Marking a Blog Milestone: 500,000 Page Views!

Fast and Furious! On Nov. 11 I noticed my blog’s “Total Pageviews” counter read, as you see, 497,978. That’s getting close to half a million! 

One week later, on Nov. 18, the number eclipsed 500,000. Before leaving SC State for the day, I noticed the number was around 499,640. By the time I settled in at home that evening, the page view number showed this number: 500,061. 🍾 I didn’t pop the champagne, not literally anyway. But wow! I’m excited to reach such a milestone. I launched my BirdsEyeViews blog in May 2010 with this short post titled "Time to Blog!" I wrote a post in May of this year to recognize 15 years of relentless blogging. Actually relaxing is the better word because I’ve always found this hobby a good one, time well spent. Satisfying is another good word. 

Back in early June when I did the 15th anniversary post, the counter was in the 390,000s. I’m struck by how in the five and a half months since that post I’ve had more than 100,000 page views. That’s about 20,000 views a month. My blog is definitely getting more looks these days. Why? Not sure. I've always made good use of embedded links, label words and descriptive headlines. That helps, I'm thinking.

It is so appropriate that the post that took me past 500,000 on Nov. 17 features birds at Magnolia Cemetery. Alesia and I visited the cemetery on a Sunday afternoon, Nov. 2, and it was bustling with birds as I wrote in the headline. 

My first experience at this venerable and historic necropolis was in March 2008. My first blog post that includes Magnolia Cemetery was on July 30, 2010. Here it is. 

I photographed a pair of Wood Storks during that first 2008 visit, not knowing what they were. Three years later, in 2011, I published my first book, “The Birds of Magnolia Cemetery: Charleston’s Secret Bird Sanctuary” (last summer I published a second edition). My Magnolia Cemetery “In the Arms of Angels” book followed in 2014. 

So my interest in birds and cemeteries began at Magnolia with my BirdsEyeViews blog guiding and documenting these passions since 2010. 

I took this photo in March 2008, the first time I visited Magnolia Cemetery

So where do I go from here with this blog? I will certainly keep posting my bird and nature photos, as well as travelogues and research I believe readers will find of interest. 

The other day I googled this: What does it mean when your blog reaches 500,000 page views? 

The AI response at the top said this: 

"Hitting 500,000 pageviews on a Blogger blog means the blog is performing exceptionally well and has a significant audience, potentially generating substantial income (around $16,563 per month). It indicates the blog's content and marketing strategies have been successful, attracting a large number of visitors, and it may qualify for premium ad networks, although it can also attract more intense scrutiny from search engine updates."

$16,563 per month? Hard to fathom that but I am looking into Google AdSense. 

We'll see what happens with that!