Old-timers at this blog can skip this entry and the one below it...
As a result of TYWKIWDBI having been nominated for Best New Blog, there has been quite a surge in traffic coming here. There used to be only about 500 hits per day, but that has doubled and then doubled again. Newcomers here for the first time tend to be puzzled as to what this blog is about, so I'll post this summary.
Unlike most of the other candidates in the New Blog category, TYWKIWDBI has no central unifying theme. This is not a political blog - though it does cover politics. It's not a lifestyle blog, or a humor blog, or in any other convenient category.
I use TYWKIWDBI as a reposity for a broad spectrum of items that interest me. In that respect it's a bit like a Victorian "cabinet of curiosities" (see above), where the family stored crystals, shells, bird feathers, photos, or anything else that might amuse or entertain children and visitors.
The literary equivalent might be a commonplace book - the notebook or scrapbook which was filled with...
...medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanists as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests.You can certainly explore TYWKIWDBI "vertically" by scrolling down through the 50 items on the first page and on to the fifty other pages, but I would suggest instead looking over at the right sidebar for the blue "categories" column below the archive, and above the little pictures. Pick a category that interests you and surf through that rather than through the blog as a whole; that will help you decide more quickly whether there's material here that will reward the time you spend exploring the site.
I welcome comments (including anonymous ones). I don't delete those that disagree with my viewpoint, and I don't even delete the inane "LOL ROFL" comments; the only ones I axe are those with egregiously unnecessary profanity and the occasional click-my-blue-link-to-buy-something spam.
For a delineation of my political viewpoint and biases, see the blog entry below this one. Then on to the blog itself...
Glad to see your picking up new readers. Great blog!
ReplyDeletegreat stuff! i think you are pretty much in a category of your own. i´ve been looking at some of the others in the new blog category, and like a few quite a bit, but i think yours will get my vote. i´m impressed that with the amazing quantity you continue to maintain quality as well. i´ll definitely keep you in my toolbar bookmarks. i´d follow you too, but i didn´t notice if you have that enabled. either way, you´ve gained another reader. thanks.
ReplyDeleteI do have a half-dozen "followers," but until you raised the issue I had not put the widget on the sidebar because I wasn't sure followers wanted to be publicly identified.
ReplyDeleteAs I think about it, if someone wants to follow discretely they can do so without clicking the followers widget, so I'll try putting it there and see what happens.
I am new to the blogger blogging platform and i was wondering if you could direct me to where you found all the stats and data about your readers.
ReplyDeletethanks!
Sure. When I started the blog I inserted the widget for Google Analytics -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/analytics/
I don't remember the exact steps involved, but it was only a click or two. It's unobtrusive and only shows up on TYWKIWDBI as a couple words at the very bottom of the page.
Your blog, like mine, is on Blogspot, which is part of the Google family, so you should be able to go to your Dashboard and find a way to add it. Or from the Google Analytics site.
The other way I get data is from Technorati -
http://technorati.com/
You register your blogname and url with them, and they provide you with information on who is linking to your blog and how you rank in the blogosphere. It's also free.
p.s. - I like your avatar.
thanks a bunch.
ReplyDelete