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Today, this article marks my 30th piece in 30 days. A hard working media writer stretch if you will.



It was a challenge I set myself for a few reasons. Number one was... could I do it? I figured it would be difficult as I didn't want to take the route of writing articles filled with pictures and not much other content. So I made an effort to make all 30 articles (this one included) at least worthy of your time as a reader. Second, there really is no award for people who dedicate themselves to the media. Mogul medal? Sure, except that in Canada those 1,000 subscribers are a long way away. A hard working media writer doesn't actually exist and means nothing in this New World of ours but the satisfaction of having reached this goal at least matches the feeling I got when I earned my first hard workers medal all those months ago. Finally I wanted to see if having a daily media presence in Canada would change things at all in terms of votes, subscribers and the general tone of media.

So how did I do?

If you are a regular reader of the Freeholder Press then you know that I enjoy numbers. This is my journey of 30 articles in 30 days in numbers:

24,845 words written.
1,315 votes generated (and counting).
360 comments (and counting).
Increased my subscribers from 653 to 710 (with a temporary dip down to 645).

My longest article was my first one and it clocks in at a heavy 1,854 words. As a matter of fact 6 of my first 10 articles were over the 1,000 threshold. At that point I made a conscious decision to lighten the load on the reader and the articles hovered in the 500-800 word count range.

My most popular article, and the only one to break the psychological 100 votes barrier, was my second piece on the economy and that cycle of work. It reached 112 votes and was very rewarding as crunching as many numbers as I did for that takes a lot of time and effort.

The most controversial was easily The Quest for Power. In this, some individuals in the CPF took it as a full frontal attack. It is likely the only articles I've ever written where the comments ended up having a ton more text and debate than what the original post contained.

One of the most satisfying articles for me was one I wrote for the US media market. It generated a respectable 71 votes (small by American standard but big by mine) and was for me to see if I could write for an audience other than the one I had in Canada. The jury is still out but it did enough for me to hold out hope of an expansion South of the border some day.

I wrote a total of 3 articles for the media in the USA. During my 30 days I only published duplicate articles twice (meaning those days had two articles by me published) and I did not include them in any of these numbers.

On average I get around 45 votes and 12 comments per article. My vote counts did progressively get better during my first 10 articles and then settled in to an average of around 40. The last stretch saw more of 30 votes as maybe there got to be a little reader fatigue (sometimes the same voice all the time gets tuned out).

My increase in subscribers from 653 to 710 is my largest increase in many months (perhaps even a year).

Was it worth it?

I have to say it was but not in the way I would have expected. There was some hard times coming up with subjects and a on a few occasions I figured I was going to miss my deadline and not see this project through. Some of those struggle articles ended up being very well received and each time I pushed through and wrote for one more day I was always very happy I had done so.

Then when you get to your goal... there is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. 30 in 30 is a lot of work.

What is next?



Probably a vacation, heh. Like I hinted at earlier I would like to write some stuff for the US media and others internationally. The subjects are often more difficult to find as you try to be relevant to your readers. The economy is certainly one in for me to explore and I'm working on various formulas to refine my research and come up with a more comprehensive cost of living and wealth index.

Canada is and will remain what grabs my attention and inspires me. Time allowing, I would like to continue my post-election analysis work and my Top 10 Most Influential Canadians editions are always in the back of my mind (intentionally not included in this month's body of work).

I thought about taking a song and changing the words in a way to lighten the mood and honour the work Tyler put in his campaign this month. I also have long promised Spencer Magee an interview. The song didn't happen because I was worried it would have been interpreted badly and someone should really do a podcast with Spencer instead of a written piece. However, those are two more possibilities in the future.

So thank you to all those that came with me for this journey of 30 days. Thanks also to all those that jump in from time to time, I hope you all got good value and left at least a little bit entertained or informed.

Media in Canada sure is difficult but... I confess that I love it.

Alias Vision for the Freeholder Press, signing off.