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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Considering.

I have been considering some changes here at my blog. Over the past few months, I have monitored my blog, and I have noticed the comments have been very low for the past 3 months, and you all remember the poll I did on my blog, nearly half the people said they did not like the information seen on this blog.

But with a little more then half the people saying they liked the information, I decided to keep going, Anyway, I'm am unsure of how many people actually from my local forecast area actually view this blog, I have also noticed There are already other blogs covering this area, Over the next few weeks I will decide on either Changes, or the closing of this blog, This is just a post to notify everyone I'm going to really starting to start watching my blog closely to see how many people find this information useful. I will start by issuing a sires of polls. Again, this blog is for reports and forecasts for Burnett, Washburn, Polk, Barron, St Croix and Dunn counties. and also information about my hometown Clayton,WI, also some posts about my Gardening hobby.

4 comments:

Dirk S. Miller said...

Ok first off don't get mad at me for not emailing you on this,however I feel this is something all your viewers need to see....
First off...We all have our forecast areas..So if we were to shut our blogs down or drop Counties cuz someone else has them covered,well we all might as well shut all of our blogs down,here's why...We have the NWS,and so many private firms that have all of our forecast areas covered already...So why should we waste our time with our blogs?....Well here is why..We all enjoy weather and other things we post to our blogs...So let me talk about the weather...We all here seem to forecast it in one way or another..Some will just post the NWS forecast Some will just post the their own OBS...Nothing wrong with that all....Yes the ones that do forecast have and will keep busting at times,You will see more bust in the early to middle spring and early to middle fall.as models do have a harder time with warm/cold systems,plus the convection feed back problems....This where a skilled forecaster can hit the forecast on target by understanding all of that,however even the best forecasters still bust during these time frames,that is the way weather is I could write a book on that..Some of us here are more skilled than others,however who cares..I have more respect for people who try to forecast the weather,than the one who complain about when they feel one of our forecasts was wrong..Ok another reason why we have blogs is to share not only our interests in the weather,but some of our other hobbies we enjoy doing,Which is great it helps us learn about one another..I like to garden also..I like plants also,however there are a lot of things I don't know IE like what plant it is..So your blog has helped me out there plus your emails...So if it helped me out who else did it help out ?..See where I'm going with this..Just cuz people don't comment does not mean they aren't reading the blogs..
Ok now what to with problems on the blog...I have had enough on mine and at one point was ready to give it up..I didn't and I won't....That problem I had the other day sure what I did on my cbox,well I shouldn't have but I did water under the bridge...I should have just deleted her comments and thought nothing more...I didn't, I had some fun as I was in a grumpy mood anyway..Well that problem is fixed,she's lucky I'm no longer going to take it any farther....So with that said any problem just delete the comments and forget about it..Just like I will start doing.....Ok another thing Polls...Well you know how I feel about them...They will leave you wide open for disappointments...Most viewer will not vote anyway,sure some will most won't...The polls will be voted on by friends,family,and the trouble makers..I don't vote on polls for the most part,I see no reason to...Ok back to this cbox thing..I may very well just get rid of it...People know how to get a hold of if they really want to,or just can comment on the post it self.......
So to tell you point blank Derek if you give up your blog you just stop sharing what you like whether its the weather garden or the history of your town/area...To tell you the truth I hate history,but did find your write on your town to be very interesting...As I'm sure many others have also even the your viewers that don't comment.I read a lot of other blog and never comment on them ..Ok so here is where you may get upset with me I hope not...Here we go....Get out of whatever mood your in and get back to your self....That said it...bring back the Derek we all know,not this stranger that we see in this post....

Josh Herman said...

D, I'd suggest getting a "stat counter" on your blog page. You may have one already... but, by doing this, obviously you can track how many hits you get, but more importantly you can see how those hits got to your blog and while they visited, where they went and for how long. It's important, to me, to know what readers are searching for when they come to the blog. You could rearrange your content on that alone.

My other suggestion is... think of it as your weather diary. Who cares who reads it. :) The most important thing is that you get satisfaction from it.

Iowa Weather & Gardening said...

Thankyou Dirk and OSNW3.

No, I'm not mad at your post, Yeah, I don't want to drop counties. So that likely wont happen, I really like the area in which I cover. True that the NWS covers even single area. And Yes most of the time polls do lead to disapointment, That type of poll I probably will stay away from. OSNW3 I do have a counter here, I'm still surprised at how many views says comes on, but no one says anything, There is a point where you have to think to yourself. Is this information I'm giving useful, or am I just totally wasting time? do you understand this? and about my not being myself, I feel as much as myself as anyotherday, so not with my saying that think about how long it must have taken my to decied to post this? I could have posted it anytime, but I waited a long time to see if things would change. My blog will continue at normal operation even with this considering.

Josh Herman said...

D, perhaps you need to dig deeper into your hits. You know?! Find out where they are coming from and for what reasons. For example, a third of my hits come from Internet searches (the other two thirds come from you guys and blog spammers). Knowing what the search was for, I can then provide that content or make the content more accessible with links, graphs, or photos for the general public.

First and foremost, I blog for myself. I enjoy keeping a weather diary of my backyard and surrounding city. It's an added bonus to have others visit. :)

Enjoy the upcoming storm!