Lessons learned at theleansubmariner – 2013

Looking back over the past year of blogging, I have learned a few things about what people seem to like.

Like most blogs, I have the ability to see what gets hits and what does not. The top post for the year (and frankly since the beginning of the blog) was I’d like to be a submariner. How hard could that be? https://theleansubmariner.com/2013/11/24/id-like-to-be-a-submariner-how-hard-could-that-be/

That one caught me off guard since it spiked all of the “records” within about three days. The follow on series about Cold War submarining were also well visited. I observed a slight uptick from my Russian visitors during the weeks I was doing those stories.

I have been taking some time away from blogging while I work on a couple of projects. The biggest time consumer right now is a project about a WW2 submarine. I’m holding these cards a little close to my vest for now since I think it has a lot of potential. The story is compelling and there is enough of it to make a book out of. That’s all I am saying for now.

The other thing I have learned this year about blogging is that social media is critical to get your message out. Between Facebook and other special interest sites you can elevate your story above the clutter that fills the internet. Search engines are important but they will invariably lead you to places that are crowded with things like Wikipedia and questionable sources. Getting seen in this world is as hard as ever despite the ease of the tools peoples can use in this day. I am just old enough to remember having to actually drive to a library and actually look things up. While libraries had their limitations, I do miss having a good one nearby to spend time researching.

I hope you have found something this year that entertained you, enlightened you, or maybe just got you to see something you normally wouldn’t. The blog is nearing 90,000 hits so even if a percentage is just drop in viewers that doesn’t seem to be bad. I am pretty happy that you were one of them whether you came accidentally or on purpose.