In writing this blog, I am conscious that I am writing for an audience, as small as it may be. While I do share my thoughts, it is not a private journal. That's one of the things I like about blogging. It gives me a writing practice and helps in all my communications. I try to write clearly, concisely, and hope it all makes sense.
I realize that my audience is mostly friends and family--at least that's what I imagine. Yet the power of the web opens up my writing to others as well. Put in the right keywords and I can be found in a Google search. That happened about a month ago when someone in Switzerland Googled "Jörg Zintzmeyer", the designer of the Swiss franc, and found my post about the color of money. I also have connected my blog to Technorati, a site where you can use keywords to search blogs. Someone went there to search for "wild parrots", and found my entry on the birds of 29th Street.
But this week, I definitely hit a highpoint. I noticed that someone had found my post "The Hard Reality of Sports" by using the keywords "nfl arrest" at Technorati. On the day the search was made, my post was listed within the top 5. I wondered about this, but I was more enthused that I got another hit through Technorati. When I checked my blog's stats the next day, I saw a Sports Illustrated/Netscape link. I was intrigued. When I clicked on the link, there was an AP story entitled "NFL Arrests High Profile But Not Unusual" On the Sports Illustrated/Netscape page, the editors added content--a box titled "Editor's Web Picks." Lo and behold, under "What People Are Saying" was a link to my blog entry.
It's kind of kin to writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper and having your letter published in a newspaper--except they found me, I didn't contact them. I have to say that it did give me a thrill. Who knows who will find me next???
