My Bloggiversary

This is my 51st blog. I’m kind of excited because it means ‘Thoughts and Rants in Jogging Pants’ is a year old. This is a big deal for me because I don’t usually have great success following through on these types of commitments with this type of consistency. A year ago I vowed to write a blog every Monday, and with the exception of the week after my father died/son was born (in the same week!!!!!) I have written a blog. It wasn’t always as amazing as I’d hoped, and to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t always on Monday (as recently as last week). Still, it’s been a pretty good experience. I’ve had a lot of great support and feedback (Thank you!), and it’s made me hungry to continue on and perhaps even start a 2nd blog. Maybe I’ll even write a book. More on that later.

At the end of a year it’s normal to take inventory and think about the year past and the year ahead. I’ve written a pretty rant-heavy group of pieces covering topics including but not limited to chain letters, dog imprisonment, record stores, shopping bag frustration, comb-overs, knitting and other hipster antics, crappy wedding songs and public transit encounters. I feel I’ve still yet to scratch the surface. I feel like there’s way more in the way of disgusting human behavior that I’m yet to cast judgement on. I think there is a world of stupidity that is yet to be made fun of. I know I have answers to some of society’s most burning questions, (like why are Starbucks drinks so expensive? I won’t make you wait for this….. the answer is that a cast of idiots think it’s the perfect place to stare at their laptop for 2 hours, and there are only about 12 places to sit in each one, so if they don’t charge enough, they’ll go out of business. This isn’t your living room or a library ya fuckin squatters…get a house!) and I want to share them with you.

What have I learned?

I’ve learned that not a lot of my followers enjoy sports blogs. I’ve learned that if you want to be featured on the WordPress ‘Freshly Pressed’ section, you have to do something different from what I’m doing (which is cursing, and not including pictures….. and let me say this about that….. I’m not a fan of pictures in blogs….. it’s like cheating…… you’re supposed to captivate your audience without pictures….. unless you actually took the pictures yourself, and it really pertains to what you’re doing like a food blog or a travel blog…. I suppose they would require pictures….. I’m just tired of all these blogs that have pictures that were taken off some other website just so you can have a picture….. but I do understand that more people read your blog if there’s a picture….. so maybe I’ll have to start including pictures…. and I’ll try to swear less in the new blog-year…… I didn’t realize until today how many of my Mom’s friends read this). I’ve learned that I need to read other blogs more, and be supportive of other people to even out my blog-karma. I’ve learned that no matter how awesome I think one of my blogs is, it will not get as many views or comments as one that I don’t think is as good which means one of two things…..Either I have no idea what people like, or people have no idea what I like. Or both. Or neither.

What are my goals for this Blog-Year?

I have 102 people who subscribe to my blog, meaning they get a notification their email every time I post. That seems like a lot, but I know there’s a lot of people who just wait for me to post it on Facebook or Twitter. So I could have more. I would like 1000 by the end of next blog-year. If I get up to 1000 subscribers, I will write a book. Only then will I know that I have a shot at selling 20 or 30 of them. If I can’t get 1000 subscribers to a free blog, then I won’t be able to sell a book anyways, so no real point in writing one. I could spend my energy doing something else. So if you wonder what a book by me might be like, then tell a friend or two about my blog. It’s really easy to become a subscriber. There’s a link on the right side of the page, and you just have to click it (actually there might be more to it for non-wordpress users. I suppose you’ll have to fill in your email address, but pretty easy as far as things go, and you can cancel anytime). I will also add a widget that tells you how many subscribers I’m at. I’m not usually a fan of the shameless self promotion, but nobody ever got anywhere without doing it, so tell 2 friends, and they can tell 2 friends, and so on, and so on, and so on (quick…. where was that from??? Was it a TV commercial??? I honestly don’t know, but I think it was an 80s thing.) To summarize, 1000 subscribers, I write a book, less than 1000 subscribers, no book! Then in my 3rd blog-year I want 1 million subscribers!! Anything less than that and we’re just fooling around.

Anywhoooooooooo…. I’d like to thank everyone who has read Thoughts and Rants in Jogging Pants, and provided feedback/encouragement/support. It’s way more fun to write when you know people are reading. I’ve enjoyed all the new blogger friends I’ve made, and I’m glad that my ramblings are serving a purpose (entertainment), rather than just annoying people. I hope that your morning coffee, or commute to work, or lineup at the bank, or late night glass of wine, or whatever situation you’ve been in that’s made you want to read this blog as been better for it. I’m honoured to have you as readers 🙂