Observations

I was doing one last pass through of the Badgersphere for the evening, and I saw that October was Leaning Blue's blogiversary (Happy blogiversary, Belle!). I went back and checked out Belle's first month, and then got all nostalgic for my October and early November last year. It was a very exciting time for this humble blog. One year ago today, I wrote The Ghost of Curly Lambeau, a post in which I declared that John Kerry had called down a curse upon himself when he called Lambeau Field Lambert Field. That curse cancelled out the Washington Redskins predictor of Presidential elections. On November 1, Hugh Hewitt linked to the Ghost post, and this website had its single biggest day traffic-wise. Additionally, I got called out on a liberal website, Watching the Watchers, as a racist. I enjoyed being challenged and fully engaging the ignorant oaf. November 1-2 of last year were probably the two most enjoyable days I've had as a blogger, just edging out being mentioned on TV.

But I also learned a big lesson immediately after those two days. Traffic was huge, and then I went off to Las Vegas, as I will do this week. My room did not have an internet connection, and I was unable to write for several days. That huge rush of traffic dried up immediately. When I did not have new or compelling material, I lost most of the audience the "Hughicane" had brought me. After thinking I was big blog on campus for a couple days, I came to learn that traffic blitzes are fleeting, and that building a regular audience over time is much more important. Would I love this blog to be a million visit site right now? Hell yes. But I haven't earned that yet, and I'm happy to see the traffic slowly and consistently grow. Maybe if I'm patient enough, I can just out last everybody else. :-).

I don't say it often enough. Thank you to my regular visitors, my occasional visitors, and my one time visitors. I used to write in a journal, and I'd lose interest in it quickly. Whether you like it or not, those of you who stop by here to visit, and maybe comment once in a while, keep me going. Thank you.