Will You Be In The 29% Of Those Who Will Read All 535 Words Here?

I started this blog in June 2016 and in that time I've written about 250,000 words here. As many of you know, I had kept a blog for years as I ran across states and countries promoting youth health and fitness from 2006 through 2011. However, I ultimately removed the blog from the Internet in 2012 and took four years away from writing. Today, I'm posting my 400th blog entry after 3 years of writing. I average about 130 writings each year at this blog, and I aim to primarily target the topics of family, faith and fitness. Health and nutrition has always been important to me, so I try to have an array of postings in those areas.

A recent survey of over 1,000 bloggers found that the most common reason for blogging is to make money, with two-thirds of all bloggers naming it as their main motivation. I don't -- and never have -- made one penny off of my blog writings. Look around this blog. Do you see any advertisements? No, you don't. I will not use this blog to promote products, services, events, people, etc. and I am not motivated by money to maintain this blog. I write here because I enjoy writing and sharing information on certain topics. This blog doesn't cost me one penny to maintain. It's on the free Blogger service and I just login when I feel compelled to write.

The most common challenge bloggers face is getting traffic to their blogs. A significant amount of this blog's traffic comes from people who locate my writings from Google searches. Most of my blog audience is from the United States, but each day I have visitors from all over the world who read my writings. For instance, based on my blog statistics software, in the past few weeks I've had visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, India, France, South Korea, Greece, Canada, Portugal, Indonesia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Guatemala, Japan, Columbia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sweden. This blog offers a translation tool so that regardless of what language the visitor speaks and reads, he or she can choose their language to have this blog's content instantly translated.

On average, I publish about 3 times per week. I know that people's time is valuable, so I keep my blog writings to around 500 to 600 words (requiring about 3 minutes to read). Surveys show that 55 percent of blog readers only spend 15 seconds going through an article. You can see that in each of my writings I bold primary sentences. This is because 43 percent of people only skim blog articles. I want to be sure that visitors read at least the main points of my posts. If you have read every word of this blog post so far, you are in the 29 percent of readers who actually read an entire blog carefully.

The latest research shows that 77 percent of Internet users read blogs. That's a lot of people! I enjoy writing this blog and am happy to reach the 400 mark in 3 years. I'll keep writing and I hope you'll keep reading! And by the way, you just read 535 words.

From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),

Paul J. Staso

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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past

Reached Another Milestone in Blogging -- My 300th Blog Post

After deleting a blog I maintained for about 5 years, and taking several years off from blogging (2011-2015), I started again in 2016. Since then, I've averaged about 100 writings per year at this blog. Today, I am posting my 300th writing.

I didn't even realize when I hit the 100th blog post back in 2016. It just wasn't something I was paying attention to. In 2017, I posted a writing about reaching the 200th blog post mark. In that post I shared a little about my writings and about who reads this blog. So, now I'm at the 300 mark and feel as though I should write something significant for this milepost. I've been scratching my head on this!

I guess what strikes me most is how much my life has changed since I started writing this blog in June 2016. Back then, I was dating a wonderful woman named Kelley, who is now my wife. Back then, I wasn't a step dad -- and today I am. Back then, I was renting an apartment after having moved 18 months earlier from Montana to Indiana, and today I own a beautiful home with my lovely bride. Back then, three of my four children were adults -- and today all of them are. Back then, I was still an ultramarathon runner -- and today I am retired from pounding my body into the ground. Sure, there are lots of changes that have taken place in my life since I started writing this blog again in 2016... and I am blessed in countless ways.

Initially, this blog focused on health, nutrition and fitness topics. You'll see that now I focus more on family, faith and fitness. Yes, the 'focus' of this blog has changed a little over the years, but I do believe that the topics that I choose to write about do resonate with some people. According to my stats, I am still having daily traffic to this blog from readers around the world. For instance, in just the past month I've had readers from the USA, Russia, France, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, and Portugal. I don't write every day, but I try to post 8 to 10 writings per month -- on average.

I'll keep writing, and I hope you'll keep reading!

From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),

Paul J. Staso

_______________________________________

Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past