Is This My Final Article?
After not posting anything (with the exception of updates on Mother’s and Sister’s health) for the entirety of Lent, and now that Easter Week is finally here, I have checked my Substack readership and subscription stats for the first time in months. More people read my articles when I wasn’t posting than when I was writing new articles. More people have subscribed since I stopped posting than during the same time period beforehand, when I was active here. So I have reached the scientifically valid conclusion that more people like me not writing than writing!
I had to write this article to explain to all of those who had previously signed up because I was writing as to why I would no longer be writing. But by doing so, I will now probably lose all of you who signed up only because I wasn’t writing, for I expect that you will hit the “unsubscribe” button to show your dissatisfaction with my taking up writing once again. Or maybe you won’t unsubscribe, simply so that you can troll me. But I won’t know for sure unless I write more.
Which leaves me in a quandary. Do I then continue to write, knowing that the readership may or may not fall off? What do I do when my unpaid subscriptions fall away and I go from 357 subscribers paying nothing back down to perhaps 282, each of whom pays multiples of zero? Do I cater to those with free accounts who signed up to not read new articles, or do I try to satisfy those who have free accounts because they are interested in a slightly “off” accounting of a priest’s strange life? Can I survive without all of the extra income if I lose so many non-paid subscribers? Oh, the questions life brings! If only I were expecting to live a life of poverty or something like that, none of this would even be crossing my mind!
[Strangely enough, on Blogger, where I originally started posting, not a single new subscriber signed up while I wasn’t writing, and only 7 people read my updates on the Sisters.]
As I try to figure out this mad conundrum about whether to write or not, please continue to pray for me and the FLM Sisters under my care, especially Mother Maria Regina, who has only a couple of more chemo treatments before starting radiation, and Sister Maria Josepha, whose recovery from the large non-cancerous brain tumor is taking a lot more time than she wishes, but is coming along quite nicely.
Oh, what the heck. As long as I am looking at statistics, maybe you would like to see some simple ones? If not, stop reading here!
The substack that has “sent” (I don’t know how that works, but that is what the stats tell me) more traffic to my account than any other source is https://restlessheartmedia.substack.com/.
But somehow, it doesn't show up on the statistical list of those whose audience overlaps the most with mine. That list gives me these six substacks:
https://bishopmeikle.substack.com/
https://padreperegrino.substack.com/
https://www.traditionsanity.com/
https://bigmodernism.substack.com/
https://dianemontagna.substack.com/
https://meretradition.substack.com/
What does any of that mean? I think it is simply that those groups listed above must have a very discerning (or is that concerning?) group of readers!
I have subscribers in 30 states (most with only a single-digit subscription numbers and Florida having by far the most for some odd reason!) and 10 countries. Of course, for all I know, that might just be people living in the same city and state but using a VPN, throwing off the location!
The last stat I will share (because the rest make even less sense to me than those listed already) is that only 4 people filled out the “new subscriber” survey, and I think all of them did it before I discovered that I could “tweak” the questions being asked and make up my own questions and answers! (Similar to how I can tweak the “subscribe” button messages you see at the top and bottom of this article.)
That’s it for now. Maybe forever. Or maybe not.
Merry Easter, everyone!
With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka
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For those who wish to ask for prayers, discern a Vocation, or make donations:
[The Sisters now have a website! https://filiae.org/]
