15 Seconds: The Aftermath of the Tattoo Post

Alma 46:8 - "Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one."

Two weeks ago today, I was feeling a little stressed.

You see, I had gone out to shoot the tube (which I recapped at this link, so click here) that day. As such, I hadn't quite finished the blog post for that day. To make matters worse, I had decided the post was going to be about my sister, and I was playing a desperate game of phone tag hoping she would approve what I'd written.

It was about 5:00pm when I finally posted the post, titled "What I Think About Tattoos." (You can click this link to read that, if you'd like.) I really liked the post, but I was saddened regardless. I suspected that the holiday and the lateness of the hour would make it one of the least-viewed posts in Change and Cherish history. It's a shame, I thought to myself. It really is a good post. It has a good message, one I wish a lot of people would hear.

About half an hour later, I went back to the Blogger interface to make sure everything was in order. After all, I do have a reputation regarding posting broken links over social media and all that.

Wow! I thought. The tattoo post has 55 views! That was actually a very impressive number, over five times the views I thought the post would receive.

But it didn't stop there.

It's kind of hard to see any details, but if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see more clearly.

I watched with utter bewilderment as that post quickly surpassed many previous view count records. Within hours, the post had even surpassed my heavily-advertised 1st Anniversary Recap video, and come the next day, the post had collected nearly three times as many views as that video.

Over 400 views in a day. It was a massive achievement for this humble little blog.

But then, I began to get a little too excited.

400 views? I thought. People are sharing this thing, spreading the news; that means new readers are coming into contact with my blog! Maybe I'll have more daily view counts on average now! 

And I was right. My daily view count did improve. But not as dramatically as I'd initially expected.

I certainly had new readers (and welcome, you beautiful crop!), and my daily view count average over the past hundred days or so increased by about six views a day. But I was still disappointed. Near the birth of this blog, it was a miracle if I received more than twenty views on a single post. Following the advent of the tattoo post, I was becoming disappointed when certain of my posts broke fifty views. Well, that's good, I would think. But it's not the tattoo post.

I only recently recognized I was being supremely ungrateful.

I had new readers. My blog was seeing unparalleled success. I was still finding the same joy in writing that I always have. But I had placed myself under the shadow of one of my previous successes. I had allowed myself to fear I would never garner that same level of interest again. And that was turning me away from recognizing the blessing God bestowed upon me.

So, I have since begun to whistle a new tune. You faithful individuals who read all the way to the end of each post, I thank you, especially if you're here because of that monumental tattoo post.

I'll see you tomorrow for the thinkjoust.