Brown bear feeds in a meadow at sunrise, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
Hard to believe I have been doing this photo blog for six years now! It had been over a year since I looked at my stats, so I took a quick peak today and see the blog alone receives on average over 2,500 unique visitors a day, and some months averages over 3.000 per day. That is pretty good! So I wanted to take a minute to say thanks for following me over the years! Whether you drop by and comment, receive this via email, or just lurk in anonymity, I appreciate it!
Seeing those numbers reminds me that I need to go back to the long list of topics I have intended to write about but haven’t had the time. At this point, I don’t think we will take an extended trip this Autumn, choosing to stay in Alaska to chase the Northern Lights instead – this should give me the extra time to dive into some of these topics.
I find it interesting how the interaction has changed over the years thanks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Any photos or posts I do here get shared simultaneously on those social networks. Take my last post for example of the cute spring cub triplets. Four years ago it might have received 20 comments here on the blog, yesterday it garnered just a couple along with a few emails. But, on Facebook it received over 50 comments and on Google + it went viral reaching the maximum limit of 500 comments in just a few hours!
So I mention that in part to say if you participate in one of the other networks but don’t follow me there you might consider it. The extra interaction can be valuable as I respond to follow up questions about camera settings, techniques, etc.
Comments 9
Amazing picture. It shows us beginners that closer is not always better. A good lesson to learn. Unfortunately my head will explode if June becomes available.
Author
Thanks Andy!
Congrats Ron. Good observation about how online viewing habits have changed over the past year or two. Have you found if this increased SM presence has led to gaining most of your workshop participants or is that coming from other means?
Thanks Ron for your photos, I think they`re really magnificent, especially those with bears)
Author
Thanks Bo!
Thanks Ricard! I don’t know. I can attribute a few guests to SM, but I don’t do a good enough job on follow up to see how people find me.
I can’t believe I’ve been following your blog for 3 years. I was planning a trip to Yellowstone, did a search for Yellowstone photos and your site was at the top of the list. Less than a year later I was doing a photo trip with you in Alaska.
Author
Wow, time does fly – that was a fun trip to Kenai Fjords!
I think my previous comment may have ended up in your spam folder, but I wanted to say congrats also. I think it is unfortunate that most of the comments go to the other sites, but can see where people like hanging out in one spot.
Author
Thanks Mark!
Internet usage is definitely changing.