Devonne Brown

I have anywhere from seventeen to eighteen followers. In a world where success of blogs and websites are based on millions of followers, I am a resounding failure. The lack of followers won’t stop me from writing, it’s too much fun. What’s interesting to me is where my followers are. 

The “Wordpress” program has a feature that tells me from what countries people access my blog. The last country to access my blog was Spain of all places. With an average of  seventeen followers, that means one person reading my work every other day, or two people reading things three times a day and skipping some days in between. How did this happen? 

Most of my readership is in the United States, it would be wonderful if it told me what states the readers were, wouldn’t it? I can dream. It does tell me, and as few followers as I have I try to figure out who’s reading. I like to imagine my sister reading an essay I wrote about her. I know she’d never read it otherwise, so I text her a synopsis and link, and she’ll read it. The numbers go up like a lunch counter. One view, one visitor, one comment, one like. It’s a cool program.

I know who some of my readers are and it makes me smile. When I see the Union Jack pop up in the readers, I know Pam and Colin have visited my blog, they were my neighbors from the UK. If the Canadian Maple Leaf should present itself in the little parade of flags, I know one of my boys or their step mom is surfing around. But they read the things I tell them to read. Our friends and family are rarely as keen to read our stuff as we think they are. If I prod gently I can coax  one of my boys or friends to read something relevant to them, but rarely will I get a known volunteer, even more rare than that, a comment. 

I have friends in the UK, I understand why the Union Jack would show up on the graphic. I have no idea why people in China, South Africa, Portugal, Ghana, or all the other wondrous countries check out my blog. Please stop by and say, “Hello,” if you read my words. You make my day.