The First Year of Saving Common Sense

It was on this day, September 11th, 2009, one year ago that I started Saving Common Sense.  Prior to that I had been wandering around the internet reading a few blogs that I found interesting or amusing. 

Of course, being the mouthy person that I am, I always had to leave my two cents worth of comments on any given posting that I thought warranted an "atta-boy" or a "You are wrong and this is why...." comment.   

Somewhere along the way, someone had commented to me, "You evidently have a lot to say; why don't you start your own blog?"  Being the idiot I am, I had never really considered doing such a thing up until that comment.  A week or so later, I figured, "Why not?" and jumped into the pool, as it were.

My silly little blog has seen steady growth in readership over this first year.  I am sure it will never reach the point where I have a couple thousands of hits per day, say like over at Blonde Sagacity, but I am happy with what has been accomplished thus far.  Besides, my original intent with Saving Common Sense was not so much to reach more people than the New York Times (although with the poor journalism and declining readership there, that may still be a near-future possibility), but rather to provide a platform for me to write about whatever whim crosses my mind. 

I even was honored by Ala over at Blonde Sagacity lately when she decided to post several of my articles as guest posts while she was away vacationing.  That alone surely didn't hurt readership exposure of my blog.  (Thanks Ala!  You are awesome!)

So at the first anniversary of Saving Common Sense and the better part of 6000 visits later I am heartened to see where we started and where we are now at with this blog.  Last month showed huge increases in readership where I saw over 1.6K page views during the month of August. 

Also I am thankful for the small contingent of my faithfully regular readers too, even those (and sometimes especially those) that have offered spirited debate against what I might have posted.  Dave Splash from The Dark Stuff has probably been the most prolific commenter (dare I say, dissenter) on Saving Common Sense, and although there is little that we agree upon politically, I appreciate his comments greatly.  Perhaps the seeds of wisdom have been planted so that he will politically evolve into a strong conservative.  (Can't wait to read the retort to that statement!)  Actually, it is good for me to be strongly challenged as I am hardly infallible and sometimes will error on a topic.  People like Splash are there to "help" me in that manner! :)

I would also like to thank those friends and family that are always on the look-out for stories to send me for ideas for posts.  Carrie, Rex, Paul, Mike, Greg, my terrific sister, my dearest mother-in-law, and my wonderfully sweet wife have been fantastic sources of information and inspiration for stories for me to address also!

It is funny but I am also always amazed at what has triggered the most page views over this last year from readers.  Sometimes I will write a posting that I anticipate will create a stir and not get a single comment.  Other times I will put some little whimsical piece in that just happened to strike my fancy and I will see page hits on it nearly every day.  A Cowboy's Prayer is an example of this.  While it doesn't have any comments, it sure does get a lot of hits.

Anyway, even though I had no idea what to expect when I started this blog, I can happily say that Saving Common Sense has still managed to surpass all of my nebulous expectations in its first year.  God willing, it will continue to do so over the coming years as well.  Thanks to all of you that have made it's first anniversary a great one!