Hrm.

Well, technorati ranks ourword at 15 119.

It ranks my personal blog at 65 790.

Result? Well, since at 15,119 OurWord has been declared an total failure, then I should certianly not post here, and I should nuke my own domain into total oblivion in shame at it's miniscule traffic and subsequent placement as "Way Beyond a Total Failure." In fact, I think all blogs that rank lower than Kos should just give in. Throw in the towel.

We'll all go have a picnic, and the A-list types can run free, having total dominion over the internet, because it's obvious that having a couple of hundred people reading your words is just a drop in the ocean, and had no value, and we should all recognize that and leave Real Internet Dialogue to monolithic voices at sites where no one knows your actual name.

Thank you, for enlightening me. Here I was thinking that everyone expected that a truly pro-women position pretty much garantees a smaller, even fringe audience in a society like ours, that refers to feminists as Nazi's and denies them "Real Woman" status. Now, I know better. Now I know that feminists, despite all the forces opposing feminism, deserve an immediate audience of thousands, and that anything less is a stinking failure, and we should all quit.

I've not been around here much, but I do love your reproductive rights week series -- certainly one of the most significantly researched series of blog posts on this important issue that so many other bloggers find too "icky" to stand up for.

Traffic has not been insignificant, if I'm not mistaken. A few hundred pageviews a day, and I'm sure a lot of that is because of your contributions.

Still, I understand the burnout factor, and wish you all the best in whatever is next.

whatever you need to do to take care of yourself, is what you ought to do. you have given your heart and soul to our word. it will not be the same without you. i hope at some point, after you have rested some, that you will consider returning.

Listen, Bayprairie, I know it gets discouraging, but there is a lot more to a blog than how many people read it every day, or even how many people comment on it. I'm with aldahlia on this one--if it was a popularity contest I might as well give up, too. I consider it a lucky day if I get 50 hits in a day. In this case size doesn't really matter, ya know?

Think of it this way--Wal-Mart does billions of dollars in business and gets millions of customers. It's also pretty evil. A smaller business woman can either say, "well, I'll never be able to compete with Wal-Mart, so I might as well give up," or else she might say, "I don't want to be another Wal-Mart, I'm happy being what I am, and over time I'll get the customers I want and need."

I've found that one of the sure-fire ways I have of increasing visits to my blog is by going to other blogs and leaving comments. People check your blog out just because they're curious about you, based on your comments. So the more time you spend cruising other blogs, and leaving a link back to your blog, the more people will be curious. Submit posts to the various carnivals--a great way to get people to come by and read what you've got to say.

What I've noticed is that Our Word has almost no blog presence, in that way. About the only people who identify with Our Word who I see regularly on other blogs are aldahlia, sometimes Moiv, and that's about it. So that might be something to think about. I know this doesn't matter if you're really leaving us, but this is a tactic that I've found works pretty well.

I really hope you'll reconsider. Like artemisia says, take the time you need, but please don't give up.

It's hard. I know that. We all know that. But I love the fact that it is our small voices who were generating the only REAL interest in blogland. I have a miniscule amount of readers per day. Someone sent me an article about the big blogs who are getting thousands. My first thought was: What the hell would I do with a 1000 readers and 50 comments in the first half hour? My only answer: Make money! but since that is not what I want, I continue with my regular (tiny)readership and I make friends and sometimes, just sometimes, I say something that makes someone think. I hope you don't quit. Yours is another strong voice we cannot afford to be without. I agree with Kactus. Comment and link. Join together. There are some truly wonderful voices out there. And Our Word was the place I came when I was at my blogging lowest. Believe me, I would not have carried on without the women here. I wish I could give back what I felt when I reached out to you all. Take care, bayprairie. If there is anything I can do? Just know there are people here and that numbers don't count. Love DD

BayPrairie-

I get the blogger blues a lot. It's hard when you feel no one is reading the posts we pour our hearts into, but as my readers recently reminded me, people ARE reading even if they don't comment.

It is futile to compare this blog to Kos. Markos got a lot of credit for the Howard Dean campaign, and is still active on projects with Joe Trippi. Even if we recruited a woman in the Democratic Party to work with us - which is not a bad idea - we still won't have the cache of an election behind us, we weren't among the chosen bloggers who got to work the Dem Convention, and we don't have over two years of publicity and experience with the Washington press. We also aren't centered in Washington. It's no accident that the high profile blogs are run out of DC. They get face time that we don't.

If you measure success by blog rank, you will be disappointed. You should certainly do whatever you need to take care of yourself. Please do think about this, though, and come back when you are centered again. Your contributions were wonderful, and will be missed.

I suggested this a while ago, but I think we should have RSS feeds from our own blogs post here as well. It will keep fresh content here, and if Our Word becomes a clearing house where you can get information from several blogs as once, that's more incentive for readers to come here. Then, when we post something only at Our Word, you could tag that an "Our Word Exclusive!" and that gives added value the reader wouldn't get by visiting the blogs individually.

My goal in blogging is self-expression, and education, so I'm willing to let anyone post my work via RSS. I don't care how many hits I get, I care about how many minds I reach. If you think about it, this is a classic masculine/feminine conflict. The guys go for quantity and self-agrandizement. The women see more value in quality and community. Patriarchy is about competition. Matriarchy is about cooperation. I have no desire to play their game - it's rigged against me.

We may not be as consistent as we'd all like, but we ARE working together. Considering that we are socialized as women in this culture to compete with one another, and form of solidarity is welcomed and ultimately very important. In the words of Robin Morgan "Sisterhood is Powerful."

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