confession: my keith urban moment

I got stumbled because of Keith Urban.  Sounds strange to you non-bloggers?  Let me explain a little further.

This blog's been cruising along for a little over a year now (14 months to be exact) and has a small following.  It has grown steadily, and been lots of fun for me.  I've read lots of blogs along the way about a myriad of subjects.  Personal blogs, business blogs, do-it-yourself blogs, art blogs, photography blogs, poetry blogs, sex blogs, family blogs, cartoon blogs, news blogs, author's blogs, and blogs about how to blog.

So here I am, blogging about just about anything that hits my brain and becomes a coherent thought.  I'll be the first to admit that not everything I write is interesting.  I never promised to be interesting though.  I just wanted this blog to reflect the way I think, make people laugh, and maybe make them think a bit about things too.  Brighten your day a bit kind of stuff.

I read somewhere that what you put in your title can improve your SEO.  Now I'm a nurse, and we live with acronyms every day of our lives, thousands of them.  But I had no idea what SEO was.  So being the resourceful person I am, I Googled it.

Search Engine Optimization.  Say what?  Evidently it means that the words you put in your title, and those little labels you add to the end of your blog, are words that people are typing into search engines every second of every day, and increase the chance they might find your blog.  My blog, to be specific.  I read that, kind of snorked, and started adding labels to the end of my blogs.  I rarely cruise to read blogs that way.  I find the best way to find good blogs is to click on the blogrolls of the blogs I love to read, and have found some stupendous blogs that way.

So here I was, blogging and labeling along.  Then I wrote this little blog about my sisters and husband and the night they went to see a Keith Urban concert.  You can read that here if you like.  My sisters are no spring chickens.  I say that knowing I am the oldest chicken of the three of us.  We all possess a joie de vivre that we inherited straight from my dad, the perennial kid who enjoyed every moment he had til the ride was over.  My sisters' exuberance is contagious, and I wanted to share that with you, my readers.

I made this catchy little title, because I can't seem to get past writing smart ass, catchy titles.  It's just me.  If it costs me readers because they don't Google smart ass titles, then so be it.  After I titled the post (I usually do the title last), I hit the publish button and went to bed.

The next morning, as I was getting ready to head out the door to work, I checked the blog on my iPad.  (I love that iPad...thank you Steve Jobs.)  I am only human, and any blog writer who says they don't care what their stats are is just plain lying.  We all watch to see if anyone is out there reading our stuff.

The stats threw a number at me I had never seen.  And I screamed.  And Stevie Wonder, who was just starting to sip his first cup of coffee, jumped and almost spilled hot coffee all over himself.  He screamed back at me: "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

I screamed back: "I've had a gozillion hits on the blog!"  At that point, he lost interest and went back to his coffee.  He's such a nonblogger.

I dug a little deeper.  And found out someone had StumbleUpon and had liked my article.  I don't know who, but it started a chain of all chain reactions.  I wondered why, of all the 240+ blogs I've posted, did that one get the hits?

Then it came to me in a flash.  Keith Urban.  I'd been stumbled because of Keith Urban.  And my ego deflated back to its' normal size.  It was all about Keith Urban.

And I am not even a fan.

Oh well, another lesson learned.  But guess what?  It was FUN!  Almost as much fun as the day I met the Fonz (you can read about that here.)  I'm still blogging.  My thoughts.  And wondering if there will ever be another Keith Urban moment.

Have a great day y'all.  I do appreciate every one of you who take time out of your busy days to read my words.

~cath xo
Twitter @jonesbabie