Readers: Why I Love My Wine Blog
Here I am working on a piece for the winery newsletter, and I realize why I love my blog so much. People read it. she laughs nervously You read it. By the way, I am not fooling myself into thinking many people read my newsletter articles because my telling them they should does not = their reading it. I know they mostly get tossed in the trash.
A blog is different. You can see results. Even if you’re rather new to the whole thing and don’t know what statisitcs really mean or what you can determine from them, you can track them. And for a girl who once made it her mission to be valedictorian, without being considered nerdy, it satisfies that thing inside that wants to be good at something measurable.
When that idea struck (see About Farley section), it was a whimsy, something I never thought would happen. Yet I am here in California, working at a winery and writing about it. While I might not have as many readers as other blogs, here’s what I love: people I don’t even know leave comments, good or bad. Telling me if I’m doing a good job or not making any sense. Conversation with strangers, that if I’m lucky, will build over time and develop a sense of no longer being strangers.
But here’s the thing. I wish I knew how they got here. My stats aren’t that specific, so it’s hard to tell. Was it from a link on another blog, by searching for a food pairing for Gruner Veltliner, or just a mistake? Do the people in the tasting room who say they’re going to read my blog ever check it out?
If you’re reading this now, and you don’t know me or I gave you the address at Thomas Fogarty, please tell me something, anything about who you are and how you got here. It will satisfy my curiosity and could win you some money, to boot.
Happy reading. she laughs nervously
blogs, blog reading, blog stats, loving blog readers
Added note: It was thanks, in part, to this lovely post by Dr.Debs that this idea crept into my head in the first place.
…..Farley Walker
January 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Hey, Farley! I’m here because you visit me and my site stats (SiteMeter) do let me track back to where my visitors come from. I’m not sure that’s an option for your site, but it’s great and lots of folks come on over from their own blogrolls.
But mostly we come ’cause we like your writing! I also have a special empathy with you because everyone thinks I’m a guy, too! (remember poor Kitchen Chick??)
January 14th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Thanks, Dr.Debs! I really enjoyed your post and your site as well.
As for the mistaken identity, the company I write through has a forum for questions, support, etc. And nearly everyone there has been thinking I was a ‘he’ until just last week!
January 14th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Good writing will always attract interesting people.
January 14th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Farley, it’s been fun to learn about you and your refreshing take on the wine life. The fact that you’re local and I plan to lead a winehiking tour to Fogarty later this year means we should talk! In fact, it’s high time I added you to my blogroll. (Done!)
January 14th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Hey Farley. I think I found you originally from El Jefe’s Blog….he made me laugh at work (really an infrequent occurence, surprising given the people I work with, but I’m usually laughing internally at them….) so I figured the other blogs he had listed must be worth visiting. So here I am! you should ask the company if they’ll install the Google Analytics tag for you…it’s great, shows you the words searched for and everything. Personally, I feel bad for the pour soul who keeps visiting my blog looking for instructions on how to make a reindeer of wine wine corks! (Maybe I should post a picture of thing so they’ll stop searching!)
January 14th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
farley, you’ve been a wonderful and dear friend for years… one day you sent me an email asking me to check out your blog… i did, and ever since, i check it at least 5 times a day… yup, i know, 5 times, but i’m always optimistic that i will be able to read another insightful piece by you… keep up the great work… thanks for the great reads every day…
January 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Though I wasn’t fishing for compliments, thanks, everyone. Kind words mean so much.
451 Press only updates the blogroll once a month, but it should be done today or tomorrow, Russ and Megan.
Doug, I guess I better get to work on another post….
January 15th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Hey Farley, I love your wine blog! I’m not a big blogger, never seem to find the time, but love to check yours out. Keep up the good work!!
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
you already know I love your blog, so I’ll weigh in differently… I also write our winery newsletter, and I also despair that no one reads it - then I had six people come up to me in the past week complimenting me on the great newsletter! You just wait…!
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pm
here’s hoping….
February 20th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I thought I’d respond because you were wondering how readers got to your site. I was searching for articles about John Brecher & Dorothy Gaiter and your blog came up in one of the searches. I started reading and found a link to your ExpertVillage videos. I like your passion about wine and your blog. Keep enjoying what you are doing!
April 15th, 2007 at 11:29 am
[...] Why Do We Do the Things We Do? April 15th, 2007 by Farley When the Winehiker hit me with my first meme, I thought I had kinda answered the question “Why do I blog?” a few months ago with this post. Except that didn’t really explain why I got started initially. [...]