!!NEWS FLASH!!

I have just reached 20,000 hits on this blog! I’ve been watching my stat counter all day, waiting for it to tick over.

Normally I don’t make a big deal about such things, but I thought I’d make an exception. Because I like making exceptions.

I’ve been blogging for just over 2 years. This is post #405. At first I used Blogger, but I switched to WordPress in February this year. Which means I have had 20,000 hits on this blog in just 8 months! I had a couple of site meters on my old blog; I think I had something like 12,000 hits on the first one, and then I changed to a different one and got another 8000 hits on that. So when you add them all up, it’s around 40,000. Wow.
I have definitely got more readers now than I did when I first started blogging. I used to get 1 or 2 comments on each post. Now it’s usually around 15-20, depending on what I’ve written about. And this means? Even more people are reading!

I just want to jump in here and point out that this number-of-hits thing is not a competition. I’m just quite happy with getting 20,000 hits in 8 months, that’s all. Quite obviously, there are several factors involved besides how many regular readers you have. To state the obvious … the more often you blog, the more hits you will get. I tend to blog every couple of days, but only if I have something to say. Some people blog daily, or even several times a day; they are bound to get more hits. Some people don’t blog for weeks or months at a time; they will get fewer hits. So it’s all relative, really. And I think you get the idea. It’s not a competition.

Okay, back to the subject at hand: Blogging.

If somebody had told me 2 years ago that I would become addicted to blogging, I would have laughed. I had no idea what I was getting into. Back then, I just wanted to start a blog for ME. I didn’t care if nobody else read it (although I knew my family would). Now it’s SO different! I have friends who I communicate with solely through blogging and email. It’s important to me that I take the time to nurture those friendships, so they don’t fade.

“So I need to thank all of YOU, my faithful readers and commenters.”
It all sounds a bit silly, really. Like I’m making some kind of acceptance speech at the Oscars.
But seriously, I appreciate all of you!

Reaching this “milestone” has made me reflect on some aspects of blogging, and why it’s important to me. I thought I’d share those reflections with you:

Some people think that having a blog is a waste of time.
I beg to differ.

* I love writing. I love it so much that I do it for a job. But my “professional” writing is very different to my “personal” writing. I spend my work days writing about serious stuff. Lots of scientific & medical jargon, no emotive language whatsoever. Gets a little, er, boring sometimes.
This blog is my forum for writing the way I like to write. I write about stuff that’s important to me. In doing so, I have documented many things that my kids are going to love reading when they are older. Things that I would probably forget if they weren’t written down. That, in itself, is a good enough reason to keep blogging!

* My blog is also a great way for friends and family who live far away to keep up with what’s happening in our world, especially how quickly our boys are growing up! I know many of them read regularly (but hardly ever comment, tsk tsk). In some ways, it makes up for the geographical distance between us. Or at least provides a “fix” until the next real-life visit.

* I am incredibly blessed to have made some wonderful new friends through blogging, several of whom I have gone on to meet in real life. A couple of them have become very close friends, and I can’t imagine my life without them now!
Rob used to call my online friends my “imaginary friends”. Cute, but so not true! My online friends are just as special to me as any of my other friends. I just don’t see them much (or at all!) in real life.

* And of course, I use my blog as a platform for expressing my creativity. It’s a place for me to share my scrapbooking pages with others. This is important to me. I have bookshelves full of albums, and albums full of layouts, but most people will not see those. That’s why I love being able to share them on here. Like any artist, I enjoy sharing my work with other people. If I inspire others in some small way, then that’s just a bonus!

So. There are my 4 main reasons for blogging. Pretty good ones, in my opinion. I’m not about to stop anytime soon.

Bring on the next 20,000 hits! With comments, please. Because let’s face it: we all love the comments! ;-)