#100
Having decided to take a break from writing this blog to focus on writing my final year essays, I also noticed that I was one off a hundred posts. Such a position seems a rather good one to start assessing where I have got in blogging.
This blog started six months ago off the back of a desire to get back into the swing of politics after being drafted into an NUS delegation by a friend in my student’s union. My gradual involvement in student politics had brought me to become increasingly annoyed at the tribal hostility to any form of conservatism. The complete disconnection between the expectations and reality of what a conservative was became a point of intrigue. Intelligent and passionate people were completely unable to understand how an apparently intelligent person such as myself (more fool them) could hold right-wing opinions. I set this up, after several other abortive attempts at starting specialist blogs, to hone my writing skills and articulate a conservative viewpoint to try and dispel the myth held by some that there is an automatic correlation between conservatism and stupidity.
In that ensuing period of around seven months, this blog has written 46,077 words and had 2,812 views. It has had 38 comments, a few links and 1,541 spam comments deleted. My writing has taken me to several events throughout the realm of politics, had me invited to numerous events, and even got me dragged over to the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham. I even had an article linked to on ConservativeHome. If anyone reading this is considering starting a blog, I urge them to do so.
Given that I am going to be noticeable by my absence in the next few weeks, I’d still like to retain some engagement with this blog.
First, if you want to guest write for this blog, please let me know either in the comments section or through the “Contact” tab and I’ll set you up with something to write.
Second, I would like to get some feedback. This can be on anything surrounding the blog, but I would particularly appreciate comments on the following:
- What do you think of my writing style? What could be done to improve it?
- What articles have you liked?
- What articles didn’t you like?
- What should I do more of?
- Are there any (general) topics you would like me to cover that I haven’t done previously?
- How do you like the design of the blog?
I would also like to gauge your opinions as to what I might expand into doing. For a while I have considered the following:
- Live coverage;
- Open threads;
- Book reviews;
- Videos;
- Regular weekly spots along the lines of a cartoon, video or guest post.
Is there any demand for this?
Finally, I am considering having a bash at making some submissions to the Orwell Prize for Political Blogging. I would really appreciate it if you could suggest what posts I have written that would be worth submitting. More information about the criteria can be discovered by visiting the link.
See you in a few weeks’ time. I’ll be checking this blog for comments and might put up a few posts every now and again.
