SoCS: 700!

I’m happy to announce that I now have 700 followers at Top of JC’s Mind!

Of course, the usual caveats apply. Some people get counted twice if they follow my page on Facebook as well as following on WordPress. Or if they follow my twitter. Or also subscribe directly by email.

I also know that there are people who read my posts without being official followers. I am sometimes taken by surprise when a friend will mention something that they read in one of my posts. It’s a reminder that followers and readers are not the same thing. While I know that only a small fraction of my 700 followers read any particular post, there are readers who are not followers who read every post I put out.

Whether you are a follower, a regular reader, or someone visiting Top of JC’s Mind for the first time, thank you so much for sharing in my blog. I couldn’t do it without you!
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Steam of Consciousness Saturday.  This week’s prompt was to begin the post with a contraction. Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2016/

SoCS badge 2015

landing in the junk bin

I often subscribe by email to comment threads on other blogs so that I don’t miss replies.

I just checked my email  and found that a whole bunch of those emails got shunted to my junk folder at the same time that many others landed correctly in my inbox.

Weird.

 

“About” updating

In honor of my new email address for Top of JC’s Mind, I have updated my About page.

I wish I could say that I was also drafting exciting new posts and poems, but I am coming down with a cold and not trusting myself with anything that takes a lot of brainpower.

Another record!

I posted last week about a new record for likes.

I am shocked to report that that record, 66 likes, was shattered yesterday, setting a new record of 103 likes!

And, in the odd record-keeping of WordPress, I had only 79 views…

I realize part of that is that I allow full posts by email and in the reader, so some likes come in that don’t register as views.

I had four posts yesterday.

The first was a re-blog of gorgeous flowers from My Food and Flowers. It attracted likes and some new followers from the photo-blog sector, including one who went on to explore and like a lot of posts. Thank you, v4vikey!

My planned post yesterday was about the ever-popular subject of exercise, featuring adventures with Wii Fit.

Then, there were two spur-of-the-moment posts on my re-vamping of my blog theme, one on the new header and one on the menu.  Posts about blogging always seem to attract attention – among bloggers.  Go figure!

Part of the success of the post-likes in a single day is the time of day when the posts appear. All four posts appeared in the morning in my time zone, so it gave more hours for my readers to find them the same day.

Thanks to all my readers and “likers” – especially those of my followers who visit on a regular basis. I really do appreciate your visits, comments, and likes here at Top of JC’s Mind!

Wishing you all a great weekend,
Joanne

I have a menu!

In an attempt to make my new blog theme exploration almost as obnoxious as my poetry publication squealing, here is yet another post on my newest tweak to Top of JC’s Mind.

In my quest to discover what happened to my link to my About page, I found the menu feature of my new theme.  I had never done much with menus in my prior themes, but decided to expand my horizons.

Besides the About link and a Posts link to my main page, I added three category links. One is poetry, which will include anything that I have put in that category, so, while links to my poems are there, there are also links to other poets’ work and anything that relates to my writing, groups, workshops, submissions, etc.

The two other category links are to my posts in the two series of Linda’s Life in Progress blog to which I regularly contribute, One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

I was pleased to discover that the new menu links appear above the new header image, which has the happy effect of making the blog title and tagline font size more proportional and intentional-looking. They seemed puny and forlorn before.

So, yay! So much progress (that I wasn’t actually planning to make today)!

Comments welcome!
~ JC

A new look

I’m trying out WordPress’s 2016 theme. I had been using Plane, but decided to give this new theme a go.

You don’t have to look at a header image of the top of my head!

I like that my tagline is more readable now, but I wish the title font was larger.

This theme does meet my main criteria for readability, black print in an easy to read font on a white background.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments section.

With thanks,
JC

Record likes

Here we are at the end of Just Jot It January 2016. I did a thank you post to Linda on Friday, hoping that I would have time to work on a long-delayed post for Sunday, but my brainpower had to be directed elsewhere.

The fun thing is that January 29 became a record-setting day here at Top of JC’s Mind with 66 likes on that day!  My old record had been 59, set on October 13, 2015.

While the thank you post to Linda for Just Jot It January generated the most views, I was happy to have generated views that spread news on behalf of poet- and blogger-friends and a couple of re-blogs. There was a post of links to the recently published poems of Merrill Oliver Douglas on Eunoia Review and one spreading the news about the change in platform for OM. I re-blogged anagram haiku from Mathemagical and a wonderful post explaining the true meaning of jihad from Perfect-The-Days. There were also likes for a post I had written the day before which included the Saint Francis Peace Prayer.

I know that part of the reason for the record-setting day was having had an unusually high number of posts in a short amount of time, while part was having the built-in promotion of Just Jot It January for a couple of the posts.

Setting records is fun, but not as gratifying as the knowledge that people are connecting with one another through Top of JC’s Mind.

Sending out a big THANK YOU to all the visitors who made this record possible and all those who pop in on all the non-record-setting days, too!

~ Joanne
*****
This is my final post for Linda’s Just Jot It January 2016. It’s been a blast!  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/31/just-jot-it-january-31st-clumsy/

JJJ 2016

 

update on record likes

Last night, I posted about getting a notification that I had reached a new record for “likes” in a day.  I did get a few more likes before midnight to boost my total a bit further.

Just thought I’d let you know that my final tally and new daily record for likes is 59, shattering my old record of 48.

Thanks to all my readers and “likers”!

JC

Reaching Out to the World Again

Jay Dee is still on the hunt for visitors from more countries around the world. This new post links back to his original post where he is keeping track. ( I have already re-blogged and shared that post a couple of times, so I decided to re-blog this new one today.) Please visit and share!
– JC

Jay Dee's avatarI Read Encyclopedias for Fun

I just checked out which countries my blog’s visitors have come from since country stats started to be recorded. Here’s the map.

world_visitorsThere are some interesting places that aren’t included. No Paraguay. A lot of Africa is absent. A bit of central Asia.

So, time to reach out to the world again! Please go to this post and follow the instructions. I want to know where you’re from. Let me know in the comments on that post, and I’ll add your country to the list. And please share that post so we can get word out to more people! Thank you.

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