No Views

Are our expectations a little bit unrealistic? I saw a blog post today that started with, “No views today.” The complaint had nothing to do with the rest of the post but I read it and the ONE other post that was posted the previous day. As of this post, there were only TWO posts on that blog.

Anyone who is convinced that views are a magic solution to all problems should read this article. They do not come from nowhere, and sometimes, they might mean nothing. The Trichordist released a song that got 1,000,000 views on Pandora and he earned only $17.00. It is the harsh reality.

Or how about the news that Caitlyn Jenner smashed, according to the BBC, the Twitter world record by gaining one million subscribers on her first tweet? I do not believe everything I am told by journalists, especially because I know that a team of social media consultants worked towards that target. How on Earth did one million accounts detect Ms. Jenner’s presence on Twitter if they were not expecting it? Think!

I am the above-mentioned blogger’s only subscriber at the moment. I was annoyed by “No views today,” because the follow-up was, “I don’t think I understand being social yet.” No-one can automatically detect a blog in cyberspace unless they are invited to view it through some medium or other. If not, it must be indexed before they look for keywords associated with it. 

When I started this blog, I did not quite remember that. That is why I thought that as soon as I published my first post, people from my country would be all over it to read my opinions on a current political issue. I was mistaken, so I moved on quickly and focused on other things. Nowadays, my blogging mantra is, “Don’t get up yourself.”

Here is the other reason why I have that mantra: I rarely see page views from my home country. Recently, a fellow blogger stopped visiting this blog after I mentioned that she was living (as an expatriate) in my home country. People who speak my third language avoid reading my blog, too. One expressed shock that I typed it fluently, with the correct level of formality. “C’est la guerre,” I tell myself and move right along. I am not suited to everyone’s taste. 

I check my stats maybe once a month (while covering my eyes). Did I think about how many people read my blog today as I was immersed in a battle over the placement of a comma in the notes for a fiction story? NO!

+_~

Originally published January 20, 2016 @ 13:42 EDT.
Updated February 02, 2016 @ 16:00 EDT.