Some Thoughts on Blogging and Emails

About a month ago, KarenTeacher left a comment:

I find your posts informative and useful, but I don't always remember to look for new posts - is there a way to subscribe to them, or otherwise be notified when you post a new blog post?

I wasn't ignoring you, Karen. I was doing some research. 

To answer your question, yes, there is a way to get notified about new blog posts.

However, I don't have that feature set up on the blog. I'll explain why.

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I've always valued readers' privacy. I think readers in Europe are required to get a notice about cookies and data collection when they visit the blog. What they see is a message from Google, which owns Blogger, which hosts my blog. I don't set the cookies, and I don't see any data about individuals who visit the blog. 

I do, though, get some aggregated data -- I know which countries readers come from, and how many come from each country. (I'm popular in Spain and Canada this week.) I know which referring sites you come from (like Google, or Facebook, or Lymphoma News Today -- the site you were on when you clicked on a link that brought you to the blog). I also know how many of you use which browsers and operating systems. I have no idea what to do with most of that information. Google collects all of that and gives it to me.

But I don't know anything about you individually. Not your names or emails, unless you tell me who you are. Some of you email me occasionally, which I really enjoy. I like making those personal connections. But I don't know anything about you that you don't tell me voluntarily.

And I kind of like it that way. I love hearing from you and getting to know some of you. But I don't want to force that on you. You deserve the privacy that you choose.

I'll be honest -- I'm not good at being a blogger. I think I do well as a writer. But there are things I'm supposed to do as a blogger that I don't do. 

For example, I don't do advertising. "Best practices" say that I should. I could make a little money off ads, but I don't like the cost to readers. When I was first diagnosed, I used to get all kinds of ads for things like life insurance and funeral homes. And I know it was because I was searching for information about cancer. It really turned me off of internet ads, and I decided I didn't want to do that same thing to readers -- ave ads pop up that made them sad. Ads are much more sophisticated now, and you'd probably get something tailored more to your other interests if I was using ads. But I don't want to add to all of that advertising online.

As a blogger, I'm also supposed to do things like add images to my posts. I could do that, too, I guess, but what kind of image would I use for a post on bispecifics? If  was going through active treatment, I'd post pics of myself. That's a very popular thing that cancer advocates do, and I love it. But given the kind of posts I write, it just doesn't make sense to me to try to force an image. I've been using the same template since I started the blog, with the lime green rectangle at the top. It's very simple. I think it keeps the focus on the words and ideas. It's not what I'm supposed to do, but I do it anyway.

I'm also supposed to publish on a schedule, so readers know that they can come to the blog, say, every Sunday and Wednesday and find new material. I don't do that, either. My schedule is too unpredictable to have a set schedule. Plus, some posts just take more time to make sure they are accurate and clear. A schedule would be easier on you readers, I know, but I just can't do it.

One last thing I'm supposed to do -- I'm supposed to get email addresses and create a contact list of all of my readers. And the easiest way to do that is to have an email sign-up for notifications. And then I'd have your emails. I guess I could use your addresses for something else besides sending out notifications of new posts, though, again I don't know what that would be. I certainly wouldn't sell them to anyone. I can promise you that.

So I hope that gives you some sense of why I do what I do, and why I don't do what I don't do, and why I might be reluctant to collect email addresses. 

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That said, if you all think an email notification would be helpful, then so be it. I can add the widget and put it on the site. It will take me about 30 seconds.

But I want some feedback from you -- I want to know that people have read this and understand it and are still OK with it. So if you want an email notification, tell me by leaving me a comment below, saying so. If enough of you are interested, I'll make it available.

And I'll feel better knowing that you know what you're getting into.