500 Posts and Blogging Realizations

Lately, I’ve been slightly obsessed about improving this blog. Part of it is because really good opportunities  for the blog have come my way during the past few months and I want more of them (greedy, greedy, greedy!). I don’t think wanting more of those is a bad thing, though. I mean, I have always wanted to keep growing this blog and continue to make more connections with advertisers and of course, followers as well. Anyway, because of this slight obsession to improve, I have been checking on my stats, views, followers, etc on a daily basis. As in, daily! There are days when I feel good about them and days when I don’t. It has finally come to this point where I have come to realize some things.

First, I noticed that I’ve already reached 500 posts during my last entry. 500 posts! Whoa! I couldn’t even visualize this way back when I started this blog almost two years ago. Looking back, I don’t know how I reached 500 posts. Did I really have that much to say and share? Haha! Amazing! What’s even more amazing is the fact that there are actually people like you, who are interested to read about my thoughts and experiences. I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you! During those times when I don’t feel in the mood to write, you give me the push to keep my brain rolling and inspire me to keep on writing. 

I also realized that although stats, views and number of followers are important to a blog, they are not the be all and end all of a blog. There have been times in the past when I did blog hops and memes in order to gain more followers and page views to improve my blog stats. However, I realized that there are followers who only follow just so they can encourage you to follow them back. They don’t necessarily come back and read your blog often. There are also those who comment because they are required to do so as part of an arrangement with other bloggers. While I don’t have anything against blog hops and memes (because to a certain extent they have helped my blog in some ways in the past), the followers they produce aren’t exactly the kind of followers I want. So, while I continue to blog hop on my own, it’s just to find more blogs to read and inspire me. I figure that if my blog is really that good and interesting, people will eventually find their way here too.

In relation to that, I have noticed that most of my regular followers read my posts but don’t comment. Or when they do comment, they don’t do in on the blog and instead choose to text me (for those who know me personally) or message me on Facebook. I call them the “Silent Riders”. Haha! Well, of course I would appreciate commenting on the blog itself but for the most part, as long as my blog helps you readers in any way, you are already making me happy. Every now and then, do share your thoughts though. I would appreciate you letting me feel that you guys are there. 😉

With these realizations, I decided to get rid of the Google Friend Connect widget on my blog, as well as other counters. I only retained the Page Views and Page Rank widgets. WordPress blogs don’t even have the GFC widget anymore. Not that I don’t appreciate the 786 people following me on GFC, I just don’t want that number to pressure me into doing things that I don’t really intend to do on this blog. I started this blog mainly as an outlet. The fact that it has transcended into something more is already reward enough for me.

That said, I wish to thank all of you who continue to follow my WAHM journey and our blended family adventures. If you’re new here and you like what you see, you can still follow me on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe via email.

Here’s to another 500 more posts and counting!!!