The joy blogging brought me in 2022

Like many of us who have been members of the blogosphere, the feeling of community is a very important aspect of the activity.  During the isolating times of the pandemic blogging truly provided me with a lifeline of sanity and friendship for which I will be eternally grateful.  One thing I enjoy every year, pandemic or no pandemic and regardless of the state of the world, is to take a look at the statistics for the past year’s blogging activities and reflect on what the stats can teach me.

The statistic I derive the most pleasure from is the map and figures on where across the world readers can be found.  I may not have the volume of traffic that some bloggers have, but I couldn’t be more pleased to know that this year at least one person from each of 156 countries read at least one of my posts.  That is really, really cool.  Talk about the Internet having a global reach!  This is what it looks like;

These are the 10 countries that attracted the largest number of views (thanks to Roy for putting Jersey on the map!) and also the 10 countries at the bottom of the list, with 1 view each, but I’ll take it.  There were LOTS of countries in between. Welcome, welcome to all new viewers! 🙂

The other statistic that I always enjoy perusing is the number of views per blog post.  Usually some kind of theme emerges as to which topics interested the most viewers, but this year it was all over the map.  I guess the only message for me in that observation is to keep trying new topics and see what happens! 😉

Interestingly, the top 8 posts (after my Home page, which wins by a mile) are all posts from previous years.  This should be encouraging news for those of you who are relatively new to blogging.  Your posts never go away and continue to be found and read year after year.  Stick with it!

The top 10 posts from 2022 (written and posted in 2022) run the gamut.  Here they are, for your consideration:

1. Outrage from a Canadian: a rant. This was the post I wrote about the so-called Freedom Convoy in Ottawa in the depths of winter last January and February, when anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers held Ottawa citizens and businesses to ransom for an entire month, complete with Trump and QAnon flags.
2. Map Monday: This sovereign nation called Ukraine. This post illustrates, in maps, the history of Ukraine, its borders, and its neighbours through the centuries.  Posted, appropriately, on Feb 28.
3. Here’s a bucket list item for you. A post about an extraordinary woman (a very fit grandmother) who was setting out to walk the entire original Silk Road of Marco Polo, a route of 22,000 kms, through some very rough and also politically charged territory.
4. Important lessons our parents teach us without even realizing it. Some light humour about sayings that parents have used through the decades, for example: My mother taught me LOGIC … “Because I said so, that’s why.”
5. If I could turn back time – for peace, for love, …, for dinosaurs? This post was a response to a challenge posed to me by fellow blogger John Persico.  He asked me to choose a moment in time that I would have changed if I had been able to and explain why.  It took me a very long time to decide what one change I would have made.
6. Family history as told by a piano. This post is a special one for me.  It’s a tribute to the piano I inherited on my Mom’s passing when I was 28-years old and now had to pass along to someone who could make better use of it, in other words see better and move their fingers better.
7. Celebrating winter, snow, and the Canadian outlook that sees us through. This is a collection of cartoons poking fun at dealing with the joys and excesses of winter.  Most of the United States could have used these last week, although they probably wouldn’t have found it that funny at the time!
8. Figuring out how to lead our lives is rarely easy; I guess it isn’t meant to be. Dealing with the passage of time, leading our best lives as we do so, and considering how to pass along our own stories to our kids and grandkids.
9. Big city living vs small city living, similarities and differences. Having lived in both, it’s kind of fun to look at the comparisons.
10. Easter, Passover, and Ramadan are aligning in 2022, but their underlying messages aren’t getting out! Peace, hope, and love are the messages, but too many actions in 2022 haven’t exemplified those messages in action, to say the least.

Thus ends Robby Robin’s blogging journey for 2022.  Let’s hope that Robby’s writing buddy – me – can find lots of examples of peace, hope, and love in 2023, as can you all.

Happy New Year, one and all!