Tag: Milestones

P3k

Just for the record:

  • It took me 924 days to get to post number 1,000.
  • From there, it took 736 days for me to reach the 2,000 milestone.
  • But I’ve slowed down just a bit to reach 3,000, because it took me 749 days to write the last thousand posts.

Still, I have made it and I have you, my faithful readers, to thank.

Normally I write about what I’ve done over the previous period of time, but today I’m going to write about my future. This seems the opportune moment to reveal a secret of sorts.

For the last couple years I have been on-again, off-again working on a book manuscript and it’s nearly done. I’m calling it So We May Breathe Free: Solutions From A Common Man (as a working title, although I may change it slightly.)

There was a period of time I actively sought an agent and traditional publisher, but after reading into the subject of actually writing books I found out the timeline for getting this to market would likely be long after the desired timeframe. Simply put I should have started on that road about 18-24 months ago. Obviously I didn’t.

So my idea is now to put this out as an e-book, whether through Kindle, Pubit, Smashwords, or someone similar. That way it’s released at the time I want it to be out in the public hands. Ideally, this would be around the end of July or early August. Aside from going over the final draft and doing about 3-4 pages of additional writing, the text is written.

Of course, I realize the odds of success are as long as the unemployment lines – somewhere I read that the average book sells fewer than 100 copies. I would hope all my readers buy the book so I can at least beat those odds. But I won’t sneeze at selling a million, either!

Yet there are a number of other factors which could lead to the success of the project. I’m not going so far as to do a Kickstarter campaign like my blogging friend Bob McCarty did – although a rattle of the tip jar would help – but I am looking for ideas and suggestions. Probably my biggest need is cover art, since I know the concept I want but don’t think I have the software to do it. If you have e-publishing experience, well, I have some questions for you too!

The other piece of the puzzle I think is necessary is for me to get the word out and market the book. Once I get the book released, I’ll be looking to spread the word through any means possible. If you need a radio guest, I’m your guy. Have some questions you need answered for a blog post? Fire away. I figure every new person I reach is another potential customer and I need a national base for this endeavor.

I’m hoping to have a number of new milestones in place by the time I get to post number 4,000. But one thing which will never change is my appreciation for the support I’ve received from my readers, and hopefully I’ll have a far larger family of them the next time I hit a thousandth post.

Two thousand five hundred

It was almost a year ago that I hit my last ‘milestone’ post, and as part of that I outlined some of the websites that I’ve outlasted in the time that I’ve been online. Five hundred posts later, I’m still here as others fade into the woodwork.

But tonight I managed to hit a daily double, getting to another half a thousand posts on the half-year anniversary of my site. And after all the work outside the home and my various writing assignments that I complete each Wednesday, I finally have the chance to sit down and write about the most important aspect of this website: my readers.

Some may have ‘record days’ on a regular basis, but I’ve found over time that I have a loyal base of readers who come back day after day to partake in my opinion, news gathering, and photography. At times I do have more readers than others, as is often the case with a website that’s politically oriented, but many have come once and stuck around to be regular consumers of my writing.

So where do I go from here? Well, I have a lot on my plate these days but I plan on keeping on keeping on, grinding out posts on a daily basis. I still enjoy writing, and it’s good practice for my paying assignments. And with advertisers coming on board in recent months, what began as a hobby and creative outlet now makes me enough to pay for the server, anyway. (There’s always room for more, though!)

And don’t look now, but the 2012 campaign is slowly kicking into gear as more candidates enter various races. The bread and butter of this site is political coverage and comment, so I’ll have plenty to do.

So just keep coming back, and who knows – that 3,000th post might be here before we all know it. Thanks to each and every one of you for hanging here for some part of the first 2,500.

Update: Apparently mine isn’t the only local blogging milestone today. But I’d say this change is more like version 1.21 (rather than the version 1.5 claimed) since G.A. has been there quite awhile – about 4 years if memory serves.  My advice for G.A. Harrison: just go back to what made the site good in the first place (original content) and it may become relevant again.

P2k

It was almost exactly two years ago that I wrote my 1,000th post, and in it I predicted I would write my 2,000th in May 2010. Hey, I was only off by 17 days and that’s pretty good considering the twists and turns my life has taken since that day in June of 2008. Indeed, this is post number 2,000 for monoblogue.

To many, that may not seem such a big deal since other local sites may post over 1,000 times a month as they copy-and-paste their way onto the internet. But most of monoblogue is hand-crafted by me at my laptop or PC, depending on the post – generally I do my Shorebird of the Week posts on my PC since the pictures I use are on that computer. For this and many other posts I prefer the laptop.

It takes a lot to create the content for a website and stick with it for 4 1/2 years as I have. But since I did that 1,000th post I’ve added other sites which demand content, gotten the opportunity to become a syndicated columnist, and worked on a book (more specifically, the draft is done and I only need to figure out how to get it polished and published.) Plus I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a lot of interesting people and became a regular guest on a area radio show (including tonight.)

As proof that it takes a lot to continue doing a website day after day, week upon week, and year to year, I went to the internet “Wayback Machine” to look at screen shots of my site over the last several years just to see which sites I’ve linked to. Usually I drop site links if there’s an extended period of inactivity, and here are just a sampling of those I’ve outlasted. Some I miss more than others. and they are roughly in chronological order.

  1. Transchoptankia Gazette/Duvafiles
  2. Justice for All?
  3. Fertilizer for our Bay
  4. Crabbin’
  5. Westside Wisdom
  6. What I See And Hear
  7. Integrity Matters Only Sometimes
  8. Robinson on the Radio/Blogs
  9. A Woman’s Point of View
  10. The History of Delmarva
  11. ShoreIndie
  12. Talbot Today
  13. Go Shorebirds!
  14. GayBury
  15. Camden Neighborhood Blog
  16. Shore and More
  17. Stamping Out Stupidity
  18. Mainstream Shore
  19. The Byrd’s Nest
  20. Crisfield Crab Review
  21. Veggieland
  22. Off The Cuff
  23. Pro-Maryland Gazette
  24. Totmom
  25. Liberty Is Not Free!
  26. The Wicbury Crapper

    27.  

When I did the research last week (knowing the milestone would come up) I thought I’d be adding Right Coast Girl and Views of a Salisbury Grinch to the list as well, but both have returned. The same goes for Two Sentz as of about a month ago. And if some of the above are still active, well, I apologize for not knowing they were off hiatus. Point is, there are millions of dead blogs out there yet I continue to bring you “news and views from Maryland’s Eastern Shore.”

Unlike last time, though, I really don’t want to predict when blog post number 3,000 would occur. If the pace continued it would be in two years but I’ve sped up and slowed down my writing pace a few times in the last two years enough to know it’s a fool’s errand to make a guess. Quite honestly it’s more a question of available time rather than enjoyment because I still like to sit and write these posts.

Finally, since most observers would consider me an important part of the local blogosphere (and I’m fairly familiar with the players) I think I will give you an assessment of the whole Joe Albero v. Julie Brewington brouhaha – the “stalker” comment.

Of the pair, I’ve known Joe the longest because we’ve both been blogging for several years. Obviously he’s best known for having a camera wherever he goes and attempting to be a “news” source (although more and more his “news” is simply regurgitating whatever press releases and e-mails he gets verbatim without a lot of fact checking.) Regardless, he probably has hundreds of pictures of anyone who is someone in this area (including me) and if you’re on his bad side he’ll find the one which puts you in the most unflattering light – ask Barrie Tilghman.

To that end, it’s become a private joke between Kim and I as to where Joe might pop up to take a picture of us – if he can get a picture of us eating and enjoying some ribs at Pork in the Park you have to wonder where else he’ll find us. If you’re on his bad side – and on balance I’d say I probably am now and definitely have been – it seems to me that begrudged person will become somewhat of an obsession with him and Joe will come pretty close to the borderline between news gathering and stalking. (After all, is “caption this photo” really news or a simple attempt at character assassination?)

Before last year I didn’t know Julie Brewington – she was truly a face in the crowd to me. Stepping into the limelight as she chose to does have its pitfalls and yes, she has become somewhat of a public figure.

Saying that she is a public figure, however, doesn’t mean that we should disrespect her when we disagree. Perhaps her biggest mistake was agreeing to be Joe’s contributor for a time – many have come to regret that decision and I’m glad I turned down the chance when it was offered to me way back when (about the same time G.A. Harrison got on board.) I value my independence and what I’ve built on my own – it may not be much but I’m proud of it just the same.

Our local blog world will likely always have some sort of turmoil and drama because turmoil and drama brings attention to it. But I’d definitely prefer that it bring respectability as well and the actions of one player in particular prevent that from happening.