Tag: followers

Fourth blogoversary!

WordPress has helpfully informed me that today is my fourth blogoversary.

Sorry that I won’t be hosting a big blog party, but my in-person commitments are too heavy right now for the organizing and tending involved in a digital event.

I am not entirely sure what I expected four years ago when I started Top of JC’s Mind at the encouragement of some friends, but 918 posts later, I’m glad that I stuck with it, however haphazardly.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my 909 followers and over 10,000 other visitors over these four years. I so appreciate your support and encouragement as life has taken so many twists and turns that I had not anticipated.

…which reminds me that I really need to update my About page one of these days…

I especially appreciate my stalwart regular readers who have continued to visit despite my now months-long lack of reciprocation in blog visits and comments.

Baby ABC is waking from a nap and I am on Nana duty, so I’ll end here.

Thank you all so much and stay tuned!

Joanne

thanks

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Despite the difficult year, I have much for which to be thankful.

One of them is you! I am thankful for my readers, whether you visit once or on a regular basis.

As regular visitors know, 2016 has been a difficult, complicated year for me and I have not been able to read and comment on other blogs on a regular basis, as good bloggers do.

Despite that, I have now surpassed 800 followers. Thanks! I so appreciate your support.

The follower number is not the whole story. I am also surprised at the number of in-person or Facebook friends who tell me that they read my blog, even though they never comment, follow, or like, which tend to be things that other bloggers are inclined to do. I so appreciate your support, especially during this busy time when personal correspondence is among the many things being set aside in deference to tasks that must be done in person. (A reminder to Facebook users, you can find my FB page here.)

I wish everyone a wonderful day, whether it is a holiday for you or not.

All days are better with gratitude and thanksgiving.

Third anniverary

WordPress helpfully reminded me that today is the third anniversary of Top of JC’s Mind.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my 783 followers and all those who have visited, read, and/or commented over these past three years.

I have learned so much from blogging and plan to continue.

As my regular visitors know, 2016 has been a challenging year for me personally. I have had to cut back almost totally on my own reading and commenting and have posted less frequently than I would have liked.

Even with that, people have taken the time to read and comment and express their support, prayers, and well wishes as my family continues to navigate multiple family health issues and the mourning process after the death of my mother-in-law, known here on the blog as Grandma.

I have no timeline to get back to a more regular blogging practice. With so many variables out of my control, I have learned not to make promises.

But, please, stay tuned.

a note of thanks

I am somewhat shocked to discover that I have reached 750 followers, including just over 600 from WordPress alone.

I am immensely grateful to all followers, readers, and commenters who are visiting Top of JC’s Mind these days as I continue my less-than-ideal blogging practice.

When Grandma died unexpectedly in March, I knew there would be some disruption in my usual routine of posting and visiting/commenting on other blogs, but I couldn’t know at the time how draining the aftermath of that loss would be or how many other losses, changes, and complications would ensue.

The current state of affairs in the world hasn’t helped.

I have struggled to get back to posting on a somewhat regular basis. I am doing almost no reading and commenting still, which feels odd. It isn’t that I can’t come up with the time; it’s more that I can’t muster the brainpower and concentration.

I thank you for your patience and understanding. I have given up projecting when I may be back to visiting you all and re-engaging.

Some of you have assured me that it is okay to take my time, to do what I need to do, that everything will work out eventually.

Please continue to save a little room for me in a corner of WordPress.

Someday, I’ll be dropping back in.

 

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!
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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

600!

Yay! Top of JC’s Mind just hit 600 followers! Thanks to everyone who visits, likes, and/or follows, especially to poets and others who have been following along with my Mass MoCA poetry residency/Tupelo Press workshop posts. (Shameless plug.)

The posts are here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here, with a Binghamton Poetry Project anthology post with three new poems from this last session here.

Feel free to start at the beginning and read through or go non-linear and start anywhere. We poets love that!  😉

sharing blogging tips

Would you like to read some blogging tips and share some of your own?  Pop over to my blog-friend Jay Dee’s blog I Read Encyclopedias for Fun and join in the discussion:  https://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/my-take-on-this-whole-blogging-thing/

I admit that I don’t follow all the advice that is offered.  For example, I choose to have a wide-ranging blog rather than a focused one. I am also notoriously bad at handling images, and can’t imagine ever adding video. However, I also never set out to have a large readership, so I am comfortable going my own way on those things.

I do, however, try to be good about responding to comments and about visiting and commenting on other blogs. It’s what makes bloggers into a community.

Janice’s Meet and Greet

Janice at Mostly Blogging is hosting a blog party! It’s a great opportunity to meet and greet other bloggers. Check it out!
http://mostlyblogging.com/blog-party-meet-and-greet-8/

A big thank you!

I’m grateful to everyone who has been visiting Top of JC’s Mind over these past couple of weeks. Since I did my 500(ish) followers and SoCS posts, I have received many encouraging compliments, likes, and follows.

It is so heart-warming and affirming that I have been trying to get a post or reblog out every day, even if it is short, as this one will be. It’s a busy week, as we try to fit in appointments, family visits, shopping, packing, and move-in for T in the one week between the end of her summer internship and the start of the semester.

It’s finally starting to sink in that this is the last year of grad school for both E and T. The end of the journey of having one or both daughters in formal schooling which began in 1991.

Wow! That looks like such a long time when it is written down.

Maybe I should take a rest…

Calling people from around the world!

A few days ago, I re-blogged this post: https://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/reaching-out-to-the-world/
from Jay Dee of I Read Encyclopedias for Fun. He is trying to get comments from as many countries as possible. So far, people have responded from USA, Canada, UK, Germany and Ireland. Let’s help him expand the list!

Here’s how you can help:
1) If you are from another country – and I know I have regular visitors from India and Australia – please click on the link and leave a comment, telling Jay Dee where you are from.
2) If you have a blog, are on Facebook, tweet, or engage in any other social media, please consider sharing the link with your followers. There are handy sharing buttons at the end of the post or you can copy and post the link yourself.

Let’s see if we can get visitors from dozens of countries for Jay Dee! Thanks!