blog. I’ve given a couple of talks recently on using blogs and social networks as a writer. As much as they might play a part in promoting a book, their real value for me is in providing a focus of activity. I’ve never really sat down and looked back through my blog and I’m not planning to do so for some time, but I am looking forward to doing it many years from now and being reminded of all the weird things that happen when you set out on a career as a writer. Wherever that career takes me, I like knowing that my blog can and will go with me. Until then a few stats from the last 50,000 visits:

• The busiest month was December 2009 with 2,856 hits
• My most popular post is To Self Publish or to Not
• Top referrer is SF Signal. Thank you!
• Most used tag is Neil Gaiman. Yes, I am a sad fanboy.
• Most common search term this quarter is ‘iPad Fail’