Friday, September 12, 2008

Happy Birthday, Hot Flashbacks!



The Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights blog was born on September 17, 2007 at 10:43 pm with my first post, “
Boomer's Hot Flashbacks Contain Instructions for a Cool Rest of Her Life.”
I’d like to invite you to our baby’s first birthday party. Our baby. A blog is a community. Ours is just a toddler, but it’s starting to walk!


Conception
I won a five-minute pitch meeting with agent
Laurie McLean of Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in a random drawing at my Sisters in Crime meeting in September 2007. She recommended that I start a blog to begin finding an audience for my work, while I finished my memoir. I took her suggestion and ran with it. I’m still running, but like I said, the baby is just starting to walk.

Birth Chart

Hottie-Cool (HC for short), our baby blog, has an astrology chart, just like the rest of us. She’s a
Virgo with a Sag Moon and Gemini Rising. If she were a real person, that’d make her way chatty! With Jupiter conjunct her Moon in Sagittarius, she’d be fond of hyperbole. (Do you think she exaggerates? Her “mom” sure has stories that must sound like it, stranger than fiction.) Oh, and she loves to have fun!

Not to astro-babble too much for those not familiar with the lingo, but I think you’ll appreciate two other points. First, her Moon/Jupiter is on the
7th house cusp of relationships. That tells you the heart of this blog—connection. Second, Neptune is on the Midheaven. This blog’s job, if you will, is consciousness and things like intuition and dreams and creating psychic links. Put it all together and you’ve got us linked in consciousness, communicating about it, and having fun. Just what I had in mind. Hope it works for you!

Milestones
Since it was brand spankin’ new, there have been 39 posts covering many diverse topics besides my memoir (progress reports and excerpts). Some of the other topics include women’s circles, celebrating the seasons, gratitude, patience and faith, pets, intuition, flower essences, loss and love, the four elements, meaningful coincidences and dreams.


The Numbers
Although I’ve only been tracking blog statistics for two months, a profile of Hot/Cool readers and their visiting habits is starting to emerge.

Over the past month, Hot Flashbacks has had 378 page views by 88 distinct visitors. They come from all over: 10 countries and 4 continents with the most visits from the US, UK, and Canada. In the US, most visitors come from my home State of California followed by Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon. The majority of visitors read two or more pages during an average 1-2 minute visit. Sixty-five percent are returning visitors.

Since most readers land on the Home Page, it is the most frequently visited page. However, it has ever-changing content, and visits are not reported by which post is displayed at the time of landing. The home page is followed, in order, by these specific posts:
Memoir Evolution, Boomers Hot Flashbacks Contain Instructions for a Cool Rest of Her Life, Edgar Allan Poet and Happy Autumn Equinox, with It’s Done! and Yellow Highlighter tied for 5th place. So if you’ve missed any of these popular destinations, pay a visit to these links to find out why they’re in the Top 5. Check the past post list, too. There may be other topics you’ll be glad you discovered.

Future Outlook
To help this kid go from toddler to walking upright on two legs without teetering, HC needs your support and encouragement. You are the aunties and uncles whose job it is to pitch the cheeks of our little blog now ‘n’ then and say, “My how you’ve grown.” More than that, you’ve got to talk to the little tyke. That means jump in and make more Comments …

… and if you’re too shy to do it in the blogosphere, send me an e-mail, where we can do it in private, one-on-one:
hotflashbacks@gmail.com.

I can attest, though, the public thing doesn’t hurt at all-- honest! I blabbed on this blog 39 times, and no one has come after me with a straightjacket, one of those butterfly nets, or called the
paddy wagon, as my mom used to say. And if you’re afraid you might make a fool of yourself, take it from one who has been there and transformed it. Read the post Blunders to Blessings.

Thanks
Most of all, this post is a big thank-you for your support during my first year of blogging. It was always my dream to write a column. I would have called it Life in the Vast Lane … but blogging has taken the old concept of the newspaper or magazine column to new heights of unlimited potential. I hope you’ll continue to help me raise HC to be a vibrant source of inspiration, connection, and a place where all readers, especially the baby boomer generation, can keep mentally sharp, spiritually in tune, and physically up for blowing up the old Old.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what to get the baby blog for her birthday? Referrals. Lots of them. She can never have too many people drop in to say hello or Happy Birthday. Link to your web sites and blogs. Tell your friends!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your blog's first birthday! Boomer Diva Nation celebrated it's first birthday back in July and with people like you on board, we're getting stronger than ever!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Hot Flashbacks!

Can you believe there are only seven of us on blogspot who have listed "boomers" in our profile?!

I will be back to visit your blog.

Joyce Mason said...

Beverly, thanks for your upbeat birthday greetings! I'm proud to be a member of Boomer Diva Nation.

Yaya, so neat to greet you at Hot Flashbacks! I am stunned at your factoid--only 7 of us? Glad to know you're a sister boomer "California girl."

Thanks to you both for joining the party,
Joyce

Anonymous said...

Joyce--

This truly a special occasion and you have cause to celebrate! You've done some remarkable things with your blog and really put yourself on the blogosphere map. Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to your blog! Many of my blogs are around the same age - maybe our blogs should have a play date, lol!

My boomer blog, PopArtDiva's Retro Pop Culture is a little older but still a toddler too - in fact she's in her terrible twos, lol!

May your blog grow up to be healthy, happy and celebrate many more birthdays!

Anonymous said...

This very clever! It brings attention to your older posts, and lets us know more what you are about.

Betty Lynch said...

Happy Birthday!!Congratulations on a great blog.

Anonymous said...

A year is a great accomplishment. Congratulations!

Sally

www.drsallywitt.com

Joyce Mason said...

Thanks, Eileen, Pam, and Betty for your positive comments on my baby blog. I'm grateful to know she is being well-received! And to Terri, Ms. Pop Art Diva, I can just see these two toddler blogs on a play date, rockin' out to retro boomer music on your site. Maybe we can grab another little girl blog and form our own modern edition of the Supremes--the Blogettes?

Anonymous said...

Joyce - off the subject, had to say this though - "thy vast doughmain!" hahahahah, loved it. What a bright and clever little girl you were!

Thanks for the comment on my Life Is Like Art Blog with that caption from your drawing, it made my day!

Melanie Kissell said...

Love your spirit and your spunk, Joyce!

As a single mom with four daughters, including a set of twins, I'd like to congratulate you.
You are doing a fantabulous job of raising this child!

Oh, and feel free to contact me during the "teenage" years in the event ... you need to Vent!

~Melanie Kissell
Stroll On Over to My Blog

Melodieann Whiteley said...

Congratulations and happy birthday! I checked out your blog when you first joined Boomer Diva Nation and immediately became a regular reader. Looking forward to another year of great boomer insight from you!

Vicki M. Taylor said...

Happy Birthday to Hot Flashbacks! And many more years to come.

I guess my blog is a pre teen compared to your toddler, but still needs help along the way.

I'll definitely come back for more visits, your background intrigues me.

Joyce Mason said...

Melanie, Melodieann, and Vicki (Would you consider changing your name to Micki temporarily to keep this cool alliteration going?--

Your encouraging words and offers of parenting help are so heartwarming. (I am not a parent of 2-leggers, only 4-leggers, so I need experienced advice on toddlers. Hairballs I know about!) I am so impressed with the women who read my blog. It's great to see my beliefs about the power of women networking taking form each day in our virtual community. Reminds me of this fabulous quote by Sojourner Truth, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again.”

That's us!
Joyce