Virtually everyone, even squirrels and birds, knows more about computers and social media than I do. So maybe someone out there, it could be you, can explain what’s happened to this blog and what I can do about it.
For ten or eleven years I had steady growth and progress. I’m not doing anything differently, but 2022 was a bad year here, lost several thousand views, and January 2023 is treating me to 2015-type numbers. Half of what it used to be. If this was a business, I’d be up the creek.
My wife’s position is that WordPress has gummed up the works and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.
It’s weird. I study the stats and can’t tell where the problem is. The regular readers are here. The regular features are getting viewed. But somehow the total is coming out a hundred short a day.
WordPress says nope, nothin’ wrong here.
Advice, anyone? Always remembering that even the simplest computer thingy is a major challenge for me.
Well, I still come here every day, but not as often during the day as I used to — mostly because I’ve become loaded down with activities and chores again. In fact, right now I’ve just returned from church and a visit with an old buddy, took some time to weed out my inbox, and am about to turn around and go out again for a belated birthday lunch that two of my friends are taking me to. And I’ve joined a couple of parish groups again, now that everything has recovered from the lockdowns. So a lot of my absences are Good Things — for me. Not so good for my constant attention to online stuff, though. 🙁
Maybe the problem is the blocking of feeds from the various social networks (none of which I participate in, by the way).
I wonder. The stats–except for the daily totals, of course– don’t indicate what’s wrong. I do wish I could fix this!
I know that social media has become a free-for-all of censorship. I watch YouTube channels where they have to use euphemisms if they say the word vaccine, even if they aren’t talking about the COVID vaccine. Instead of saying that someone committed suicide, they have to say that they “un-lived” themself. On the social media side of things, I think that it’s reasonable to conclude that there are algorithms in place to suppress recommendations of sites that support Christian values.
When it comes to social media, I am not a participant. I can’t believe that it has attained such popularity.
I’m afraid you’re right about that. I guess I have plenty of material that’s likely to be suppressed.
With computerization, it’s strikingly easy to seek out key words, and reduce the priority of posts that contain those key words.
Because of activities I’m involved in, my level of participation on line is irregular. I do think some key words In your posts probably trigger suppression by the censors. And expression of Christian values doesn’t help either. But we love your perseverance in those values!
It’s discouraging to see the viewer numbers sinking, but I’ll keep on.
That’s kind of where I’m at. My work has ratcheted up considerably, in the last few years.
I have to work just as hard to get 200 views as 400.
I think there’s also search engine factors against blogs, many don’t read blogs now as much as they do social media, and Big tech WordPress bias
I thought blogs ARE social media.
True it is in some sense
Thank you–it’s very frustrating.
I had to buy a new computer because I only had Windows 8.1. Now I have Widows 11, and fiber optics so my computer is super, super fast!! But I had to pay the Geek Squad $125.00 to install it. The agent said it should be good for 5 years – no wonder Bill Gates has so much money to do Satan’s bidding.
I’m still on Windows 7.
Blogs are not alone in experiencing a decline in the number of viewers. It seems that fewer people are visiting internet forums.
Why should that be? I mean, I don’t want to wind up obsolete…
I think that is true. Forums are definitely slower than they used to be.
Susan thinks the lockdowns etc. have imposed a kind of malaise upon the Western world. She might be right about that.
I would agree. Tech burnout is another factor. I had 31 emails come into my work account, overnight. Believe it or not, that is below average. We have too much info com8mg our way, and I know that I get swamped.