Blogger Elated as Post Garners Ten Whole Views

Thomas Gilmore (32) finished the latest post on his palaeontology blog 'Can You Dig It?' with all the enthusiasm he could muster after over a decade of setbacks. A number of false starts to his writing career left him with few options of plying his trade except to go it himself and let the chips fall where they may. And fall they did. Despite the most concerted of efforts to spread the word and assurance from those he'd reached out to, he was left more disheartened than the GTA after a game seven.

He continually produced quality work only to see it too resigned to the asteroid fodder of history. Then one day out of the blue, he checked his site's analytics only to discover there'd been ten views in the past 24 hours, which raised the question, what was he to do with this sudden, overwhelming surge of positive reinforcement? “It's incredible! I got three likes, and even one share! Usually I have to message people directly or text them so they're even aware there’s a new post, but this was totally organic. Even a few random people must’ve have read it.” Several did in fact open the link, mistaking his take on the Jurassic Era for a review of the film.

Inspired to start this journey by clever outlets like The Onion, The Beaverton as well as other more traditional journalistic sites, he brought what insight he possessed to the proceedings, and in the spirit of a rising tide lifts all vessels went out of his way to share other's work he admired and promote them on social. Unfortunately, he's gonna need a bigger boat...Despite his best efforts, he struggled to direct traffic to the site, even with the SEO highlighting such ubiquitous topics as the impact of acid rain caused by the asteroid or climate change in the Pleistocene Epoch.

When it launched many were quick to offer best wishes and congratulations. These soon faded like a Jays playoff push. When asked what he felt was keeping them from continuing this support he tried to stay positive, acknowledging that it's difficult for busy people to find three minutes in a day to support a friend. "Its tough, I get it. I mean it's not like they're constantly on their phone and could check it at any juncture."

What keeps him motivated to continue regardless? "Writing's like a muscle, you have to keep exercising and ultimately, if you're doing what you love and proud of the work, that's reward enough." This sentiment was of brief comfort until receiving the lone comment on his latest post: "You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you never stopped to think if you should..."