No resolution
by Steve
Those of you with a WordPress blog will have no doubt received their funkily designed Annual Report cataloguing your 2012 year in blogging. For those who don’t blog, or at least don’t blog through WordPress, the report collates all the relevant data relating to blog activity and visitors and all that kind of stuff. It is a nice feature as it offers an opportunity to reflect on how you are doing with your blogging, look at what you’ve achieved in terms of how many people you’ve reached in the big, bad world and consider the sheer quantity of stuff you’ve thrown up on the internet.
I guess one reason WordPress offer this free report is that any reflection will hopefully lead to Mr or Mrs Blog Owner deciding to blog more, either because the past year has been such a success, or because they really haven’t achieved as much as they’d set out to do this time last year when they were reading about their 2011 year in blogging.
I seem to remember last January having in mind that as I’d just fell short of 100 posts in 2011 it would be good to surpass that number in 2012. I failed in that quantity over quality approach as I only reached the 39 post mark. And don’t think this was any sort of triumph of quality over quantity either as the blog was hardly awash with visitors. My most-viewed post of 2012 was a silly, but apparently SEO-friendly post written in 2011. The two posts actually written in 2012 that received the most views were written right at the start of the year. Not that it really matters in any sense, but 2012 was my year of blogging decline.
So, why? Well, I’m a lazy blogger at the best of times, and a busy year meant less posts, and I suspect when I did actually manage to string a few words together, I produced less thoughtful posts than I might have achieved before.
Also, it seemed that a lot of the blogs that I enjoyed reading and commenting on either had a quiet year themselves or wound down completely. I’ve found my most productive blogging periods have been when I’ve been enjoying the writing of others and, directly or indirectly, have been motivated to respond to it. Blogs feel kind of island-like and are less obviously community-led than some of your newer social-media-ery things and so having some peers (in some sense of the word) to play off of and be inspired by is a help. So, either those peers need to get back blogging (some have already, I’m pleased to see), and/or I need to find more fun blogs to read (suggestions in the comments very welcome).
Anyway, that’s probably enough navel-gazing for now, as I expect this poor old place will have to put up with several other boring navel-gazing posts in 2013. I won’t commit to 100 posts just yet, but one post in 2013 is probably as good a starting place as any. So, stay tuned for longer posts appearing less frequently, shorter posts appearing more frequently, ill-advised YouTube videos, more photos found on Flickr or none of the above if I stay lazy/busy/etc.
If it is not too late to say so, and I suspect it might be, Happy New Year.
Wait until next year 
I enjoyed reading your post. I actually thought that the WordPress report was a good idea and a “kick in the butt” 😀 to motivate one to write more (me in this case). Blogger didn’t send such a report and I would have loved to get a good kick from there too. Happy New Year and Happy blogging 🙂
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Hi! Thanks for stopping by. The report certainly is a kick in the butt and I think has helped motivate me again to some extent. I think all the little extras that WordPress offer make it one of the best free blogging platforms, I’ve found Blogger to be a bit limited, and a bit harder to make links with others too. Happy blogging too!
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Your posts haven’t been less thoughtful. I spent a lot of time thinking about your post about irony. Your posts have just more infrequent. Pity.
I got tired of blogging late in 2011. I got burned out on one of my favorite subjects (newish fiction–thanks for nothing, The Art of Fielding) which burned me out on my other favorite subject (writing fiction) which in turn made the rest of my blog (which was a partially fictionalized version of my life anyway) seem kind of pointless.
But the good news is I’m thinking about maybe starting a new blog this year. I have it set up, now I’m like you–I just need to motivate myself to do it. How about this? I’ll blog if you will!
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Also, happy new year!
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Hi Mike! Thanks agian for the kind words, your comments and encouragement have always been great motivators and helped stop me thinking I’m blogging in a vacuum.
I can certainly understand that burnout and think The Art of Fielding has a lot to answer for!
Fantastic news that you’re thinking about blogging again. If you do, I certainly will! I’m thinking of setting a hopefully achievable target of a post a week. What are your blogging plans, if I may ask?
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I think I’m going to do a baseball related blog. Probably mostly about the home team, with maybe some forays into the majors. But baseball doesn’t really get interesting for a few months, so I might start out with some non-sports posts. In other words, it’s probably going to look a LOT like your blog!
What’s your plan for your blog this year?
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Your plans sound good to me, will look forward to it. I have a few plans in mind, at least for the next few posts, but no real grand plan in terms of content. Not yet anyway.
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Quantity not quality, Steve! I’ve always enjoyed your blog, regardless of how frequently you post. If it’s interesting, it’s interesting – it doesn’t matter to me if it’s your first post for a month or whatever. I’d much rather read something thoughtul once a month than a load of drivel every other day.
My output definitely declined in 2012 to something a bit more sustainable, so like the muppet that I am I’ve decided to split one of my blogs into two more focussed ones. In theory, this will actually mean fewer posts, although in reality I suspect I will end up blogging slightly more, especially in the newer one while I’m getting that on its feet.
Incidentally, I noticed your image is from the Library of Congress. One of my fellow contributors on the cycling blog I run heads up the digital content for the LoC. He’ll be delighted you’re using their resources! And it just goes to show what a small world it is too, eh?
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Thanks Tim, really appreciate your comments! I had a quick glance at your new blog and will certainly give it a closer look soon, it looked excellent. I’ve always been amazed by how much content you manage to produce, and often with a really quick turnaround. Perhaps you should blog about your productivity secrets?
I love the Library of Congress Flickr account. It is wonderful enough that all those great images are now available to look at, but it is even better that anyone is then free to use them. I’m sure I’ll be using more of their photos through the year. If you can, pass on my thanks!
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