A Spark that is now Smoldering

I am sure this blog will seem a little self-serving.  It is not intended that way.  Recently the blog hit a "milestone" of sorts and I thought I would share with you some my thoughts about what has transpired with the blog throughout this year.

I never really intended for the blog to grow and to be read by several people and I am simply amazed that this little blog project of mine has grown by word of mouth as much as it has.  I started blogging on January 2nd of this year (2011) as a way to connect with my family members and to share some of my thoughts, opinions, and feelings about life with them.  As many of you know, I travel weekly and have lived in Kentucky for over 3.5 years. I have no TV, one campground neighbor (the maintenance guy), and from October through March, I have no running water.  So, this blog has been a way to communicate to others when I am in the middle of nowhere.  Along with reading, my blog has become my hobby.  And the results have been fun, interesting, and rewarding for me in many ways.

Along the way, I have had many conversations with my boys, my wife, my brother, my brother-in-laws, my dad, and several friends that I probably would not have had if I had not written a blog.  It has opened lines of communication that I did not expect.  And that is a good thing, mostly.  I have also had tough conversations with people because they have been offended by the blog.  I have had several people write me "nasty grams" that weren't always fun to read.  And I have had people personally attack me for things that I have written.  But in the end, I am OK with all of the unpleasant things because the flip side has been so rewarding.

By many standards, this blog is very small.  I look at some blogs and see bloggers get 100K plus hits for one blog.  Not with The Campfire Chronicles.  I have between 35 and 350 hits per day.  I have had over 5000 visitors since I started.  But considering that I have shared my blog address with only 10-15 people, I am still amazed at those numbers.

And the blog is definitely international now. I have regular visitors from the United States (of course), the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, Finland, Bangladesh, Denmark, Malaysia, Germany, India, South Korea, Russia, and the Philippines.  My thought is that there must be a lot of bored people out there in the world!

If I could change one thing about the blog I would want more comments and responses.  For the number of people that read the blog, the comments are very minimal.  So take a few minutes occasionally and tell me when you think I have gone off the deep end or if you think I hit the nail on the head.  I enjoy friendly banter back and forth regardless of whether I agree with you or not.

I also have made some recent changes to the site.  On the right hand column, you can now follow me on twitter, see my twitter posts, sign up to follow me on e-mail, see my current reading list to follow along if you want, you can become a Campfire Chronicle member, and the most popular blogs (according to number of hit) can be viewed just below my daily blog (click on the title to read).

So tell a friend about the blog  And let me know what you are thinking.  I have enjoyed the process to this point and look forward to even more visitors and comments in the future. 

Thanks for reading.