500 Followers! A Small But Important Milestone
I’m not new to blogging but with each new milestone, it remains exciting.
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Since February 2017, I’ve been a daily blogger! I started on WordPress to join a blogging challenge called Slice of Life hosted by the creative educators at TwoWitingTeachers.org. It was a 31-day writing challenge for the month of March (2017). I completed it then and continued to write daily (or almost daily for the last six years).
On my WordPress site, The Apples in My Orchard, I’ve racked up the statistics shown in the following charts. As you can see, I’ve done a lot of writing.
Currently, I have 806 subscribers on WordPress and 14 more that receive my posts via email. I can see what my “evergreen” articles are: a post about finding the perfect Buffalo Chicken Wing recipe and one on the song Puff the Magic Dragon.
One of the reasons I joined Medium was to give my writing a broader reach. As of this morning, after six months of daily blogging on the Medium platform, I gained my 500th follower! As my title indicates, it's a small milestone but an important one. And it is encouraging despite the rollercoaster views that have become commonplace on Medium lately.
A point I want to get across is one about community. There is a writer/reader community on platforms other than Medium. I found a loyal community by persisting with regularity on WordPress. Yes, it took more time but it’s there. I have regular readers and commenters, perhaps still more regular than on Medium. These are people that have been with me, supporting what I write, for YEARS! I am so grateful for that.
You have to join, read, comment, and make return comments and your site will grow. It’s just how it works, on Medium, WordPress…
