A fool once told me, after I started blogging, that it was useless to think the ‘like’ button on WordPress was anything but a way for others to make me read their work. She told me that the comments I received were worthless. Drivel. Dishonest. That I couldn’t believe anything but that which was brutal, because praise was purely selfish. Her disdain for those she wishes to attract to her own blog is indefensible. It’s no wonder she allows no comments on her site.
This is how I first learned to blog.
I’m overjoyed to have learned the opposite of what I was told. I have made some true friends on WordPress, since I began writing here. I’ve found kindness and acceptance. I’ve found people with whom I share things in common. I’ve laughed with you, I’ve cried for you; I’ve found more honesty here at WordPress than I could possibly have hoped for. I’ve found brilliant insight, read fantastic rants, and taken in beautifully creative fiction and poetry.
Each and every one of you are so dear to me. You’ve helped me find confidence in myself, and many of you have allowed me into your lives. I am so very grateful.
Thank you, so very much to all my readers. WordPress has gifted me with a truly valuable community. I don’t know what I’d do without you all.
Having never had a blog at Christmas before, I had no idea what to expect. Okay, technically I did open this blog in July of 2012, but I wrote one post and promptly forgot about it until late January of this year.
So how am I enjoying my first Christmas experience on WordPress? It’s good and then it’s not. I’m very pleased with the comments I’ve had on my posts so far – many people have shared their own past Christmas adventures with me and I love it. What I’m disappointed about however, is the fact that I can’t seem to be able to write about anything else. Christmas has consumed every part of my life it seems. I haven’t written anything fictional to speak of (other than a few poems and my The Note series on my fiction blog) since NaNoWriMo finished.
So I’m hoping you’ll bear with me while I try to find something else to talk about. I realize my blog probably hasn’t been very interesting lately to those who don’t celebrate Christmas, and to you, I apologize.
I’ve finished the five courses I needed to take, so as soon as it arrives in the mail I will officially be the proud owner of a college certificate in Writing for Publication.
Then I will be able to certifiably hit the “Publish” button on WordPress!
Now all I need is a job. Anyone out there interested in hiring a slightly worn out but enthusiastic, stay-at-home mom/compulsive scribbler? I work for peanuts (preferably chocolate covered). Just ask my kids. Hell, I pay them!
This will be my pathetic contribution to Every Damned Day December today, because I’m tired and I probably won’t have anything else before I go to bed.
So. The size of the font that you have to work with when you type a comment – is it a deal breaker? Because it seems I can’t change it. And I only have 48 hours to get my money back on this theme.
Sorry to ask so much in one day, but I’d really appreciate some input.
In honour of my new friend, Dylan Dailey, I am going to attempt to write a blog post every day in December. It’s not going to be easy, what with Christmas coming and having the family to take care of, but what the heck. If I can make it through NaNoWriMo, why not EvDaDaDec?
Book Title– Legends of Windemere: Allure of the Gypsies
Book Blurb– The epic adventures of Luke Callindor and Nyx continue after their journey down the L’Dandrin River in Legends of Windemere: Prodigy of Rainbow Tower.
Reeling from his failures in their previous adventure, Luke leads his surviving friends to his hometown. With his mind frayed and his confidence fractured, Luke must face the family and fiancée he left behind. It is a brief homecoming when the vampire Kalam attacks the village, forcing Luke and Nyx to break into his lair for the key to resurrecting a fallen warrior. It is a quest that will force both young heroes to reach new heights of strength and power that they never knew they had.
Can Luke and Nyx escape the lair of Kalam? And, what role will the orphaned gypsy Sari play in their looming destiny?
Author Bio – Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.
I just typed three words into a new post. I saved it. It counted two words. This post counts twenty eight. There are actually twenty nine. Check it out.
It’s been a week since I posted Getting Views is Like Pulling Teeth in which I complained that since the reader went all to hell my view count has gone down, so I thought I’d post a follow-up on the conclusions I’ve come to.
As Chris McMullen (http://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/) pointed out, the new pop-up window in the reader does seem to provide us with what counts as a view. I know this because I’m now getting as many views as I am ‘likes.’ This is something they’ve fixed recently, obviously, because last week when I posted, I wasn’t. I’d be happy to know if anyone else is finding the same result.
But at the same time I’m finding my views per visitor as dropped substantially and I think this is really where the problem lies. While it’s great to have lots of views for the post we just published, the pop-up window still discourages people from visiting our sites, from following, and from seeing what else we have to offer. It’s especially damaging for those of us who are selling something on our websites, particularly if we’ve paid for the site in order to do just that.
They have already addressed the issue of my initial complaint, (not to me personally) which was to please put the word count back in the reader for each post. If you click on the word count, now that it’s back, you bypass the pop-up window and go straight to the original site. If you click on the title of the post, you get the pop-up window. However, if the post is short and doesn’t have any more words than fit in the reader preview, it’s obviously not an option – you just get the pop-up.
I did change my reader view to “Read full post…” and I believe that has helped my view count at least. You can do this by going here, and I quote: “In your dashboard go to Settings/Reading and then scroll down to “For each article in a feed, show”. Select either Full Text or Summary.” Thanks to mewhoami (http://mewhoami.wordpress.com/) for this tip.
Anyone who is still following this thread and is still interested in this topic, I’d love to know if you’ve made or seen any changes in the past week and have come to the same conclusions, or if you plan to write and mention your dissatisfaction with this awful ‘improvement’, in the forums. I think the more we talk about this issue with Word Press, the more we’re likely to have something done about it.
Thanks very much for being on board with me on this. 🙂
lindaghill.com 