I read somewhere yesterday a calculation that only about 1.6% of all WordPress blogs get Freshly Pressed in any given year. That’s out of, according to this screenshot, 426,589 blogs. It’s a wonder I came across the story at all considering the traffic and email Pied Type’s “fresh pressing” has brought me. Stunning, to say the least.
My blog settings have always included having an email sent to me when someone comments on, Likes, subscribes to, or otherwise follows Pied Type. Mostly because I just don’t want to overlook any new comments, especially if they are on older posts, but also because it’s fun to find all those notifications in my inbox. Browsing through them, replying, visiting the blogs of people who’ve visited mine — it’s a leisurely little pastime. Or it was until “Grandma Gets a Smartphone” hit Freshly Pressed. In slot number one, no less (I know the slots rotate, but I happened to catch it as Numero Uno). My inbox exploded! Five, six, ten times the normal amount of new mail! Yikes! It was insane and wildly wonderful at the same time. I had to (or got to) go through every item, one by one, seeing whether it was a comment needing a reply (I try always to reply), a Like notification with enticing links to that person’s blog prompting a visit from me), or … uh oh … a new credit card bill.
I know what you’re thinking, but I normally get so little mail that I’ve never felt the need to set up a bunch of filters. As a result, for the last two days, I’ve had to be especially careful not to overlook minor little things like bills, bank statements, the latest family photos, etc. — especially since, in a desperate bid to regain some control, I started deleting some mail after I read it. (I’m a hoarder. I save almost all my old email; I might need to look up something someday.)
How crazy has it been? What can you expect if you get Freshly Pressed? Well, I’m not revealing specific numbers (too embarrassed by my usually low readership) but here’s what happened to the graph in my WP administrator bar:
And this is what happened on my stats page:
Looks like the NYC skyline before the Twin Towers came down, doesn’t it? No doubt my Twin Towers will be coming down as well, but it’s been a great ride. Thank you, WordPress, for the honor (even if being “Freshly Pressed” does make me feel like a grape in a wine vat). I doubt I’ll ever again see readership like these last two days. And thanks to everyone who flocked in here to read about my misadventure (it’s ongoing; the second, correct, phone just arrived and I’ll be heading to the Sprint store again tomorrow, hopefully for the last time, to finally get everything straightened out); maybe you even found something else of interest while you were here. It’s been fun meeting so many new bloggers and I look forward to seeing many of you in the future, either here or at your place.
Cheers.
Congratulations ! YOU deserve this. Been a lurker lately but trying to keep up with your posts. rock on!!!
Lurk all you like. I love it. 🙂
I know! I got Freshly Pressed back in 2009 and wowza I was in awe. Congrats Type, you have an awesome blog and definately deserve to be Pressed!
Wow, you were waaay ahead of me. A belated grats to you!
Thanks! It was a special post of mine to my Dad for Veterans Day. I was shocked. I found it funny it even got Pressed since it was such a simple tribute.
Simple is often best. And a tribute to one’s dad — hard to beat that.
I step out for 30 seconds and miss everything! (reading frantically to catch up) No really. Congrats and well deserved! YEA YOU!
Thanks. It’s certainly been an interesting week. 🙂
Congrats.
Yeah, I remember when this happened to me.
I had no idea what was going on. I was like, what the Hell? Why are all these people dumping comments on this post? Something very strange is going on. I didn’t receive any notification that I am aware of. It just happened. And I didn’t think the article they picked was all that special. The only thing different I noticed about it was that I hadn’t dropped any of expletives. So, I thought to myself, that’s the key. Don’t swear on WordPress and maybe you’ll get freshly pressed. Bwahahah!
Sometimes I swear too much in my posts. Personally, I blame the military. I can’t help it. That’s how I think. Sure, I run a filter in daily life, but even when I’m not swearing, my internal voice is still saying WTF?
The second time it happened, they told me about it, and I knew what was going on.
I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I really wish they’d called attention to one of my other posts, something serious that I’d put a lot of thought into. This one was basically just a rant.
I can’t imagine having this happen without a heads up. It would be like a sudden onset of the Twilight Zone.
I tend to lurk and ‘like’ too…but I’m here! Congratulations and well deserved my new friend! xox
Lurk and like works for me too. I read, have nothiing of note to say, but I want the blogger to know I was there. So I Like. Kilroy was here!
LOL!
Congrats! I just got an e-mail a couple hours ago saying they are Freshly Pressing me so I’ve been doing some research to figure out what to expect. Those twin towers make me happy!
Grats! My readership went back down after the Twin Towers, naturally, but certainly not to the previous levels. Whether the continuing higher levels are due to the Freshly Pressed thing or because there’s been a lot more interest in politics recently, I couldn’t say. Again, congratulations!