I'm used to toiling in the fields of my blog without too many readers. While I, like most bloggers, would appreciate more readers, I've been somewhat fatalistic about it. I guess I unconsciously subscribe to the notion "If you write it, they will come... unless it's sh*t, then they won't." In the last couple of months I've started to participate more in other blogs with comments and such. This has increased the number of visitors to my blog, a pleasant side effect though not really my objective. I'm just being a friendly participant in blogs I like. I call it "community."

Then I wrote a bit about Dominionism because I found Shakespeare's Sister mentioned it in a post. That's generally how I pick my subjects: spur of the moment web research. Then I found a reference to Dominionism in a Molly Ivins piece on Alternet so I left a comment with a link to my post. Zowie! I got more hits in a couple of days than I normally get in a month. Cool.

I didn't plan to increase my traffic. I was mostly intrigued by several different references to Dominionism suddenly popping up. The increased readership was a nice bit of ego-boo though. (ego-boo= ego boost: flattering to the ego; praise leading to ego stroking and preening.) It felt good and I felt smart. Then I wanted more. Of course that's where some people opt for serious blogpimping by inserting comments into high traffic sites, whether or not they have anything to say. Drive that traffic to your blog, flog the blog everywhere, become a darling of the blogosphere. The fantasy of fame looms large.

That's not really my style or intent. I blog mostly so I can write regularly; I obviously need the practice. Sure, I want people to read these posts but that's almost secondary to developing my writing skills. (I notice I qualified that assertion with "almost." See? I'm not entirely high-minded or above a common desire for recognition.) I'll probably continue on my path of writing about what interests me, commenting in other blogs and, if appropriate, inserting a link to a particular post of mine.