A Milestone! 5000 Hits!

Woohoo! My Sitemeter counter just rolled past 5,000 hits!

While that's hardly as impressive as the 7 or 8 zillion hits some of the bigger bloggers have, to me it's kind of a big deal. When I started this I wasn't sure if anyone would read it - and yet I managed to hit that number in only a touch over five months.

I've learned a lot, and I've really come to enjoy it. (If you don't like my blog I guess that's bad news for you, since it means I intend to continue.) I hope I also continue to improve, and keep my traffic growing. And I've managed to snag a few "regular readers" along the way. (Yes, I've noticed you. I appreciate your continued tolerance of my quirky ways.)

I've even managed to get linked by some of my own favorite big blogs - and I'm thankful for each of those links. The list includes: Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View, and Legal Insurrection. (Last week, Professor Jacobson passed 2 million hits - but you won't catch him bragging about it. He is, no doubt, a bigger person than I when it comes to trivial things like traffic statistics. It probably protects him from the dreaded Blogger Mood Disorder. Congratulations, Professor!)

I've also made new connections with other bloggers, working to boost each other & spread the word. Thanks go to: The Classic Liberal, Motor City Times, Republican Redefined, Conservative Hideout 2.0, Wyblog, LDJackson, Washington Rebel, Feed Your ADHD, and That's Right - where Russ has gone beyond just linking to give me real help when I need it, with no sign of impatience at my chronic technophobia. Please check out all their blogs!

And last, but not nearly least, I'd like to thank The Other McCain who has also linked me - but far more importantly, Robert Stacy McCain is the man who came up with - and shared - the five rules to get a million hits on your blog in a year. It was actually this little nugget of advice that (once I worked up the nerve to follow it) finally brought me some noticeable traffic.

I'm amazed that Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades and the Hot Air crew haven't declared a fatwa against me for the way I relentlessly fill their inboxes with blogwhoring e-mails like Arnold Horshack trying to get Mr. Kotter's attention: "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!"

However, the smart newcomer to the 'sphere doesn't just suck up to big-traffic bloggers who can throw him major traffic (although he does that with a single-minded fanaticism), he also sucks up sideways and downward, to bloggers who might not be able to throw 10,000 hits a day, but who are nonetheless valued contributors to the blogging community.

I've still never managed a link from any of the big dogs he names - and I strongly suspect all my mail to Glenn Reynolds goes straight into a special DORK/SPAM file - but that doesn't mean I can't dream of an Instalanche one day, right? (Although if the post about that guy with the glasses didn't get his attention, it might be best to forget it for a while...) But following RSM's rules has brought more visitors to my blog, no doubt about it.

While we're on the subject of The Other McCain, there's another goal I have. I want to see my blog in the coveted FMJRA block he keeps right on the top of his site. It's my own fault I haven't made it yet, I suppose - I just need to link him more. (And more and more and more, if that's what it takes.)

But I can't help wondering if would swing any weight if I was a cute redhead.....

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Whaddya think? A little linky-love now?

...No? S'OK. I'll have to earn it like everybody else, I guess.

Meantime, I just wanted to say thanks... to everyone who has bothered to read my rambling rants, and everyone who (maybe misguidedly) encouraged my behavior by linking to those rants. And I promise not to make another post like this until I've collected some more zeroes.