It occurred to me last week that this week would be my 500th article. Then it occurred to me that I ought to do something special in honor of it.
I don’t know if anyone is going to consider this to be “special”, but this is what I decided to do.
First, let me say that if you’re as surprised as I was to learn that I’ve done 500 of these, then you might want to consider signing up for my newsletter. There’s so much spew on social media these days if you’re away from the screen for even a few minutes, some things are going to get pushed down below the fold.
I started writing PonkaBlog just over three years ago. I did so because people were afraid to speak their minds for fear of getting “cancelled”. I decided there were things that needed to be said, and if no one else was going to say them, then I would.
You know what happened to me? Nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. I did lose some “friends”. Some on social media, and some in real life. But, if someone can’t even be bothered to have a conversation with you before freaking out, were they really a friend in the first place?
Three years later, people are still too afraid to speak their minds. I’ve had many people tell me privately that they agree with what I say, but that they’re terrified to agree publicly. One friend of mine said she’s even too scared to just give a thumbs-up emoji. The cancel culture is still alive and well.
Banned by YouTube
Around the time I wrote my 350th post, I was encouraged to start my podcast. To date, there are just shy of 150 episodes. Originally, I was posting them to YouTube but that didn’t last long. After a few episodes, I started getting “strikes” against me for posting misleading content. The last strike I received was because of an episode titled, “Garth Brooks, M.D.”.
In that episode, I explain how the COVID vackseens aren’t really vaccines and, oh yeah, they don’t really work. Every single thing I said has since proven to be true. But back then it was labeled blasphemous and “misinformation”. And though 100% accurate, some of it is still considered misinformation even today.
And while I’m on the topic…yes, I know how to spell vaccine. But, because a COVID shot isn’t really a vaccine, I decided early on to call it a V-A-C-K-S-E-E-N so I wouldn’t be spreading misinformation. Sort of ironic, isn’t it?
There are several things that have to all come together to produce an article/episode. I need an idea, title and graphic. Sometimes I get the idea first, sometimes I have an idea for a graphic or title that I build the article around. Finally, when everything is as I want it, I record and edit the audio.
To write and polish the text, create the image, and record the audio takes, on average, about four hours per episode. That means I’ve spent around 2,000 hours working on this little project over the last three years.
Lessons Learned
One of the things I learned is that a LOT of people won’t look past the image. Many times, I’ve made a post and seconds later someone will hit it with an emoji or a comment. As you know, my posts aren’t easy to read. There is no way they had time to read and consider what I said. But they had an opinion anyway. And not all of them are friendly.
There were two images in particular that spurred a lot of immediate, and negative, comments. The first, featured in “un-American”, is an image of the socialist/BLM fist superimposed on the US flag. The second was an image of a woman in blackface featured in “A Good Offense”. I got some nasty comments from people for both of those images.
Another thing I learned is that most people won’t share my posts. I get plenty of emojis with thumbs-up or 100%, and even private messages of thanks and encouragement, but very few people will tell anyone else about what they read. I suspect that’s a byproduct of people still being afraid to speak their mind.
Favorite Images
I have a few images that I’m particularly proud of. One is a picture of a hat from an article I titled “MAMA” and is my interpretation of what the Left’s response to MAGA hats would look like. I published the article less than three days after Sleepy Joe took office and listed the mess he had already made of our country.
Another one I really like is the box of Tylenol COVID and Flu I made for “Errors and Corrections”. I’ve got more to say on this topic that I’ll probably get to in the next week or so.
The last one I’m going to mention is the button I made for my recurring updates on “The Control Group”.
It’s Not All Fun and Games
The hardest one to write was “Forever 1952” which I published just a few minutes after my dad died. I’ll admit that I cheated and wrote the bulk of it several months prior when his health began failing for what was obviously going to be the last time. But just doing the final edits, knowing they’d be the final edits, brought me to tears. Thinking about it now still does.
Recording the podcast version was even worse. I kept having to start over because my voice kept breaking. I ultimately got through it by cheating once again. I recorded everything out of sequence. I just recorded paragraphs at random and then stitched them together into the final version. Because it wasn’t the words that were the problem, it was the story they told.
I will, on occasion, open the door a bit and tell you a little about myself. Without a doubt, the most personal things I’ve written was about when we found out our son had decided he was going to pretend to be a woman. It turned into a 4-part series, “About a Boy”, “About a Boy – Part II”, “Disordered”, and “Slap, Punch, Kick”.
Then there was the time I almost died. I wrote “More Serious Than a Heart Attack” from my hospital room.
My Favorites
I do have some favorite ones. I think my all-time favorite is “Buffaloed” where I explain how the Left uses words as a weapon. Here’s a short list of others I’m particularly proud of:
“Roaches, Tom Brady, and Election Fraud“
“Mr. Spock on the 2020 Election“
Looking through my archive of 500 articles is like using a time machine. In our case though, when we look back three years, we see that hardly anything has changed. And the things that have changed haven’t changed for the better.
Fan Favorites
By far, the two most popular articles have been “Who Owns Mitch McConnel?” and “How to NOT Get Killed by the Police”. They each were read by several thousand people. I know that’s not a lot for big-time social media influencers. But it’s a lot for me. I haven’t written anything that has truly gone “viral” but these two came the closest.
Timely and Timeless
I took a creative writing course years ago. The instructor told us our writing should be timely and timeless. When writing about current events, it’s easy to be timely. But timeless? That’s much more difficult to pull off. Because current events change, I expected what I wrote to be relevant for a few weeks. A couple of months tops.
But here we are, over three years later and much of what I wrote in 2020 is still relevant today. Sadly, we’re still talking about election fraud, COVID mania and crazy liberal agendas. About the only thing that’s changed is that the crazy liberal agendas have gotten even more insane. Never again will I underestimate their ability for irrational thought.
What I write is targeted at adults. So, I used words that adults should know. As I said in “Dumb and Dumber”, I refuse to dumb-down how I write. In other words, if you read or listen to my stuff, I’m going to make you think a bit. Unfortunately, thinking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
That, and the fact that people are still afraid to say anything that might offend someone, explains why my numbers are so low. I suspect that my complete lack of self-promotion also has something to do with why so few people hear what I have to say each week.
PonkaBlog By the Numbers
I decided when I started planning this episode that I was going to open the kimono and give you some statistics. I’ve mentioned several times that my numbers are embarrassingly low. Well, here they are.
On average, about 50 people click through to read one of my posts. About 20 people will listen to my podcast. Sometimes the lists overlap. So that’s less than 70 people, out of a global population of eight billion.
Let’s put that in perspective. I have nearly 34 million fewer followers than Kylie Jenner and 2 million fewer than AOC.
I must be doing something wrong.
There are 135 people currently subscribed to my newsletter. Of which 40 or so will open my email and 30 or so will ultimately click through to the post. I have received $482 in donations, and I’ve made just over $100 in ad revenue. That works out to just under 30 cents an hour. It’s a good thing I’m not doing this for the money.
So why am I doing this? It’s mostly because I enjoy it. But also partly because I refuse to be intimidated by anyone into giving up my First Amendment rights. There are still things that need to be said. So, I’m saying them.
And you should too. Because if too many people keep their thoughts to themselves, then before you know it, we’ll have a moron for President, be forced to take injections of experimental drugs, and be legally obligated to call a dude “she/her”.
And there you have it. My 500th attempt at the proliferation of facts, logic and reason. If you’ve gotten this far…thanks! I really appreciate it. I hope you’re still with me when I reach 1,000.
