Mr. International

Call me Mr. International. If you read my blog through my Facebook status updates you will know that I really like to know that people are reading my posts. I write them to be a little self indulgent and opinionated but I also enjoy writing them to hear what people think. I like to be balanced and as unbiased as I can be, although sometimes if I'm a little bit 'enthusiastic' about something my opinions can be a little more important than being balanced.

Recently I have seen that my blog readership has increased, more and more people are 'Like'-ing my post and indeed commenting via Facebook which as I said I always appreciate. I would like to be doing a lot more with them - I mean, most of the blogs that I have seen and browse through are really short and more like miniature thoughts. I like that I'm a bit different although I am sure there are literally millions of people all around the world who are exactly like me. Well not exactly like me, that would just be weird and a little bit sad.

Anyway back to being Mr. International. I was faffing about the other day on the dashboard page of my blog and spotted a couple of tabs that for not really paying attention, I had never really noticed. The first of which was a 'Monetise' option. It is fairly cool the Google Gods basically use some sort of genius and unfathomable code to determine advertisements that you can make money from by inserting them into your blog. I think that is amazing if I'm honest but knowing that I'll have to do my own taxes for any monies earned and having a rather rocky past with the Inland Revenue - I think I'll give it a miss.

The second of which - and this is where I get excited - was 'Stats'. I have no idea apart from not paying attention how I had never noticed these two tabs, especially this one because I'm a stats kind of guy. I like to know facts, figures and information even more so when it specifically pertains to me. So I click this tab, just as I had the Monetise one and the first thing that caught my eye was a little map of the world. It was white apart from the UK and America were in green so I clicked the 'more' option and my face lit up. Honestly I must have looked like a kid at Christmas; my blog has been visited by people in America, Slovenia, Denmark and Singapore… How cool is that?

Now I have used the word 'visited' there for a reason. As much as I did have the cheesiest of grins on my face and a warm glow in my heart, I am not naive enough to believe that anyone who clicks on my link/site actually reads the 1500-ish word, almost essay like blog posts that I write. I am not going to lie, I like to think that, but for all I know it could just be some sort of automated website hit. Still, I like to stay positive and enthusiastic.

It was such an odd epiphany to have but I had never realised that my self gratifying, textual ramblings could actually be viewed by almost anyone in the world. It had oddly never occurred to me that it is the World Wide Web for just that reason. The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got at myself for not tagging each of my blogs to associate the content, because I just figured it's on my Facebook and if people want to read it they can. I never considered for a second that someone might just stumble on it and have a read, which in itself is weird because I have done that multiple times myself. So there we go I am going or have gone global… in a fashion.

It's given me a rather fortuitous sense of pride. Here's a good example, there are dozens of video blogs across the world that are just your average everyday guy or girl who have hundreds or thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers. These people make time to watch these other ordinary people talk about stuff that’s happened to them or what they think about things that are happening around the world. A lot of people have made money and even become famous from things like YouTube although a lot more people have become infamous but still…

I have no reservations about being famous - I'm also adult enough to understand that even if that’s what I did want, it would never happen, so it’s a good job I don't really. Nope, fame is not for me. What I would like is for people to just enjoy what I write for what it is. It kind of makes you think though doesn't it? I wonder how many people who are either using the internet the same way I do are getting a second income or even their primary income. More so, I wonder who many of those people actually expected that to happen. It's an odd thing to want to do, "What do you want to do when you grow up son?", "I want to write blogs online." I bet that conversation has never ever had that outcome before. It is however being an increasingly viable career choice though.

All in all what I am going on about is that I am clearly a little bit impressed but also disappointed in myself. I have my own little personal following and I like that. I also missed the opportunity to increase the readership I already have. On my list of things to do is go back through and add tags or labels to each of my previous posts so that maybe people can find them when they a Googling something that may be related. Second is to improve my profile page for this site, its very basic and I don't think it has any information about me at all. I feel as though I should get to know the people that do read my posts if they aren't part of my Facebook friends, so that I could conceivably write about things they may like. I'm just nice like that. I figure if people know more about me potentially they can relate to me a bit more and become a regular reader. Thirdly and finally is to gain a little more structure. I originally decided to write one post a week and then decided against it in case I couldn't think of anything to write but now I've changed my mind back again. I will hopefully be writing a post a week to be posted on a Sunday. Don't get your hopes up or arrange you evening around me or anything like that because I am not definitely committing but I'll be doing my best.

As I wrap up and end for another week, I would like to pose a question to you all; when you click my link do you read the whole post? Have you ever told anybody else to read it? I once was passed on a blog by a friend of mine in the office, it was amazing. Easily one of the best things I had ever read so I passed it on to loads of my friends and I even created a Facebook group. I don't want a Facebook group or page but you get the point and if you don't, the point is if you like it, spread it. As I said earlier these posts are a written mostly for me, but a lot of what I am thinking about when I write, is you whoever you are. I like to think that I put a smile on your face with my almost funny words and I like to think that you are thinking about whatever your image of me is.

So here I am, Mr. International… or at least kind of. I have one last thing that I would ask of any one that takes the time to read my posts. I currently have two followers, the second is my friend who will be creating a blog of his own fairly soon and we have some pretty cool plans for the New Year for mine… maybe. Anyway, what I am saying is that if you have the option to follow my blog please do, I would very much appreciate it, even more so if you are from some far off place and have stumbled across this by accident. Comments either good or bad are also welcomed, we might get a debate on the go - debate with me though and be prepared, you will lose. And as always thank you.