1,000

December 11, a day that will live in infamy.  At least for me.  That was the day that I received my 1,000th hit on my blog.  Let's see, when did I start this thing?  Oh yes, April 25th of this year.  So that works out to approximately 2 hits per day or 6 hits per post.  Wow, that's kind of pitiful.  Good thing that I didn't opt for the advertising option from Blogger, otherwise I'd have not only a blog that hardly anyone reads, but a cluttered up blog that hardly anyone reads.

This morning, I have been thinking about what devices I could employ to make the second thousand hits easier to obtain than the first thousand.  I could try to write better posts, but that's too much work.  Maybe I could include more topical subjects in the content.  For example, in the last month, if I had just added a simple "Tiger Woods" to the title of each post, or had sprinkled his name liberally in the text, even if it had no bearing to what I was talking about, I'm sure I would have boosted my readership considerably.  Let's see how that looks.  "Yadda, yadda, yadda, TIGER WOODS.  Blah, blah, blah, TIGER WOODS".  But that's not my style.  I'd be more likely to sprinkle Natalee Holloway's name throughout the post (I'll give you a minute to go Google her name you forgetful, heartless bastards).

Perhaps if I held "contests" every once in a while ... then people would read to get free stuff, like five dollars off your next visit to Fred's Family Funland.  But that's pretty localized and probably wouldn't work for a global readership.  But a lot of people do this successfully, like this person.  Of course, it didn't hurt that this particular post was one of the five funniest that I have read this year.  There's always a catch.

For a few seconds, I felt sorry for myself, because I'm a man blogging in a woman's milieu.  But I have to face the facts that women usually are more insightful, have better stories that don't gross everyone out, and are normally better writers than men.  And they have more "cards" to play.  Take this one for example.  Sure, she has a career behind the scenes in local television, and yes, she does possess a very dry sense of humor and conveys that very well on virtual paper, but when she has a bad idea day, she has a new baby girl to fall back on.  And who can resist an infant?  Not me, and apparently, neither can the rest of the world.  Unfair, but I say to her ... "well played".

There are other women who have more readers than a medium size city.  At first I couldn't figure out how this person had pulled in so many people (and I say that in an envious way), but then I read this, which is a damned masterpiece, and I can fully understand why she has such a huge following, which includes me.

But, the three people I've cited above have something unique about them.  And that is, they have their own style.  They write what they know and they don't try to mimic other successful writers.  I can't tell you how many blogs I have read that are blatant wanna-be rip-offs of this very successful blogger, which to me is just sad.

So, I guess I'll just keep plodding along with my blog. Sometimes I'll come up with a good post ... most times I won't.  But I'll continue to have fun with it, which was the whole purpose in the first place.  And maybe, just maybe, the second thousand reads won't be as hard to come by as the first thousand.

Now, let me tell you about this contest I have planned where you can win a 5 dollar Starbucks card and an evening with Tiger Woods ...