December is here, and it’s a big month for me. Obviously, the holiday season is here, which means lots of Advent activities, followed by Christmas and the New Year. My grandfather is coming for a visit, followed soon thereafter by my mom and step-father. The three of them will be snow-birding here in Florida this year, so we’ll get to see them a lot. December also marks my birthday (one of the BIG ones) and my wedding anniversary (which are all BIG ones) and lots of opportunities to have food and drinks and laughs with local friends and family.
So, when I sat down at my computer this morning, on this first day of December, I fully expected to be energized and happy and festive.
Then, I logged into my WordPress account and looked at my blog stats for November.
Sadly, November was one of the worst months I’ve ever had on the blog, based on the number of unique visitors who stopped by. Sure, there were months when I was just starting out, almost three years ago, when the actual NUMBER of visitors was lower, but that was before I had any followers, before I had any exposure on other social media sites, and when I had very little content for people to stumble across.
Yes, this was a blow to my blogging self-esteem. But, even more, I was disappointed because when I look back over the blog posts this month, there were some interesting and engaging posts. I tried to mix things up. I attempted to provide some more variety and different perspectives. I thought some of these posts would be much more popular and stir up at least some discussion:
Four great guest post essays on Flannery O’Connor’s brilliant short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Links and information about a cover story article in Better Living magazine about some of my Legacy Writing students.
An announcement of the publication of a book I was asked to contribute to, and an “unboxing video” when the books arrived.
Even had what I thought was an interesting post about balancing writing with the “non-writing tasks” of an author’s life.
Now, I realize this isn’t a general interest blog, and I don’t expect to ever be listed on some year-end “blogs you have to read” kind of list. But I think all of us who blog hope that what we are putting “out there” for our readers is something they can use.
So, it is back to the drawing board, looking for inspiration.
Let’s see what December brings.
Have a great weekend, and happy writing!