"The Charbor Chronicles": The Charbor Chronicles Reaches 1 Million Views!

Yes, it has finally happened! Normally, I try not to be too conscious of numbers, but admittedly, this was one which I wanted to reach for a long time now. And recently, perhaps in late December or early January, I checked the numbers, and found that it was coming surprisingly fast, which itself was good news. I figured that it would happen sometime in the new year, and so it has.

Indeed, this is a really monumental occasion. The Charbor Chronicles has finally reached a huge milestone: one million views!

That was a landmark, and it took me nearly well over a decade to reach it. Now, however, I feel that it can be proudly announced that there have been a million views for my blog.

Surely, that is a modest number in comparison to some other blogs and sites, many of which have obtained astronomical numbers. But I have tried to remain within certain parameters. As of right now, I can honestly say that I am not doing this for any pay or monetary compensation of any kind. Also, there is no advertising budget, or indeed, any real advertisement anywhere at all. Years ago, I made a Twitter account, and used to post links to my blogs daily. Ditto with Facebook accounts, which again were designed specifically for this. However, I was eventually locked out of all of these accounts, and so once again, for years now, there has not been any kind of promotion of this blog entry of any kind on my part. Honestly, my strength surely is not in advertising myself. So to receive one million views, and to have done so without advertising, or resorting to fluff posts about...say, the Kardashians, or other celebrity or frivolous nonsense, feels like a bit of an accomplishment.

I started this blog back in December of 2010, thanks largely to the encouragement of my girlfriend back then. She said that I should have a blog, which would allow me to write and publish stuff regularly. At the time, I did not know much about blogs, and for some reason, assumed that these were difficult and complicated and somehow inaccessible to me. She told me otherwise, said that it would be easy to start one, and that I could make it into something with my writing.

Indeed, it proved surprisingly easy to set up a blog. I did so sometimes in December of 2010, then added a rather random blog entry (I think it was about Michael Vick) and so "The Charbor Chronicles" was born. However, it was difficult to start with, because I remained unsure of what to write about. Frankly, mind tends to wander quite a bit, and I have been told that my mind, and my tastes, as quite eclectic, and seemingly random. With considerable enthusiasm, it tends to wander from subject to subject, so that I can discuss many things that have nothing to do with one another. Perhaps it is musical tastes (and my tastes there have also been described as eclectic), but then it might be politics (a big subject for me) the next hour. However, talking about politics with complete strangers has never been my forte, since people seem to militant in their beliefs. Perhaps I can talk about sports, although believe it or not, despite some obviously lingering interests in sports, my actual interest in watching games and learning about players and such has dwindled considerably since I was a younger man. Perhaps it can be history, because it has always fascinated me, and was actually my major at Rutgers. Perhaps it can old comics and cartoons and toys, which also often interest me (well, the ones that I was into during my childhood, anyway). Perhaps it is philosophy, or spirituality. Perhaps it is simply in discussing or reviewing a book that I recently read, or a movie or concert that I just saw.

Whatever the subject matter, it seemed to me at the time that maybe I should at least start off a little focused, to have some kind of a theme, even though my mind tends to wander. However, I was reluctant to talk at length about any of these things mentioned above, because although interested me, and I could go on and on about some of them, it seemed presumptuous to assume they would interest others. As if to prove that point, whenever I go back and visit some of my older writings, there are still some entries with exactly zero views. Not once has anyone opened those particular blog posts to view them, and that includes myself!

Still, it has come a long way. From those very early, almost hesitant posts in the first couple of years, when I posted a mere 27 blog entries in both 2010 and 2011 combined (and only three in all of 2010!), to now, when there have been 7,477 published posts, with now over a million views!

Admittedly, it does feel great to have reached that milestone. I feel humbled by it, as well as thankful to all the people who have viewed any of my posts. "The Charbor Chronicles" still is not precisely where I would want it to be, although there have been some successes, for which I am proud. Mostly, though, it is for me to say thank you for everyone who has tuned in and who continue to come to this site to read my latest thoughts, however random these tend to be!

Thanks again!!

Surely, that is a modest number in comparison to some other blogs and sites, which have reached astronomical numbers. But for me, on my own and not doing this professionally, or getting paid for it, or anything, this was a major achievement.

So it seemed fitting to post links to some of the other major milestones reached here on this blog. Here they are, in chronological order:

Friday, April 19, 2013 500th Published Post!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2013/04/500th-post.html

Thursday, November 28, 2013 1,000th Post Published for "The Charbor Chronicles"!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2013/11/1000th-post-published-for-charbor.html

Thursday, October 30, 2014 My 2000th Post!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2014/10/my-2000th-post.html

Thursday, December 24, 2015 3,000th Post!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2015/12/3000th-post.html

Friday, November 11, 2016 250,000 Views!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2016/11/250000-views.html

Tuesday, August 1, 2017 "The Charbor Chronicles" Reaches Half a Million Views!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-charbor-chronicles-reaches-half.html

Tuesday, May 28, 2019 The 5000th Post on The Charbor Chronicles!

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-5000th-post-on-charbor-chronicles.html

A picture of when I checked on the afternoon of March 15th, and realized that I had better prepare this particular blog entry for publication within a day or two.

I used to be able to keep track of not only how many views my blog page - as well as individual blog entries - would actually get, but also, from what countries they were being seen. The countries are not listed in the picture above, although the map would also give some indication of who was looking, or rather, where it would be viewed from. The United States was the most common, but a number of European countries (Britain, France, Germany, and Russia in particular) as well as China and Australia tended to be the most common ones, if I recall correctly. For some reason, the blog page changes things, and this was among the various changes. Many of them were not necessarily for the better as far as I am concerned, including not being able to see the map and/or list of countries, as well as not allowing anyone from specified or approved emails (particularly Gmail accounts, presumably) could be counted as "followers." Unfortunately, I never did actually find out who to write to or how to write and voice a complaint, nor how to reverse these unfortunate trends.