It can only go downhill from here

blogging 2 Minutes

Sunday, Virginia Right released a series (1, 2, 3) of rankings of Virginia Political Blogs which the proprietor, Tom White, tracks in his Old Dominion Blogs aggregator. Using webArbiter, it was interesting to note that my little blog is theoretically worth $109,500, good enough for second place in the first list.  My rank in global reach – 226,490 – and local reach – 43,245 – were good enough for first place in both categories.

I’ve never been much for the various blog ranking compilations primarily because that’s not why I blog. In 39 days, I will have been at this for five years. The reason for my blogging has never changed: I have something to say that, generally speaking, doesn’t get said by others. I appreciate those who read my blog and share their thoughts, either through comments here or via email. I have learned so much from all of you.

But it’s time for a change.

Most of you know that I am a CPA. Tax season is just about to start, and it seems to get harder every year. (Not helped, of course, by Congress passing legislation so late in the year.) Even so, I enjoy my work, in particular the long-standing relationships I have with my clients, some of whom have been with me since I started 25 years ago. My work provides me the ability to indulge my passions.

Writing has always been a passion of mine. I have a weekly column in The Virginian-Pilot, something I intend to do as long as they let me. You may have noticed that since I started the column last July, my best writing is printed there.

This fall, I will return to another love of mine – teaching – as an accounting instructor at my alma mater, Old Dominion University. It’s been several years since I last taught and the rules have tightened, requiring me, despite my MBA, to get a few more courses under my belt. So classes this spring and summer are in the works.

I’m involved in several non-profit organizations, all of which are deserving of what time I can give to them.

Obviously, none of this leaves much time for blogging. I’m not, however, ready to throw in the towel. The very nature of blogging is so totally different from writing a column that I doubt I could ever give it up completely. What I will be doing it cutting back on the frequency of my posts. I may or may not post every day – it will depend on what else is going on. It’s been a long time since I was a student – I’ve watched those far younger than me struggle with the time demands.

So I’ll do what I can and cover what I can when I can. I suspect there’s a lot more micro-blogging in my future, so if you haven’t done so, please follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook page. (You can “friend” me on Facebook but I doubt I’ll be posting anything directly there except the occasional tweet.)

I doubt this blog will be ranked as highly again. Downhill all the way, baby. So if anyone wants to buy it, now’s the time 🙂

Also – I’m open to adding contributors. If you believe, as I do, that “All Politics is Local” and are interested in blogging on that theme, contact me.

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18 thoughts on “It can only go downhill from here”

  2. I thought you were going to say you’d be teaching at TCC. I’d suffer (because I’m horrible at math) through one of your classes…

  3. Vivien, your daily posts will be misssed. I have always found you to be fair, rational, and to the point … usually, right on point. I wish you luck in your new ventures. I am sure you will do well. Keep in touch.

    Regards,

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  5. If I spent three more months out of the year in Hampton Roads I would absolutely ask if I could get involved as a contributor.

    I’d strongly urge you to find a contributor in any case; over Christmas I took a lot of pleasure in finally picking up the printed copy of your column before I saw it here first, and while I had the paper in my hands I decided to count the number of news articles in both the front section and the Hampton Roads section. I’ve already forgotten the total, but it was less than ten. A little more local journalism might do the town some good.

    1. Quick edit: I meant to say it was less than ten full articles written by staff reporters (as opposed to wire report compilations and AP articles)

    2. Let me be a little clearer: contributors don’t have to write about Hampton Roads, just cover local stuff. In other words, there are plenty of talking heads covering national issues – I don’t want anyone to do that. But local – regardless of location – is where there is a dearth of stories.

  8. I would take the dollar amounts with a grain of salt – consider them points, if you will. (And I hope we don’t all get a tax bill for the value of our blogs!)

    But whatever the dollar value, you write consistently good posts and are obviously a big impact on the web.

    There is already a deficit of non-Conservative blogs and you do bring an often needed bit of balance to the blogosphere.

    I hope you find time to keep giving us your opinion and take on things. At least now and again.

    But I know well the amount of time it takes.

    Happy New Year!

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