It’s Been Fifteen Years

Earlier on I received this notification from WordPress :

15 Year Anniversary Achievement. Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 15 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

And that ‘s accompanied by the familiar logo of WordPress. 15 years and I have about 5,451 blog followers and 796,589 stats in all of my five blogs. The four ones are updated occasionally though. My main focus is on DREAMS AND ESCAPES. If I were to add up my blog posts in all five, that’ll be close to 5,000.

Before WordPress, I started with Friendster then moved to Multiply back in 2007. Between these three platforms, I loved Multiply best, I had a premium account there with my youngest brother Noel paying $20 a month to maintain it. I was able to upload several of my favourite CD albums and photos all in high-res. Except for a few posts on our road trips and some poems, I did mostly political blog posts at the time when Gloria Arroyo was president. Since I cannot reblog them at WordPress, I started with one lone poem 15 years ago. Friendster and Multiply have closed years ago. And since I didn’t know how to customize my new site, it took me more than a year to add something. I learned to navigate, choose a theme, upload photos and customize eventually. I chose the Sadie theme which I am still using on my main blog until now. I love it’s clear lines and the easy way I could update it. WordPress has been changing its algorithms over the years and I have to adjust and learn more.

15 years writing at WordPress and through the years I met several blogging friends worldwide. The earlier ones have come and gone but there are several who remain loyal to my blog, regularly liking and commenting on my posts. I love the exchange of ideas and we have become a community of bloggers.

15 year and I’m still writing.

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662,919 Views And 3,288 Posts Later

I have clearly forgotten those lovely thoughts that I wrote years ago when I was just beginning to write posts at WordPress during my journey as a cancer patient and survivor. If I were to add all my blog posts at my four other sites, it might reach 700, 000 views and maybe 4,000 posts. That year-long journey triggered and inspired me to blog at WordPress. I was so happy reaching out to those with similar journey like I did.

Blogging has become a way of life just as reading does. I used to blog almost every day but over the years, posting one once or twice a week is now enough for me. Over the past two years during this pandemic, everything seemed to be at a stand still. I’ve only gone out five times from our subdivision. No visitors came over except Nissa’s family. Food and groceries were delivered. Even the Christmas gifts were ordered online. Hopefully, this pandemic will end soon.

Finally done with trimming the carabao grass with Josef’s help. We still need though to have the garden outside our perimeter wall cleaned. Our tree dogs sleep in the garage while Nikki, who has just given birth to three male pups is in a cage in our dirty kitchen. She is so protective of her litters.

The past few nights, I compared all the books I had on my tab with Goodreads. Good thing I have a virtual library there. I have read some of them the past few years. It’s funny, I used to write a brief review of the books I read before. I got lazy though since I started this year’s reading challenge. I am looking for more authors and books to read.

I don’t get to visit my friends’ blogs every day because I don’t visit WordPress that often. So sorry about that, will catch up soon.

By the way, it’s CHRISTMAS in nine days.

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Stat Counts

Yeay for dreams fulfilled, just reached 600,009 on my stats. 🌝💕✌🥰💗

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Closer To The Goal

In our language you call it “nangangapa”. I told you earlier this is a trial and error thing. Sometimes, I couldn’t even see the blog itself except for the latest blog post on my reader.

I need to log in via Google to see the whole thing. The app itself, I think is not enough. Considering that I need to take photos via this tab to be able to post them here, I may not be able to attach other photos taken from my CP. It takes better pictures than this one.

I just took a look at my total stats since I am dreaming of reaching a total of 600,000 by year-end. I need 90 plus more to reach it. I miss my PC, Josef is so busy he hasn’t taken a look yet.

I am closer to the goal, there are four more days to go before the new year.

My youngest brother from Tulsa are comparing notes on what to prepare for our Media Noche. He said prepare something sweet, something long like pancit, just a little of everything. I told him I’m gonna try lechon kawali. We still have embutido here which I cooked before Christmas and we haven’t touched the Christmas ham yet. Maybe a kilo of menudo too which I could prepare in advance.

In a few days, another leaf in the calendar would be lost. Let us all welcome 2020 with hope and prayers for a healthy life 🎊🎉💕🌝

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How Important Is Your Blog Stats?

Been looking at my dashboard this morning. I hope WordPress would bring back that assessment they usually do at the end of the year telling you how you fared with your blog.

It is nice to know that the most read blog with all time views was my post on Mama Mary  I posted it back in September 2011 and it garnered total views of 23,824. Next in line is my blog about our road trip at Regina RICA which we did at the start of the year 2012.  It has  total views of 10,122. Coming in third is my post about one of our local author’s books The Early Bird Catches The Worm But The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese. It has 8,156 views.The author Francis J. Kong is a very gifted and popular motivational speaker here in our country.  I was surprised at the response I got from that post and most of those who commented were just passersby so to speak. Back in  May 2009, I just started blogging here. These were followed by my earlier posts when  I was hospitalized and underwent chemotherapy ten years ago. My total stats at the moment reached 597,267. Maybe by the end of  December, it’ll reach 600,000 views….wishing.

You know why page views are important too? It’s because they tell you whether your blog content is good or not. They may not always make comments or click like but you know they have visited and read your posts. I check my stats occasionally and I am glad I had reached this number.

 

 

 

 

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Finally

Tackled that long overdue weeding outside while the laundry is on Wash. An hour of pulling stubborn weeds, a dirty  job but it is much needed. Now my snake plants can be seen in all their glory. Planning to transfer one into a pot for indoor. Do you know that a snake plant cleans air better than most other indoor plants as it has the ability to absorb excessive amounts of carbon monoxide? It also  emits oxygen and filters other toxins from the air. I scattered dried Zinnia seeds where my  Blue Ternatea plant used to grow.

One thing I am so wary of bringing plants inside (except for a pot of Chinese bamboo in one corner of the sala) is that Oreo plays with the leaves. I tried bringing in a small but robust pot of white grass before, when the day ended, almost all the leaves were scattered at the glass top of our side table. Naughty, naughty Oreo 😦

I am thinking since the snake plants have sturdy and thick leaves, it would be harder for Oreo to chew them. All I need now  is to remove the little weeds left  and  trim the carabao grass.

Heaven!

I’ll be able to concentrate on reading now. Having fun with my new tab and there are sites online where you could download e-books free of charge. I am so careful placing it back inside its box so it won’t get scratched meantime I don’t have a safety cover and screen yet. Haha, the things you do for those gadgets!

Would you believe, I sustained blogging every day for the first two weeks of August?  Hooray!  My stats has reached a sizable 585,669 as of this writing.

Just so glad there weren’t strong typhoons to induce flood. I hope the rest of the rainy days would be as good as this month. No flooding, no strong typhoons to hit our shore.

Good morning to all.

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For All Those Years, Thanks!

It’s almost the end of the year and I think it is the best time to assess how this particular blog performed. I don’t much mind my other four blogs since I am not that active on those sites.

The last time I blogged about my stats, followers and blog posts was August 01, 2018, almost five months to the day.  I miss the yearly reports of WordPress on how one particular blogged performed for the year.  For the last two years, it hasn’t been there. I do hope they’ll bring it back.

Last August 1, I registered a total of about 537,574 views and this morning when I last looked,  this blog has about 558,297 views, an increase of 20,723 in more than four months. I am happy that they still visit my blog even if sometimes, I am not really inspired to write.  It also registered 206 more followers since August  with a total now of 3,566 though I must admit, there are only a few who regularly visit and make comments. That’s okay though. Around 90 of those are my followers at Twitter which are added to the numbers and around 35 friends who follow the site via e-mail. The latter don’t have WordPress accounts but they read my posts  through e-mail.

I’ve been here at  WordPress for more than nine years now and there were apps before that are no longer active.  WordPress used to comment how many blogs you have written for the day and how  good it was in their eyes. Oh yes, I used to get those words like fantastic, fabulous, beautiful, uplifting etc. They didn’t have those “likes” though and “re-blog” and “press this” were also non-existent yet.

This is my 2,477th post for this blog alone but if I were to add my  four other blogs, it  would probably be  close to 3,000.  Looking back, sometimes, I could not imagine writing all those posts. I could not even remember some of them now.  Maybe some posts are just repeats of the previous ones but with a little twist here and there.  But most are current events that happen in my life. Learned lessons and inspired moments that give life meaning.

For all of you who visit this blog and read my posts, a big THANK YOU.  Hoping for more blogging years  meeting more bloggers in the process.

 

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Monday, Monday

A blessed Monday morning to all.

Cloudy skies. And there are two low pressure areas which are still outside the Phil. Area of Responsibility (PAR) but this early it looks like it will rain again. It’s a good thing we are finally done trimming  our plants and cutting the carabao grass yesterday. Gardening is  a lot of work but one is happy when you see the immaculate lawn smelling of the earth and newly cut grass.  We harvested calamansi too and got a bout a kilo. The two calamansi trees we have in the garden are presently bearing so many fruits. Heaven.

I was done with my Goodreads 2017 Reading challenge last August 20 finishing the 150 books I set myself to read. I’ve added about five more books since then. I am presently reading The House on Honeysuckle Lane by Mary McDonough, my first book of hers. Gosh, it’s full of Rumi quotes and one character was even named Rumi.  I remember those  earlier days  when I used to write on my little notebooks several quotations from that  writer.  His works are still widely  read until today. Reading is such a leisure that is so fulfilling. Give me a book anytime.

Last September 7 and 8, I got a total of more than 2,400 views alone on my post about Mama Mary.   I guess since 2013 thereabouts, my stats always jump during Mama Mary’s birthday. Busy Google.

 

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Blogging Has Become A Way Of Life

It’s one of those mornings that I get a little time to really sit in front of my PC, check and peruse my stats over the years. Maybe I am a little lucky to have all those viewers and followers to this site. The last time I looked, I got a total view of 476,640 max.  Those followers may not always comment and like my posts but I am glad that blogging has become something that I now value in my life. It is not easy to share your world in the  World Wide Web and be open to negative comments in the process. It is not easy to think of more than 2,017 posts  at the moment.

Here are the top eight posts that over the years have become the most visited ones. I don’t know if the categories and tags helped with the total.

Stats for all time

Homepage   182,850 views

Happy Birthday Mama Mary – 20,324

The Early Bird Catches the Worm But The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese –  7, 993

Dapitan Arcade (A  Shopper’s Delight) – 6,366

On Meeting Dr. Samuel  Ang Again – 4,947

Saint Padre Pio Chapel – 4,499

Feast Day of Senor Sto. Nino – 4,406

Another Year To Be Thankful  For – 4,205

My best view ever was last September  08, 2015  with a total view of 4,893 in one blog post alone and it was Mama Mary’s birthday.

From May 2010  to the present month, the stats are in terms of thousands.  I wonder where they are all coming from. It is just amazing sometimes to see your stats go up the bar.  I know some bloggers won’t consider it that important but when you are in the blogging world (unless your blog is set on private), it is always nice that people come and visit your blog.

How does one become an effective blogger? I started this blog with my journey as a cancer patient and survivor then later on, it morphed into the daily grind of living – reading books, gardening, day-to-day stories of my family and what not,  a smorgasbord  of things dear to the heart.

Time flies too soon and June is rapidly coming to a close. It’s been a lovely month spent reading a lot and gardening despite the heat. I hope the month of July would be kind to my weary bones and aching joints.

 

 

 

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Thank You MAMA MARY

I hope it is not too late to say “happy birthday  Mama Mary”. 

For those of you who read  my blog regularly, you might have noticed that since 2011, I’ve been getting upward spike every time I blog about Mama Mary’s birthday and the bulk of views comes from my country. I love Mama Mary.  Yes, every September 7 and September 8, I get notifications from  WordPress. Last year was the highest so far with a total of 4,893 in one day alone.

WordPress has sent me notifications  since the other day and again I am amazed by the amount of views I got until this morning. This one is the latest so far with this message:

Your blog, DREAMS AND ESCAPES, appears to be getting more traffic than usual! 303 hourly views – 6 hourly views on average
A spike in your stats.

Your blog, DREAMS AND ESCAPES, appears to be getting more traffic than usual! 303 hourly views – 6 hourly views on average A spike in your stats

Translated into numbers, I got 2,020 views the other day and 2,713 views as of this morning. It is still moving upward. Thank you Mama Mary, my blog posts about you are instrumental in these numbers.

May you all be touched with everyday blessings.

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