Our year in blogging: 2010

January 5, 2011

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow!

Government Book Talk  just received some year-end data on how it’s been doing. Here’s a high- level summary of our overall blog health that we’d like to share with you:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 5 days for that many people to see it.

The busiest day of the year was March 30th with 3,197 views. The most popular post that day was Welcome!.

Where did our readers come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were links.govdelivery.com, voices.washingtonpost.com, federalnewsradio.com, gpo.gov, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for gpo style manual 2010, government book talk, charley harper posters, and gpo style manual.

We now have 1,078 subscribers.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Welcome! March 2010
25 comments

2

A Comic Book History of Printing September 2010
11 comments

3

100 GPO Years Revisited June 2010
20 comments

4

Bookstore Grand Reopening August 2010
9 comments

5

An Award-Winning Blog? October 2010
14 comments

We’d like to thank all of you who read, commented, and mentioned Government Book Talk in 2010. In 2011, we promise to do our best to keep on highlighting the almost infinite variety of Federal Government publications past and present. Let’s keep reading!

5 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO), Uncategorized | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk

An Award-Winning Blog?

October 27, 2010

That’s what we are, courtesy of the Metropolitan Washington, DC chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – the largest IABC chapter in the country.. Specifically, last night Government Book Talk received a Silver Inkwell Award of Merit in the Government and Military Communication category. We were one of 21 winners out of more than 300 nominations submitted.

I mention this, not because we’re pleased and proud to receive such an award – although we are – but because it tells us that we’re on the right track in creating a venue in which Government publications get some of the attention they deserve, not as stereotypical dull doorstops, but as vital, information-packed, and often entertaining books that simultaneously open up the multifaceted and invaluable work of the Federal Government to the public at large.

Well, we’re not here to win awards, but to get the word out about the best of Government publications, past and present. I’m heading back to the vast Government Book talk vaults for more reading matter and, as always, I’ll be sharing what I find with you. Thanks for following us!

18 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO) | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk

Six Months of Government Book Talk

September 30, 2010

When I started writing for Government Book Talk six months ago today, I had no idea where it was going, or whether anyone would be interested in what I was interested in. With some relief, I can now say that quite a few people are. As of this morning, this blog has had 72,941 page views. Our guest bloggers and I have put up 53 posts and received 330 comments (truth in advertising: this total includes my replies to questions and comments, so subtract 10 or so), and 850 of you have subscribed.  Thanks for your interest in Federal Government publications – and I hope you’ve been enjoying this blog as much as we have!

What I appreciate most are the interesting and insightful comments we receive. As a result of those comments, we’ve instituted some improvements (RSS feeds, references to WorldCat so you can find a book in a local library), made a couple of corrections (Dr. Seuss was not a private, the Bismarck was not a pocket battleship), and generally enjoyed your feedback. A favorite: “Thank you so much for making this available online! It is so interesting and I want to add it to my collection. Without this blog, who knows what treasure I would miss?” We hope to keep on unearthing more of those treasures as we move forward.

In the coming months, we hope to continue talking about Government publications new and old, print and online, free and paid, popular and offbeat. As always, we welcome your suggestions and comments. Thanks for reading!

19 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO) | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk

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