Blog Reflections: Most and least successful posts and all that…

With the new year moving along steadily, I thought it as well to write up some reflections on the life of this blog in 2015.

For most of the year it lay dormant – an idea brewing and developing. Starting it was on my list of goals for 2015, and with the help of Ben O’Reilly, a domain name and basic site had been built early in the year. True, the domain name was not my initial choice – but the trouble with a name as common as Brian Harris is that more obvious choices like brianharris.com and brianharrisblog.com were already taken. So brianharrisauthor.com it is – a tad pretentious, but there it is. It all sprang to life in late August with the start of a series on apologetics, the opening post being Why believe? A sort of apologetics 101… . A series on ethics followed, and a raft of other topics have been explored.

So now that the blog has been running for a little over 4 months, how has it been going?

For those of you who like statistics, as I write there have been almost eleven thousand page views (10 888 to be precise) and these have been made in the course of 6277 visits by people from 82 different countries. The top five countries by visits (in order) are

• Australia
• New Zealand
• USA
• South Africa
• UK

Followed by

• Brazil
• Indonesia
• Canada
• Netherlands
• Singapore

The most popular post (viewed well over a thousand times) was Same Sex Marriage: Ethical and Pastoral Reflections and it also attracted the largest number of comments for a single post (18) – though the number of comments on a post can be misleading, as many people comment on Facebook links they have spotted, and some of those conversations have developed a fascinating life of their own. Incidentally, can I make a little plug here for the value of posting comments. It is really helpful. Don’t hesitate to post your thoughts. And remember, you don’t have to agree (though of course you can). We often learn the most when people present alternate views. The only rule (and I do have an editorial over ride) is that the focus is on the idea that has been presented. This site is not into attacking people and making them feel awkward – so comments like that (and they are very rare) are deleted.

In terms of number of views, the post on same sex marriage was followed by

• A somewhat sobering Christmas
• For better, but not worse: Marriage and Divorce in the 21st century
• The refugee, my housemate: On opening our hearts (by Alan McGrechan)
• Why Christian Teachers and Schools Matter

If we are going to talk about most viewed posts, I guess it is only right to mention those that were least viewed – if only because I am a little confused by their poor reception. People – they weren’t that bad (really, they weren’t. Check them out..)

• Bottom place was shared (with 42 views for each) by A Time to Speak: 10 Reasons to speak up and From Deo Volente to Digital Video: The Flight to Secularism
• Only marginally better (46 views – sigh…) was 10 reasons why silence is golden

I guess it seems that the 10 reasons format is not popular – though blog writing sites often advocate it as the way to go. Clearly the readers of this site are anything but average – so congrats on refusing to be commonplace!

The post people have most contacted me about, usually asking if they can use it for a home group, or in a church magazine or reproduce it in another blog is Conducting a Spiritual Audit: A First Fifteen of Questions. Not far behind was About teaching and learning. It seems as though the four probing questions that Geoff Treloar asks educators to pose (what is going on? why is it going on? what should be going on? how can we react?) will form the basis for several staff PD’s at schools this year. Incidentally, the request to use material from the blog is invariably met with a yes. The great hope of the blog is that it will prove helpful to as wide an audience as possible. If you use material, it is really nice if you acknowledge the source as brianharrisauthor.com and if you can post a link back to this site, that is even better.

From my perspective, a slightly disappointing feature is that after four months, we only have a little over 50 subscribers. Now subscription is free and really just means you will get an email notification each time a post is placed. The vast majority of people visit the site via Facebook (and thanks to those who faithfully forward links on to your circle of friends – it really helps) – but it can be a little hit and miss. Subscribing is really easy – you just have to give your email address in the space available which on most devices is to the right of the post about mid way down. And unsubscribing is as easy, if you ever find the site annoying.

If there are some things you would like me to write about, don’t hesitate to let me know. If I know little about the topic, I can try and track someone more knowledgeable in the area. And incidentally – thanks to those who have written guest posts for either the general blog or for its budding theologians section. Each has been well received, and I hope to draw more people into this circle during this year.

Well, thanks for your support of the blog. I have received heaps of encouragement about it. Many of the readers I don’t know personally – but perhaps that will change in time. And I have especially enjoyed being able to be in touch with folk from previous churches (and countries) who have stumbled upon it. It is wonderful to be in contact again.

As always, nice chatting…