How the Meandering Mouse blog works

Image credit: Microsoft Clip Art

This month, the fourth anniversary of the Meandering Mouse blog will occur (specifically, January 20). It’s a good time to pull back the curtain and show you my guidelines for posting.

In 2009, the first year of the blog, I wrote 63 posts. The next year, 2010, I only wrote 32, and in one month (May) I didn't make a post at all. Those 32 posts were good work, but when you have a blog that you want people to look at, quantity as well as quality matters.

So in 2011, I started a quota – a minimum of four posts per month, totaling a minimum of 48 posts per year. It is, for me, a realistic and achievable goal, and it has worked well ever since. In 2011, I did 50 posts, and in 2012, 53.

If somehow I should only write three posts in a month, I need to write five posts the next month. If (oh, no) I write just two, I need to write six the next time. And so on. However, if I go over quota one month (five posts or more), it does not mean I get to write fewer posts the following month. Last month, December, I wrote seven posts – but I’m not going to write just one in January. The minimum is always four, no matter what.

If it gets down to crunch time at the end of the month, I’ll share a bloggers’ secret: A nice photo and a quote (by me or someone else) counts as a post.

In 2012, I also “recycled” some essays that I had written previously. All but one of them were new to the web, and the exception was a post I wrote for a LiveJournal account under a screen name. I will most likely do the same this year, but the well of older essays is dwindling. (I give you my word of honor that I will not try to pass off an old Meandering Mouse post as new.)

I have some great ideas in January, so I will have no problem meeting quota this month. I feel full of good writing energy at the moment. (Let’s hold on to that!)