Reflections on Three Years of ‘All Things Rabyd’ – Thank You Readers

Three years ago today I visited WordPress after a long hiatus of not using it and decided to start a single blog for all my posts that became known as ‘All Things Rabyd’.  I stated my reasons from moving from the four blogs I had at the time to this singular one in one of my first posts: All Things Rabyd – Because Multiple Blogs Stink. I just got to the point where my interests were varied and that I got tired writing on the same subject over time.  So it was better to have one blog I could write on regularly on any subject I wanted to write on. It for the most part has worked out.

Looking back over the last three years I have to say what is here in this blog represents a lot of hours of frustration and joy and mostly skull sweat.  There have been a lot of pivotal moments in this blog but some the highlights might be when I created the Theology Pub concept in February of 2013 and amazingly it took off and some of the most liked posts on my blog are the Theology Pub ones.  The most beloved one remains Post 350 – Pint’s Good Day which remains at fourth for all time most liked posts.  A few now have eclipsed it but it remains my favorite Theology Pub post of all time because it was the first time I realized that using allegorical stories to explain concepts was far superior than just writing about those concepts.  it is concept that is not carried over into the Banner of Rosenhall and The Adventures of Any Jones today.

Another pivotal moment was an entire series of posts called Naked Before God which was written between May and July of 2013.  It set a tone for this blog and a number of people both followed, read and digested what I was saying nudity as a spiritual discipline.  Many of those posts to this day get many hits and they continue to be mentioned over and over as I look at the most popular posts for the month.

If I look at this past year, I can see I have shifted things at times.  I made the move to no longer post my posts on my personal Facebook feed as a result of a controversy.  It reminds me that not all Christians are open-minded enough to read your stuff and try to engage what you are trying to say.  Rather they rely on standing with their traditions or what they have been taught what the Bible says rather than looking at what it actually says.   The result was my new author Facebook Page which has about 30 people now.

The thing is with this blog is that you are getting the raw Rabyd Theologian here.  I censor myself just about everywhere else in every other context but here on ‘All Things Rabyd’.  At the same time I am ironically the most amendable to counsel on this blog as well.  If you lay out a solid argument and use the Scriptures I will listen although changing my mind is rare and might take a couple of months of me thinking about it.

Well I now have three years of statistics, Shall we take a look:

Views: 2103 (23,351), 2014 (49,195), 2015 (50,389) – broke 50,000 this year.  Total:122,986 as of this writing.

Visitors: 2013 (10,451), 2014 (22,473), 2105 (24,726) – Total: 57,682 as of this writing.

Likes: 2013 (2,293), 2014 (2476), 2015 (3958) – Total: 8,727 in three years.

Comments: 2013 (459), 2014 (653), 2015 (388) I fin it really interesting that I took of in how liked my posts were this year but at the same time it was my lowest year for comments.

A good chunk of my comment used to come from women. I have had over the last three years had some great girls that put in their two cents a lot, but I have not had that this last year hardly at all.  I miss two in particular from the large breasted (her own admission) and funny Jiggly Bits and the erotic poet Aimee Chadwick.  Neither of which are blogging anymore which causes me great sadness.  I have lost most of them for this reason but one writer left be because she said I was no longer orthodox, so I am going to be frank I wasn’t too sorry to see her go.  If you can’t get out of the orthodox box of theology, you’re going to feel out of place here.

The one guy that has been with me since mid 2014 is pipermac5 who still comes around from time to time.  His comments are often practical but at the same time full of real emotion.  His blog is damn good too is you are both a Christian and either a Nudist or a Naturist or both.  I probably should read it more often.  I have long thought of putting up a links widget to some of my favorite blogs just so make sure I am following what they are doing.

Followers: WordPress (867), Twitter (1141), Facebook (30), e-mail (21) Total: 2059

2000 plus Followers in three years is OK.  My blog is niche so I accept that it might not be for everyone. I am however going to shoot for hitting 1000 followers on WordPress before the end of 2016.  I am also thinking of expanding my follower opportunities to other formats to increase the overall number and traffic.

One thing I am going to change is dropping the top ten lists.  They are getting redundant instead I am going to change them into reflection posts on my feelings and thoughts of how the blog has done the past month. This will happen every first of the month.  I will still make a note of when something new I wrote for that month has done well and gotten some traffic.

Finally, thank you to all who actually read me.  While I do write almost purely for my enjoyment, it is nice to know other people like and read what I do.  You make this blog worth doing.

Blessings and Cheers!!!