Blogging, about writing, about blogging.
I don't get a great deal of traffic on my blog, but looking at my logs for the past two years does show a relatively steady increase in traffic: during the first months of 2003 my site had around 300 monthly visitors, now, two years later, it's around 900. This does vary greatly depending on how much I post, though.
Compared to other Finnish blogs my blog is rather insignificant, (it's currently rated at number 460 of 956 total listed blogs on Pinseri's top-list,) and on a global level my blog is just one among millions. Despite of this I very much enjoy blogging, I guess it's partly because I do it primarily for myself.
The popularity of my blog isn't exactly increased by the fact that I have no commenting system, no RSS or ATOM feed, and an archive which needs to be (or rather should be) updated by hand... I've mentioned I have a site engine in development and I believe I will get it up and running here eventually, but coding takes time, lots of it. I know there are lots of readily available systems out there, but none of them meet my needs as far as I know.
Writing about blogging
Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell have written a very interesting (and thorough) article about blogs, blogging, the blogosphere and the interaction of blogs and mainstream media titled Web of Influence
. It's a very worthwhile read if you have the time. Also notable is the fact that Merriam-Webster has announced the word blog as the number one word of 2004.