Thanks For Reading, A Thousand Times Over

by Kevin Burton

   If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 1,000 times, thank you for reading Page 7.

   Actually I haven’t told you that 1,000 times, or nearly enough. But the WordPress counter says this is my 1,000^th blog. WordPress is very good at counting things, so I believe them.

   This blog competes with the rest of the media world, including the raging social media cacophony, for your attention. Whatever time you give Page 7 is an honor and humbling to me. 

   So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

   This blog started July 20, 2019 as a tentative step back into journalism, my first love. I had no set agenda other than to jump start my writing.

   Most blogs have a single theme. This one is patterned after an old-style newspaper column. It meanders, as my mind does, from science to silliness. It does tend to have an underdog, rebel theme, because my personality pushed story selection in that direction.

   At first I posted sporadically, no set times or topics. I would forget I even had a blog for weeks on end.

   I’m surprised everybody didn’t start a blog during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic ( I don’t speak of Covid in the past tense as some do, but the worst of it appears to be over). In those days the blog kept me just this side of the sanity line. I think it was during that time that I became more intentional about keeping a schedule. I would post three days a week. I then added a fourth and fifth.

   Now I post every day except Monday and Thursday most weeks.

   There hasn’t been very much criticism of Page 7, which could mean I’m doing something wrong, or, that not enough people see it. Could be both.

  Most Tuesdays I write about music. Most Sundays it’s about faith. The other days are a mixture of what’s funny, or cool, or outrageous or instructive.

   There have been times I have giggled my way through the whole writing process, like the time our exterminator found possum poop in our yard and that sent me to Beverly Hillbillies reruns and elsewhere to get the straight story on possums ( “This Possum Was A Squatter In My Yard” Oct. 16, 2020)

   There have been things I tried but wasn’t satisfied with, such as introducing an altar ego, the way Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko did with Slats Grobnik. Don’t think I pulled that one off.

   In 1,000 posts you’re going to have a few clunkers.

   According to WordPress, Page 7 has had views from 107 countries if you include the mysterious “unknown region.”  Not sure I want to know where that is. It could be suburban Indianapolis. But I have 32 views from there.

   My first view from a foreign country was from France. I’ve had 1,682 views from the UK, (most from any country outside the US); one view each from Bermuda, Belize and Bulgaria. I’m grateful for every one of them. 

   This would be an excellent time to talk about where I am going with Page 7 Unfortunately I don’t have that wrestled down quite yet.

   But I am thinking about it.

   I am legally blind and a word man of long standing. So I emphasize words over pictures and to this point haven’t put any pictures on Page 7. But most readers are sighted and might like to see the occasional drawing or picture or graph, or something.

   A possible next step is to figure out how to make money with, or monetize the blog. Maybe other voices could be included, I mean beyond the lists of word origins I post. Maybe multiple blogs appearing on the same site.

   All these ideas and more are in play. Perhaps I will have something in place in time for Page 7’s fifth birthday, July 20 of this year. My first story was “Introducing Page 7.” Maybe I’ll do a “Re-Introducing Page 7.”

   When you turn five you start going to school and getting better and smarter, right?

   If you have story or blog site ideas, or just have general comments, please include them below in comments. You can also e-mail me at page7comments@yahoo.com.

   Thanks again for turning to Page 7.