It Pays To Read My Blog In A Year

There's been a ton of excitement, and many tons of interest since yesterday when I invited everyone to "Read Through My Blog In A Year." My email inbox has been stuffed, enormous reams of paper are sticking out everywhere. The increased traffic I got on the blog was so immense that it completely shut down the internet around the world. Most countries are still very mad. Closer to home, I had to call the sheriff because local readers were scraping dirt off my license plate.

The lesson I'm taking away from it thus far is simple, Give people a reason to hope, a reason to live, and they'll snap it up like that! I'm just kicking myself that I hadn't thought of it before. If people are approached with kindness, and treated like their kindergarten teacher used to treat them, there's no telling with interesting locations in their psyches they'll reveal. I swear, it's like I rang just the right bell and everyone started drooling.

And why not? Because what I have to offer on this blog is obviously the kind of information that you can't get at other sites. I really believe that, and if I didn't, I would immediately quit, delete my formidable archives, and retire to a one-man island somewhere. I've squirreled away the money I've gotten from years of Google Ads, so it's not like I couldn't afford it. Look at the layout of this blog, no Google Ads, because I know when I've got enough.

OK, a lot of you have expressed an interest in reading the blog through in a year, but you're looking for more. Quite a few said it would be very helpful to have the full list of posts with the boxes to check. I hear you! And I'm sympathetic, knowing that indeed those would be very helpful. If I were in your shoes, I'd want the check boxes, too, and the list. But as I explained yesterday, I'm very busy and just haven't got the time, energy, or frankly, the interest to do that. If you're interested enough in reading through the blog in a year, I seriously believe you'll be able to manage it without me holding your hand.

Now, does that mean I'm not willing to raise a finger to help you? No, not exactly. I may not get it done right away, but if I ever do I'll announce it. I'm talking about a system of pledge cards. I might make a pledge card and post it. Then you could download it, print it out, scan it, and email it to me.

Then if that was a success, I might offer a system of recognizing various milestones along the way, like when you've read 100 posts, 200, 300, etc. Let's say you got up to 1,000 (we'd be using the honor system, more or less), if you sent me a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope), I might take pen in hand and jot you out a personal note. That'd be a nice keepsake, although I'd hate to see them for sale on eBay...

Let's say you passed all the milestones, and you got the personal note, what would be left? The grand prize might be a magnetic bookmark. I know a place where I could get a gross of them for around $10. If you qualified for the bookmark by having read every blog post -- with there being sufficient amount of time from the time you started and the time you finished (I'm watching) -- I would send out the bookmark, again with a SASE (self-undressed stomped eunuch) and a minimal handling fee, assuredly less than $10.

In a way, it's a pity that I need pledge cards, the recognition note, and the bookmark. Those I really respect would simply read through the blog in a year and consider that reward enough...