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My 500th Blog—The surprising power of a blog

I was wandering around my blog today and noticed that this would be my 500th post. This surprised me, because I hadn’t realised I had written that much. I didn’t think I had had that much to say.

Then I noticed that tag, "Stats." I hadn’t really taken time to look at the stats before and wondered, how many people have viewed my stuff? What a shock. I learnt that as of 11.38 am today, there had been 782 page views today alone. There were 908 yesterday. Last month there were over 26,000. Overall, there have been around 305 thousand. While I am sure there are plenty out there who would have far more views, I have to say I am more than a little surprised. I read the stats to Emma and she was similarly amazed.

Now I have written a couple of books and a number of articles. Yet, I am certain that none of them have been viewed that much. It goes to show that the internet is a much more immediate and powerful tool for communication. It is far more dynamic than the published text in book, magazine or journal. With Google and other search engines taking people quickly to material on a given topic, people are surfing the net all the time and finding all sorts of stuff. Not that I believe we should dispense with books etc. It is a both-and thing I am sure. Mind you, I think these will be increasingly found in e-formats. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that.

I wonder who all these people are who view the stuff I write. Perhaps they are spammers. Who knows? I hear some comments from this person and that person. But I generally don't know who they are. Thanks for bothering.

Sometimes I feel like blogging is a waste of time. But perhaps it isn’t. I think I will keep doing it. 

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