This blog has an average of over 800 visits per day. It was higher until about a year ago, when Michelle Malkin reconfigured her website to hide her blogroll. On the face of it, it’s absurd that anyone would visit this blog, much less that 800 people per day (some more than once, perhaps) would do so. In general, what reasons are there for using one’s scarce time to visit a blog? The following come to mind:

1. Entertainment. Just as (most) people enjoy hanging around with those who are funny, people gravitate to entertaining blogs. I don’t think of myself as an entertainer, and most of what I post on my blog isn’t entertaining in any straightforward sense, so I doubt that many people come here for this reason. But I may be wrong.

2. Interest. People are interested in different things. Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows what interests me: baseball, cycling, running, music, philosophy, politics, religion, animals, and science. But lots of people write about these things; so why would someone come here for it? Perhaps I bring an unusual perspective to the things I write about. It doesn’t seem to me that I do, but perhaps others think differently.

3. Craftsmanship. Some people are sloppy and some aren’t. Since a blog is a written medium, those who appreciate good writing gravitate to well-written blogs. I confess to taking pains to write well, although I don’t always succeed. I also care about such things as grammar, punctuation, and style. This reason probably supplements some other reason, because I can’t believe anyone would visit this blog just to see well-written posts about (say) politics, if he or she isn’t interested in (or entertained by) politics.

Life is short. There’s not enough time to read everything, or even a lot. Therefore, one must be selective. I know that I’m “competing” against many other blogs, not to mention news sites. That you come here more than once indicates that you find something of value here. As for me, I would probably keep this blog even if nobody read it. After all, I kept a journal for many years knowing that nobody but my children (if any) would ever read it. I write, therefore I am.