I imagine as literate scholars evaluate English discourse in the first part of the twenty-first century, they will likely overlook our literary efforts here. But, I want to take a moment to point out that looking at statcounter this morning our hits total has now broached the 250,000 hits barrier. This journal of our life and discussion with its readers has, since we began measuring our stats about a year after we began blogging, had a quarter of a million "hits". When we began with Swan's Heart December 21, 2004, and then evolved into The Heron Clan October 29, 2005 we never dreamed we'd ever see that much Internet traffic. It makes sense as well that there were likely about 50,000 hits in the time before we began monitoring our statistics with statcounter. We know too that there are a number of loyal readers and correspondents, who have come to follow us here, using reader services to follow us, whose presence with us does not register on statcounter, so who knows what our actual volume is.....maybe 350,000 or 400,000? At any rate we know from objective monitoring that we have over a quarter of a million hits.
One of the more amazing aspects of this is that we haven't "tried" to develop a readership. Now don't get me wrong. We love that fact that we have our readership, but we've never tried to particularly "satisfy" readers, or cater to them. We talk about our sexuality some but it is likely about 10% or what is discussed here. There is the occasional spanked/whipped butt picture but I can count those on one hand. Mainly we (and mostly swan) simply chronicle what is on our minds and what is in our lives good, bad, and indifferent. It is such a huge gift that you all have come here to read it
When we began here we were feeling alone and isolated. We were not comfortable with those we had met in our local kink community. We had few if any friends with whom we could be who we are without pretense. You all have given us the gift of community and friendship. You've given us opportunities to explain our thoughts and feelings. You've supported us through some difficult times and have celebrated some high points with us too. Some of you have given us the gift of allowing us to help you. A few have even become real time friends. This Blog has been a lifeline for us and we are always pleased when we are told it serves a purpose in others lives. I cannot imagine a life where I don't get up and turn on my laptop first thing to see what happened on the Blog last night and check out our stats.
Thank you for reading and discussing here. Thank you most to my swan for taking my directive to make a Blog to break through her isolation and loneliness and creating a superb place for us to meet and share with friends.
Tom
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThat is a milestone indeed :)
I know I don't speak up very often here, but I read consistently. I'm one of those sneaky readers who follows you on a subscription service.
If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I've been reading you guys since the beginning or so, and it's been my pleasure to read the parts of your lives that you are inclined to share.
Looking forward to continuing to follow your journey as far into the future as you feel like sharing :)
XO
Shasta
Congratulations! And to think I was excited when I hit 2000. I so appreciate the service you provide the community. I am sure you do not feel so isolated anymore and neither do your readers. It shows that those of us in the community are more interested in frank discussiona and validation, than sexual adventures and erotic stories (though those are nice too). I am very grateful that you chose to share your lives with us.
ReplyDeleteBlogging has been just as rewarding for me as it has for you. I love to see comments from my readers, both the new and the regular commenters make me smile for various reasons. Most of all, I just adore the writing. It is good for me. It gives me a place to think out loud. I can see that this blog has served that purpose for all of you too...and that's exactly the sort of thing that I look for in a blog that I read regularly. Thank you for writing here. I learn alot from all of you because your journey together through life is lived in little snippets here as you think aloud. That's needful in my world. Thank you for providing it. *smiles*
ReplyDeleteWow! One quarter million visitors to our corner of the cyber neighborhood does seem like a significant milestone. I'd likely have tumbled to this circumstance eventually, but truthfully, I am not the one who COUNTS around here. Master counts. Everything. Days and strokes and website hits. So here we are.
ReplyDeleteI never, ever wanted to write this blog, or its predecessor, The Swan's Heart. It was at His insistence that I began these blog sites, and it is (in part) because He does not agree that I should quit writing, that this account of our lives continues
I am so grateful for all the many people who read here and comment here and contact us directly by private email. You affirm us and enrich our lives in countless ways. When Master says that we do not try to create readership here, it is almost an understatement. I learned, very early in this process, that watching the readership was detrimental to my ability to write. So, insofar as it is possible to do so, I try to ignore those who read here. Doing that is essential to my ability to write what is true for me. If I look too closely at the thoughts and opinions and reactions of our readers, I become stuck and unable to write. So, I am most often the silent part of this process -- creating the initial words to begin the conversation, but then quite often, remaining aloof from what those words generate. I cannot invest in what readers might think about what I think. I have to write as if no one was looking.
The writing has created for me a very small and very precious group of people that I consider to be "friends." That is a gift beyond what I can express. My life here is very circumscribed. I am hundreds of miles from my children, estranged from my parents, separated from the geography that I called "home" for most of my life. I have Master and T, and that is a great joy, but beyond our doors, I live as a woman alone in the world. The friendship and companionship of those who read here has given me an anchor in a very lonely world. Thank you all.
More than all of that, this place gives me a place to muse, ponder, rant, celebrate, worry, wonder, and ask the questions that living this life engenders. I can come here to pour out the words that thrash around in my head, knowing that some of you will look at what I write and reflect it back to me. That is an amazing and lovely and utterly unexpected benefit to all of this. For each of you, known and "mysterious," I am most grateful. More than that, I am humbled by your presence in my world.
two different blogs which i read for a long time disappeared. without notice. it amazes me how much i still miss those 2 people amd the wisdom i gleaned from their words. i wonder what they're doing now. why they left. and i hope they're ok. i know they must have had some very important reason to suddenly disappear like that.
ReplyDeletethose of us who read a blog regularly, connect far more deeply to the people who write them than you might imagine. i hope the heron clan blog will be around for a very long time to come.
melissa
I can only add my words of congratulations and of thanks. Your words first and then your friendship have and do mean a great deal to me.
ReplyDeleteHil
Wow!
ReplyDelete"They like us! They really really LIKE US!!!!"
Thanks, everyone...VERY cool!
T
Yes we do!!!
ReplyDeleteHil