Friday, July 17, 2015

MY 700th GOOGLE PLUS BLOG

( Left:  Me with a fave book: "Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime" by John Dunning) photo: 2006

From November, 2005:

“Thanks for checking out the new blog. It will be a continuation of the old blog which was an expanded version of my newspaper column in the "INDEPENDENT" papers of Phoenix/Scottsdale. I hope you continue to check it out; updates are usually on Wednesday each week and for you regulars you know the stuff I write about (radio, TV, movies, music, books, sports, or whatever).

“Thanks again for tuning in and tell your friends where I am at 
http://jmcallister.blogspot.com
.”

That statement from 2005 was the beginning of the current blog I write through Google+. Today’s blog is a sort of celebration since it is number 700 written since that November day.  

Besides my personal blog, starting in 2006, I used to do a blog for the Arizona Republic, along with a few other writers, which was eventually discontinued in 2011 when the newspaper decided that a lot of the political comments received were not suitable for publication. An attempt by the paper to publish them through Facebook was a failure.

A couple years after that I, along with several other writers, was asked by the Republic to do another blog that leaned toward politics specifically.  It ran for a while but was eventually discontinued during one of the paper’s austerity moves.

During those busy times, I still managed to do something with my personal blog and as you can see, it survives today mainly because I am running the show and enjoy writing enough to keep the thing going. I also enjoy the feedback from readers which shows me the success or failure of blogging.

Here are a few statistics.  These are the kind of numbers that keep me doing this:  Total published comments: 14,297. All time number of page views: 283,757. Most page views for one blog: 242, “The Stoneman Military Road” (published October 1, 2008.)

Thanks to everyone who reads, and I hope enjoys, my stuff. I have a list of people I automatically send new blogs to. If you are not on my list but would like to be, please let me know your email address and I will add it.

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