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GazetteXtra | A tip of the hat to Mark Dwyer of Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville
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A tip of the hat to Mark Dwyer
of Rotary Botanical Gardens in
Janesville
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GREG!PECK
December!5,!2013
As a fellow blogger, I was intrigued to read today's Gazette
story about Mark Dwyer. I've met Dwyer and find him
personable. He's horticultural director at Rotary Botanical
Gardens and, in the past five years, has written more than
550,000 words. Sometime this month, Catherine W. Idzerda
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GazetteXtra | A tip of the hat to Mark Dwyer of Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville
3/28/14, 9:41 AM
reported, Dwyer will write his 1,500th
blog post.
Hmm, I wondered. I've been writing
weekday blogs since June 2009. I
wondered if I've written that many. So
I grabbed a calculator this morning. I
work 46 weeks each year and post
regularly each weekday. I started
posting blogs three times a day for the
Mark!Dwyer
first few months before scaling back
to two. Since our new website went up
a few months ago, I scaled that back
to once daily. That's because we post the next day's editorial
online a day early, negating the value of writing a preview
blog about it. So I roughly calculated that I've blogged 1,560
times. When I got to the office, Dave VonFalkenstein told me
I was being conservative: He quickly found the exact number
on our computer system: 1,960. This blog adds one more.
Not that I'm bragging. I admire and respect what Dwyer is
Trending!now
Death!notices!for!March!26,!2014
Loretta!E.!Krause,!Edgerton,
WI/formerly!Janesville,!WI!(1932M
2014)
Gloria!"Fido"!W.!Haried,!Edgerton,!WI
(1932M2014)
UPDATE:!Seat!belt!a!factor!in!fatal
Highway!81!crash!near!Beloit
Daniel!A.!Mahoney,!Janesville,!WI
(1955M2014)
!Rock!County!stuck!at!62nd!in
county!health!rankings
doing, even though today marked the first time I actually
checked out his blog. Daily details about gardening aren't as
Most!read
high on my list of interests as they are for many people. I'm
Most!commented
impressed that on some busy weeks, the gardens' Facebook
page gets as many as 8,000 unique engagements, with people
clicking “like,” sharing or commenting on a post. Dwyer told
Idzerda that his photos from the gardens help drive traffic to
his site because they come up in Google searches. Still, I'd like
to pick his brain to cultivate ideas about expanding my
potential social media reach. I still feel like a neophyte in a
rapidly changing technological world.
I remember days when anyone could post anonymously on
our previous website without paying The Gazette a dime.
Back then, I could get 200 or more comments in a week when
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GazetteXtra | A tip of the hat to Mark Dwyer of Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville
3/28/14, 9:41 AM
I had a hot topic or two. Those days are long gone. Now,
people must subscribe to comment on my blogs, and if they
comment, they know we know who they are, even if they use
pseudonyms. So almost all of the nasty comments have
vanished, and these days I get few comments overall. Some
weeks, I'm lucky to get a couple.
Your!Personalized!News
Wisconsin needs more advocates for
openness to public records, meetings
18M03M2014
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The overall lack of comments is disappointing. I hope to keep
blogging and giving our readers stories and information they
find interesting and useful. With so few comments these days,
however, I don't know how many people are actually reading
my blogs on any given day or week.
Again, hats off, Mark! Time invested in your blog no doubt
builds recognition and, through the years, will bring more
visitors to the gardens themselves. Similarly, I hope my blogs
build readership and translate into paying Gazette customers.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or
[email protected]. Or follow him on Twitter or
Facebook.
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GazetteXtra | A tip of the hat to Mark Dwyer of Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville
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