So here's how things work, it seems, in terms of getting stuff read on a blog.
I have between 20-100 regular readers here on Alienated. It's not possible to get a more exact estimate, but about that many people follow my blog and/or check out things I post myself on Facebook. Some of the stats I see are perhaps obscured by people who just read the top post on my blog without clicking on the article - there may be more readers than these numbers reflect, but it's a bit of a backwater - I don't hide this fact, or do much to combat it.
Occasionally I write something that accidentally has clickbait value - that ends up turning up on Google searches. I did something a couple of years ago on Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish and the film Four Rooms, which, if you haven't seen it lately, is a really unsettling, somewhat less-than-wholesome film to go back to from a post-#metoo perspective. This piece has gotten, as I write this, 9436 reads, because it turns up in searches; I've done nothing to promote it or share it, it's just that many people are looking up juicy pieces on Tarantino's foot fetish. It's actually kind of embarrassing - it's not like I meant the piece to get that much attention. On the other hand, a piece I did on Sleep Apnea and Ear Infections back in 2008 has gotten 7241 reads, not because that many people Google those words, but because for a long time my piece was one of the few things that turned up; sometimes if you corner the market on an obscure topic, you see results like that - if you have the only thing on the internet on a topic people are Googling, you'll get noticed that way.
Most reliably, however, the things that get read the most on this blog are articles on musicians, because musicians actually have fans who follow them on social media, and they aren't shy about using social media, generally. A few people don't re-share, but most musicians I write about post everything that gets written about them. I do a fair bit of film writing, too, but since it is rarely the case that filmmakers with a social media presence re-share my stuff, it doesn't really get read. Orson Welles is a bigger presence, culturally, than Brock Pytel, but since Brock is alive and sharing, the piece two posts back I did on him has (so far) netted 63 reads, whereas (since the Cinematheque has not yet done anything with it), that post on The Trial immediately prior to this has only gotten 21 reads, so far. That's kind of the way it goes. Occasionally distributors or the marketing departments of the cinemas who are screening the films I am writing about actually DO re-post things I do, and many, many people read them, but, really, my film writing is even less popular, say, than my blogging health updates on my struggles with cancer. Opinions about film - even informed ones - are a-dime-a-dozen commodity, and people who read writing about film (or at least MY writing about film) are few and far between. C'est la vie: if I've done something about a film your theatre is showing, and you're not sharing it, I might as well have not done it at all.
(Unless it involves Quentin Tarantino and foot fetishes.)
Musicians, however, are less shy about getting attention, and often share things I do with them, or have Facebook groups that I can share pieces to. This means that the top ten pieces I have done this year have all been on musicians. And for those who keep track, here they are!
Dead Bob - a John Wright mini-interview: 384 reads.
Blind and Proud: Blind Marc on skateboarding, Isolated Earthlings, Mutated Earthlings, Dayglo Abortions and more: 348 reads.
The Residents: a concert review, Vancouver 2023 - a worthy 50 year celebration: 272 reads.
TIE: Murray Acton on "Smart Food," Eating Animals, and the Kills of Tilikum (AKA Shamu): 242 reads/ The Matt Fiorito Interview: of the Dayglo Abortions, Powerclown, and much much more: Also 242 reads.
Being Between: a Selina Martin Interview (with John Wright/ Nomeansno/ Dead Bob tie-ins): 232 reads
Get It On: A Benefit for Ukrainian Refugees in Poland: 226 reads
The Vanrays: East Van Soul Served Hot - a Spencer McKinnon and Gordon Rempel interview UPDATED: 202 reads
Piss and Bacon: Sleaford Mods and FEAR upstaged by a) Gustaf and b) the Dayglos: 189 reads
The John Otway Trickle-Down: Otway's SECOND EVER APPEARANCE in Vancouver, Feb. 3 2023, 169 reads
TIE: An AK-747s/ Rob Nuclear interview: Useless Brutality and Clinical Depression (...in a Bought City): 166 reads, tied with Betty Bathory must be seen (to be believed?): A plug for Daddy Issues, this Friday at the Railway, also 166 reads
My piece on the Screaming Females also got 150ish reads here, but then got ported over to Stereo Embers, with fresh photos; I have no stats for that site, haven't asked. So it's up there, too.
Anyhow, that's the most popular stuff on my site this year, for those who are curious. Not a film article among them.
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