Why are you reading this?

2009 is almost over. I’ll spare you a holiday greeting card version of my annual highlights. But since I started this blog in January, it seems like a good time to step back and assess this blog. Mainly I’m currious what people want to read.

I think that most of my readers fall into one of three catigories: people who know me, other bloggers, and people who google dyslexia jokes. But I’m wondering what you all want to read.

When I started this blog, the idea was to write about dyslexia. The problem is that there’s only so much to say about bad spelling. After a couple months, I ran out of ideas and started blogging about what ever I felt like.

There are three other dyslexia related blogs that I’ve found. If you are here because you’re interested in dyslexia, you might want to check them out. Dyslexia Advantage runs bios on famous dyslexics. They tend to have one post every week or two. Teh Dyslexic Storyteller posts dyslexia related news articles and commentary of special education advances about once a week. And Eide Neurolearning Blog posts about once a week mainly research results from learning style studies. As far as I know, I don’t have any cross-over followers with those blogs. And for the most part I expect very few if any of my readers care about dyslexia. Well except for the readers who like to make fun of dyslexics, but we’ll get to that later.

The vast majority of people who “follow” this blog are other bloggers. I know that I have a lot of annonomous readers that don’t publicly follow because they don’t have blogger accounts. But let’s be honest. There are a lot of wannabe writers on blogger, and a lot of us follow each other. In addition to being a dyslexic, I’m also a wannabe writer. I’m actively querying my second novel (my first novel was more of a learning experience and I doubt anybody wants to read it). I’m 25k words into the first draft of my next novel (this is the one I started two weeks ago). I am also slowly tinkering with a memoir, about dyslexia – hence the creation of the blog.

There are A LOT of blogs about writing. Tips on writing. Tips on the publishing industry. Horror stories of aspiring writers trying to navegate the publishing industry. The list goes on. I haven’t tried to make this into a writing blog, just 'cause I don’t want to be the same as everyone else. But if most of my readers are other writers that like reading writing blogs, maybe I should add more writing related posts. Is that what you want?

I do read a lot. Well that’s kind of a lie. I listen a lot. In 2009, so far I have read 27 books, and I have listened to 80 books, for a total of 107 books consumed, and I still have two more weeks to go. Since I spend so much time reading/listening, a lot of what I think about is influenced by what I read. So this blog has included a lot of book reviews. Do you like them?

Then there are the jokes. Back in June I did a post of dyslexia jokes. It’s never recieved a single comment, and I didn’t think anybody cared about it. Then in September I finally broke down and signed up for google analytics. It turns out 40% of the people who view this blog find it by googling the words “dyslexia jokes” – I’ve made it to number one on recomended pages for that search. To appease my joke loving readers, I’ve started including a joke of the day with my regular posts. But only 10% of the people who read my dyslexia jokes go on to read any other posts. So I’m not sure if anybody cares about my joke of days. Do you like them? Or can I stop scrambling to come up with new jokes all the time?

So I’m just gonna ask you. Why do you read this blog? (Note: this pole is now closed. The results are listed next to the choices. If you would still like to vote, please leave your response in the comments section.)

Do you care about dyslexia? (36%)
Do you care about writing? (21%)
Do you enjoy my book reviews? (5%)
Do you like my jokes? (11%)
Are you my mom and you just like me? (11%)
Do you even know why you’re reading this blog? (16%)

I’ve posted this pole in the side panel. Please vote! If you are reading for an unlisted reason, please let me know in the comments section. Now that I’m approaching my second year of blogging, I want to give my readers what they want. Thanks for your input.

Joke of the Day

Two friends are discussing politics on Election Day, each trying to no avail to convince the other to switch sides.

Finally, one says, "Look, it's clear we are opposed on every issue. Our votes will cancle each other out. Why not save ourselves some time and both agree not to vote today?"

The other agrees enthusiastically and they part.

Shortly after that, a friend of the first one who overheard the conversation says, "That was a sporting offer you made."

"Not really, this is the third time I've done this today."