Blogging as a ‘labor of love’

Last month at the four-month anniversary of Madison Park Blogger, I posted a rather self-congratulatory photo of myself, an indulgence that one of my neighbors later labeled “a shameless act of self-promotion.” I suppose I figured that by putting my mug out there for all to see I would garner some additional notoriety for myself as I ambled around the ‘hood. If so, my plan worked superbly.

Why just the other night, for instance, a nicely dressed young man, obviously recognizing me, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. He waved frantically at me and came running across to where I stood. “Sir, sir,” he said, “I’d just like to know one thing.”

“Yes?”

“Is it possible that you’d be interested in buying some magazines?”

And then there was another occasion, just last week, when a young woman walking her dog suddenly recognized me and called out “Say, aren’t you that Madison Park Blogger?” I replied that indeed I was. “Well,” she said, “why haven’t you followed up on that great story idea I emailed you about last month? You know. The one about people shouldn’t be allowed to put soiled baby diapers into their garbage cans.” **

But seriously, it actually has been a rather gratifying fifth month for the Madison Park Blogger. For one thing, a couple of outside organizations (outside Madison Park, that is) asked me to affiliate my blog with theirs (I was flattered but didn’t succumb.) Also, my monthly Madison Park real estate analysis was picked up and published for the first time as a column (Real Estate Chase) by the Madison Park Times. September also saw my first scoop, of sorts. That posting—the one about the County’s plans for possible passenger ferry service on Lake Washington—has now been reprinted by two different media sources. Another milestone for the blog occurred last week when we passed the 50-subscriber mark.

So I feel that MPB is on a roll. Here are the numbers from SiteMeter:

Okay, so it’s a mini-roll; but we are inching upward. Google Analytics reports that 1,090 different people have visited Madison Park Blogger at least once since the blog’s inception, for a total of 12,338 page views. My most-read posting this month was “MadArt will accost you.” With 333 readers to date, it surpasses “Girl injured jumping off diving board” as the Number 1 MPB story of all time.

And it really isn’t true that the only people who confront me on the street are people trying to sell me something or who have crazy story ideas. While wandering around the Park this summer I’ve had very nice conversations about my blog with several fans who introduced themselves. One of them asked me if I was making much money through my efforts. I had to admit that since I’m an “Art not Ads” advocate, there are no revenues associated with Madison Park Blogger—just expenses.

“Oh,” she said, “then I guess that it must just be a labor of love for you!”

That it is.

[**Just kidding.]