Sunday, August 26, 2018

Happy Blogiversary to Me!




When the early days of summer suddenly became the late days of summer, I began thinking about my upcoming 7th blogiversary. What profound insight could I offer about research? About blogging? Nothing. Nothing came to mind.

Many bloggers like to look back over the year or years and highlight the most popular posts. My “most popular” ones have such elevated page view numbers that I believe they are victims of spy bots thus making it impossible to determine their so-called popularity.

Instead I present to you the LEAST popular post for each year. The page views are so low that clearly even spy bots weren’t interested.









OK, those first 3 years, I get it. But Year 4? You can’t open Facebook without being bombarded by photos of everyone’s dog - cute dogs, funny dogs, injured dogs, abused dogs, rescue dogs, dogs wearing clothes. What happened with my cute little series? Trust me, there were several “Gone to the Dogs” entries in the running for “worst post of the year.” The photos were all from old albums and shoebox photos passed along to me. I thought it was a clever series, but people and spy bots must have disagreed.




This is the post I feel most sad about. It features a St. Patrick’s Day card sent to my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh by her niece identified only as Myra from Limerick. That little bit of information was key to pushing my Sheehan research back one more generation.





I guess the title made everyone imagine a snoozefest. The post is NOT about a pedigree chart; it is about an actual TREE where family members posed for pictures. Still a snoozefest? Eh, maybe.





I LOVE this post. It is about discovering the identity of “Captain Dick,” a name mentioned several times on photos and in letters that once belonged to my grand aunt Helen Killeen Parker. Too bad more people didn't share my view.

My blogging has slowed down considerably this year. I’m still here though. Let’s see what Year 8 brings.

Wendy
© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

16 comments:

  1. Dear Wendy, Happy Blogiversary! I think your "Loving Irish Hands" post is especially awesome, and not just because my husband has Shehen/Shehan ancestors from "somewhere" in Ireland. Looking forward to your 8th year of blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Bloganiversary. It is always interesting what makes a blog post "popular" or not. Here's to your 8th year ahead, no matter where it takes you.

    Betty

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy, Happy Blogiversary and wishes for many, many more.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Blogiversary! I hadn't thought about 'Spy Bots' taking over our numbers. I haven't paid much attention to numbers in the last couple of years, but I like your reverse mortgage idea of highlighting the lower percentage rates. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Anniversary, Wendy. I'm sure you don't have many low-numbers posts, and I'm sorry these are some of those. It is sad when we bloggers go to the trouble of creating a post and are very pleased with it, only to find that it goes (mostly) unnoticed. Do you use the "Properties" section when you click on a photo while writing/editing post to give information about the photo? I usually forget but when I remember I notice that those images pop up in a google search. Just a thought....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy blogiversary - It's amazing how quickly the time goes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Anniversary! I love reading your blog posts & hope there are many more!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wendy, Happy blogiversary! Yours is one of the first blogs I discovered and started following. Best wishes for many more fun years. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy Blogiversary! I always enjoy your posts and your humor that often comes through. Here's to many more!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Happy Blogiversary, Wendy, and I hope your year 8 is just as successful as your first 7. Sadly, way too many of my posts are hijacked by bots to pay any attention to the statistics.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congratulations, Wendy. I don't remember when I discovered your blog, but I know it's been several years of enjoying most of your posts. I really don't remember any that were unpleasing or boring. I think I even remember a couple of these that were on the low end, so that may tell you about my taste! Keep on blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Only you could figure out a way to highlight your posts with the LEAST views - maybe next year they will be on HIGHEST views list. My favorite on these posts is the Slade Family Tree! On to year 8 - happy blogiversary!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Happy Blogiversary and congrats on making it to year 7! I'm in year 5 myself, so you are an inspiration to keep going!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I always enjoy your posts and hope to see and read many more!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy Blogiversary! I could share many posts that got NO comments. Oh well.

    ReplyDelete