I'm back - but slowing down and walking more!

Summer break is over, health matters are in hand and moving and I'm about to resume blogging again - and I'm very nearly 70!

Study of bodily proportions by Albrecht Durer
British Library Treasures Exhibition

I've made a lot of progress with my health issues which were causing concern....

• I've had my hips x-rayed and endless blood tests
• I've had my pre-treatment chat with the physio and start early October
• Plus I've also got an appointment in early October to see the Orthopeadic people at the Surgery Centre about the hip - and then we'll work out whether it's going to shoulder replacement and then hip replacement or hip and then shoulder. (The shoulder replacement got 'bumped' in 2020 when I chose to do the ankle fusion first!)
• plus a couple of lengthy chats with my GP about the results of various tests and we're getting other issues sorted as well
• and I'm on new medication!

So steady progress and fewer worries on the health front. (see I need to take a break - before my hip does!)

I'm also very, very committed to my long walk every day - as it's the only time I feel normal (as per NICE recommendations for those with osteoarthritis).This might sound very odd for somebody with severe osteoarthritis. However, exercise helps enormously with both functionality and mobility and keeps my musculature etc in good nick for the next time I'll be relearning how to walk. No matter how much your skeleton falls apart, the bits that actually keep you walking are the tendons and ligaments!

I'm now averaging over 6,000 steps a day - which can take a long time depending on the route I take and what I stop to see en route

Average steps from my daily walk

One day this week my walk comprised walking 

• from the David Hockney Auction Exhibition at Phillips in Berkeley Square (the auction was held yesterday) 
• down to the Green and Stone Gallery on the Fulham Road in Chelsea for a PV for the Amicus Botanicus Exhibition (which is on until Saturday) 
• through Mayfair, Hyde Park, along and through Knightsbridge and into Chelsea.

The key thing is to keep finding places to walk to with interesting things to look at!

However I'm still as STIFF as a board in the evening and extremely unsteady on my feet after about 8pm - which continues to be very worrying. I'm thinking about installing grab rails at key points....

So, in terms of going forward....

• #1 priority is getting health matters sorted - so I can continue to enjoy life. 
• #2 priority is a steady unrelenting focus on keeping mobile - to keep me safe and avoid becoming even more decrepit
• #3 priority is I'm 70 next month - and I've decided I'm going to become more choosy as to how I spend my time
• #4 priority is writing about art - but more selectively.  Some posts might become more picture oriented which can be quicker to do.... I'll certainly still be writing about
• annual exhibitions of national art societies
• major art competitions - including those on television!
• #5 priority - is to mine what I've written in the past and make it available one way or another. This blog heas nearly 20 years of archives!! I'm thinking about 
• resurrecting past posts via Facebook - as I've been doing recently (and maybe Instagram) and 
• maybe writing ebooks - based on past projects and talks.
• maybe doing more Zoom talks.

How about you - how are you prioritising matters as your life progresses?

Making A Mark on Art: Musings on a move to Substack

While on my "Mega Spring Clean" Break, I've been mulling over whether to move forward with Substack.

Mainly in the context of the fact 

• I've been writing Making A Mark on Blogger for over 18 years. I happen to like the platform and while I hope it continues, I do get concerned about the subscription side of things - which has effectively died for me
• I've watched both James Gurney and Michael Chesley Johnson set up on Substack (and I'm happy to hear of any more of you who have made the move!) - I think for pretty much the same reasons as me.
• I'm 70 later this year and I'd like to 
• find a way to still write 
• AND also be retired 
• AND be able to find the time to do things I enjoy doing. 
• you'll have noticed I now write fewer posts than I used to (and post more topical links on my Making A Mark Facebook Page
• Plus I absolutely MUST put time and effort into staying healthy in the context of 
• joints which are progressively succumbing to severe osteoarthritis 
• which means a BIG chunk of every day is now dedicated to my daily walk - to avoid grinding to a complete halt as a completely stiff person 
• AND I'm about to remind the hospital they promised me a shoulder replacement.

So overall, something along the lines of "less is more"!

This morning, I decided I'd better get on with making a claim to my brand name. 

Which is when I found some geek got there first! However I've been using Making A Mark on Art for a while so I've gone with that.

So the URL for my substack is https://makingamarkonart.substack.com/

I'm thinking maybe using my Substack for "perennial" topics

• long form discussion posts
• possibly trying out some posts about a subject I have in mind to write a book about and where I'd like to have a conversation with people about it as I go
• ways of enabling access to the masses of very detailed stuff I've written in the last 18 years which needs "a front door"
• developing a community - which seems to have happened already on Facebook - although I've never made it into a group
• plus maybe periodic highlights of other substacks I've found interesting (remember when we used to have blog rolls - which is the main way I used to find people whose art and/or writing I liked?)

Which would mean 

• I am NOT CLOSING DOWN this blog
• Making A Mark will continue with more topical posts - things of the "here and now"
• e.g. regular art competition / art exhibition posts will stay on this blog 

Plus I will also cross reference between the two sites.

Let me know what you think via my Facebook Page and/or by following my new substack publication.

Here are the relevant URLs:

• Substack https://substack.com/home - where you can be 
• just be a reader and subscribe for free to any substack publications you like 
• and/or opt to have a paid subscription to those you think might be worthwhile (a bit like Patreon)
• Making A Mark on Art - on Substack https://makingamarkonart.substack.com/ - where you can SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
• Substack interest areas - see below
• The top paid Art and Illustration Substacks https://substack.com/leaderboard/art/paid

I'm on a bit of a break....

I've not been posting because:

1. I needed a proper break - not having had a break from blogging in a long time - and there's never ever a good time!
2. I'm currently engaged in a MEGA Spring Clean - as in really MEGA!

My better half and I have been reorganising my study. As in he does the heavy lifting and I do the organising, chucking and shredding......

Stage 1: The Move

I wanted my study to be more accessible and ergonomic - and basically wanted to get rid of my filing stacks!!

So we’ve moved my filing cabinet out of the corner and put it next to the door so it is now much more accessible - which means I can actually now file as I go as opposed to having HUGE “for filing” stacks.

However to do this, we also had to disassemble my desk into its three parts and then move it left to make room for the filing cabinet.

Plus we had to empty the filing cabinet first. That filled three of those indestructible bags!!

Plus all the technology and "the stuff which sits on the top of the desk" had to move too. 

The printer is now sat on top of the filing cabinet which also makes that much more accessible.

My previous steel computer table bought c.30 years ago - which used to house the printer plus paper plus stationery supplies - also had to move out of the way altogether - and is now enjoying a second life and doing sterling work in the kitchen with the veggie basket tower and the pan tower on top and all the plants pots and ‘indoor gardening ‘ stuff underneath! This has tidied up and made a big difference to the “messy corner” of the kitchen.

The high chair from the kitchen which used to have the veggie tower on top of it has now moved to the inaccessible corner where the filing cabinet used to be!

The last bit of this first stage was reconnecting the iMac and the printer - this time to a extension under my desk. Always interesting for somebody with osteoarthritis and wonky joints who cannot get up from the floor and who generally has to crawl to the sofa to become vertical again.

ALERT ALL SUBSCRIBERS: Blogging Service may be interrupted OR subscription mailing service changed

This is by way of an alert to all those used to receiving my latest blog post via Mailerlite

I was supposed to have written a review of an exhibition by now - but having completed by tax return (have you remembered?), I'm currently tearing my hair out over another issue - and will soon be bald. 

Right now I'm thinking of giving up blogging!! It's all because of new rules which come in on 1st February for bulk emails being sent to gmail.

I'm caught in a really difficult situation with:

• Google and Yahoo have changed the rules on which emails it will accept for  newsletter emails (for good reasons - it's to reduce the spam on their platforms). This includes blogs if your RSS to email service provides scope for you to use a personalised email address - which mine does. 
• All "commercial emails" in future must come from an authenticated custom domain
• which is not helpful when you're trying to distribute an email to a subscriber base for a Google blogspot.domain using a gmail address
• I've always stuck with gmail as it's caused me very few problems.
• plus I'm not commercial - everything I write is for free consumption!!!
• PLUS The Mailerlite deadline for the movement to a new Mailerlite software base (i.e. everything needs to be complete by 31st January)
• plus it also requires compliance with the new Google rules - because the platform uses personalised email addresses
• Everything is compounded by having far too many subscribers (for the two sites this affects) to switch to alternative sites without it costing me an absolute arm and a leg - which given this blog generates no income is a problem!

At the moment, I'm becoming more and more despondent because:

• I apparently need a domain oriented email address to send a subscription email from Mailerlite 
• but I've always used gmail and blogger - so I neither own the domain I currently use for Making A Mark nor do I have a domain email for it.

I do however have a domain name related to Making A Mark - and am currently looking at options on Namecheap (my domain registrar)

Mailerlite is also saying 

Important: According to requirements from Google and Yahoo, the use of public domains (such as Gmail) as a sender address will no longer be permitted from February, 2024. Please switch to a custom domain.

The thing is the Google requirements are complete gobblydygook (see below) - with no idiots guide

Requirements for all senders

Starting February 1, 2024, all senders who send email to Gmail accounts must meet the requirements in this section.

Important: If you send more than 5,000 messages per day to Gmail accounts, follow the Requirements for sending 5,000 or more messages per day.

• Set up SPF or DKIM email authentication for your domain.
• Ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records, also referred to as PTR records. Learn more
• Use a TLS connection for transmitting email. For steps to set up TLS in Google Workspace, visit Require a secure connection for email.
• Keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching a spam rate of 0.30% or higher. Learn more about spam rates.
• Format messages according to the Internet Message Format standard (RFC 5322).
• Don’t impersonate Gmail From: headers. Gmail will begin using a DMARC quarantine enforcement policy, and impersonating Gmail From: headers might impact your email delivery.
• If you regularly forward email, including using mailing lists or inbound gateways, add ARC headers to outgoing email. ARC headers indicate the message was forwarded and identify you as the forwarder. Mailing list senders should also add a List-id: header, which specifies the mailing list, to outgoing messages.

So unless I get this sorted - this might be the last blog post sent vis an RSS to email subsciption.

I'll have to go back to firing up Twitter/X as well as Facebook to announce new blog posts!

I'm currently contemplating switching all existing subscribers to follow-it - because despite their awful advertising they do do a good job of getting emails out promptly. Plus they do NOT use personalised emails. 

Or maybe changing platforms completely and making it subscription based (i.e. I can pay for the subscription email service by you paying me to receive the emails!)

For example Substack offers:

• emails from (name)@substack.com
• paid subscriptions for some content

That's the last resort.

Right now it's just very, very depressing.

20 million pageviews!!

Making A Mark has finally achieved 20 million pageviews - as counted by Blogger!

It also recently made it to six million unique visits as well.

125k+ Visitors from all over the world in the last 6 months

I feel so silly though as I knew it was coming up - but took my eye off the ball so I don't know when it happened but it was in the last few days!

Despite me writing a lot less now (only 106 posts so far this year!) - for reasons I explained in my last post - it's still generating a lot of visits from all over the world - and most stick around and take a longer look at what else can be found on the blog.

Below are tips for how to get people to visit and to keep coming back....

Making A Mark - the story so far

Blogger hasn't quite adjusted to blogs being as old as mine. This is the chart on the stats page

The story since 2011 (when it was already 5 years old) - when it achieved 1 million visits

Previous posts on this topic include:

• Making a Mark is 17 years old. What next? (January 5th 2023) - in which I look back at how the blog has progressed and where people come from
• After 17 million pageviews!!! (May 15th 2021) - when I noted that Making A Mark was averaging over 1 million pageviews each year
• Making A Mark achieves 5 MILLION visits! (January 15th 2020)
• 10 Years of Making A Mark (January 1 2016)
• Making A Mark achieves 2.5 million visits (March 13th 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 5 million Pageviews! (January 17th, 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 1 million visits. (April 2011) - It took five years to get the millionth visitor in April 2011
• Exploring Web Analytics #1 - about why I use statistics to develop my blog.

I included a tip for how to get visits and visitors who want to look around once they arrive in 11 tips for how to get 1 million website visitors quickly

The 11 Tips (explained in the post) were:

1. Make your website very focused
2. Make every webpage very specific - make it a niche within a niche
3. Make every title very specific in terms of its topic
4. Provide a short summary of what each page contains at the top.
5. Make navigation very easy
6. Have a plan for how your website will develop
7. Use statistics to guide development
8. People look at images and read words - but really they scan both!
9. Write about what you know
10. Refresh and update a website regularly (use a blog)
11. Do link to relevant other websites - and encourage them to link back

Blog posts to date

The Archive tells me that the pattern looks like this - with over 4,400 published blog posts to date.

• ►  2023 (106)

• ►  2022 (151)

• ►  2021 (179)

• ►  2020 (212)

• ►  2019 (174)

• ►  2018 (205)

• ►  2017 (191)

• ►  2016 (180)

• ►  2015 (217)

• ►  2014 (221)

• ►  2013 (274)

• ►  2012 (304)

• ►  2011 (288)

• ►  2010 (307)

• ►  2009 (310)

• ►  2008 (357)

• ►  2007 (392)

• ►  2006 (348)

I started out writing virtually every day - for three years.

Then started having one day a week off. I producing around about 300 posts each year or very nearly 6 blog posts a week. This continued (apart from when I was on holiday) until I started to write my book in 2014.

An Update

This is by way of an explanation of why my blogging is now more infrequent. It follows on from my earlier posts (see end) about my severe osteoarthritis, ankle fusion surgery and the death this summer of my mother.

Bottom line, I'm now a LOT older than I was when I first started this blog. 

Earlier this month I celebrated my 68th birthday - and I can no longer kid myself that I'm a spring chicken even if my face and chin(!) have gone back to looking like they did many years ago!

An outing for a birthday treat at Kew for my birthday

I'm also having to work very hard at both:

• exercise for recovery from my surgery
• keeping fit to prevent (hopefully) the osteoarthritis in both my hips from getting worse.

Consequently I'm now fully committed to daily exercise including a walk which takes quite a bit of time out of the day and makes me feel rather tired when I get back home. 

For the uninitiated:

• recovery from my surgery takes at least 12 months before I get to the best place I can be - but ONLY if I work at my exercise!
• PLUS appropriate exercise and weight management are now very much recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for self-management of the symptoms of osteoarthritis – advice which is strongly backed up by research evidence. SEE:
• Healthier lifestyle can help to ease osteoarthritis symptoms says NICE | NICE News
• Osteoarthritis: care and management | National Institute of Care Excellence Guidelines
• New Draft NICE Guidelines Advise Exercise for Managing Osteoarthritis | Arthritis Action

My regular daily exercise now means that:

• I can now carry my stick rather than use it all the time. 
• PLUS walk further than I've been able to do for a very long time - so long as I have regular sit down breaks!
• AND I can now walk up and down slopes which I couldn't do at all for a very considerable length of time after surgery. I still have to avoid sideways slopes which are impossible with a rigid ankle!

But I still need a stick for uneven surfaces and for getting up and down stairs.

Walking down a steep slope - slowly - at Kew!

HOWEVER I still suffer from being VERY stiff at times and experience major balance issues when at home. It's very odd - walking now makes me feel normal, whereas I sometimes struggle to walk at home after getting up from a seat!

Sometimes I can combine exercise with visiting art exhibitions - and I expect to be doing more of this over the winter as the weather gets worse. The nice thing about art galleries is they have seats!

Bottom line though - I've got much less time for blogging.

It's a good discipline though as it makes me think which is also good exercise for the brain - so I won't be giving up. 

However the reduced rate of blogging is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. 

Mainly because there's no chance of my severe osteoarthritis going away. But also because I need to get fit for and then recover from my next surgery - which is a shoulder replacement (which I've needed for the last 2 years!)

I now need to work out how I'm going to blog while I spend six weeks with my arm in a sling and then a have whole bunch of new exercises to learn and do during recovery! 

I'm wondering whether I should start doing videos or podcasts and speaking the words rather than writing them! Anybody with any tips - I'd love to hear from you. (see contact me)

Osteoarthritis / Surgery: Previous Posts

• Get ready for surgery: Update #1
• SURGERY UPDATE #2: Still prepping with a steep hill to climb
• SURGERY UPDATE #3: I've finally got a date!
• Surgery postponed - my list of exhibitions in London to visit
• Just a few problems
• The Good News
• The Good News #2: Getting better!
• Life Events

The Good News #2: Getting better!

Another brief update on my recovery from surgery and its impact on my blogging.

It's been 19 weeks since my ankle fusion surgery and I've been out of my walker boot for 6 weeks. During that time I've started to walk again - with aids - and quite slowly for the most part.  I've used my carbon fibre rollator, my stick and walking poles so far!

Below is me about five weeks ago - on my first outing with my rollator! (The background is the old graveyard which is now a nature reserve where I now walk most days). It was so nice to be outside and in the fresh air - and actually moving on my own, albeit with the help of the rollator!

For those who've not seen me for a while
I lost 7 stone before surgery!
(and didn't put any back on afterwards!)

I'd had some inkling that ankle fusion surgery was a lot more challenging than a hip or knee  replacement - mainly because of not being able to walk for so long. 

What I hadn't quite realised is recovery takes up to 12 months! 

I managed to extract some exercises from the physio people and they helped a lot with getting ready to do more walking outside

However, walking after being in bed or sat in a chair for a while is very slow and painful. I can only approach normal walking after a 5 minute warm-up! Plus I've learned that sitting at my desk is still a total non-starter - my foot just ballooned for two days!

So, it looks like I'm going to be having to:

• allocate constant and consistent time for recovery for the next 6-8 months
• do regular physio exercises for my foot for quite a while and 
• undertake daily / regular exercise to 
• try and contain the contraction of the soft tissue structures and associated swelling.
• learn how to walk with a better gait - and stop "hip hiking"
• do lots of elevation and apply ice packs when the swelling starts because I've done too much.
• PLUS start physio exercises for a hip replacement - as my dodgy hip is not at all happy about all the extra exercise!

I do videos of how I'm getting of for myself so I can see the progress.

a still from the latest video where I'm actually managing to
walk at a respectable speed in a more or less straight line

The good news is I've actually made it to one exhibition - at Kew Gardens. By far the furthest I've walked so far - and, of course, I couldn't move much the next day. However I was elevating my foot on the seat of my rollator all the way back on the tube!

I think I'm going to be OK for getting to the Mall Galleries and intend to be at the Preview of the Plantae exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists at the Mall Galleries in mid June.

HOWEVER finding time for the physio and the exercise is time-consuming. 

Plus all the effort employed is also rather tiring 

- which is why blogging has become very sporadic.

I'm trying to get back into a routine but it's slow going.....

But I have done two Zoom Talks for clients - which actually seem to be an easier way to communicate oddly enough!

I'm thinking about maybe doing more.... 

Previous posts

• Get ready for surgery: Update #1
• SURGERY UPDATE #2: Still prepping with a steep hill to climb
• SURGERY UPDATE #3: I've finally got a date!
• Surgery postponed - my list of exhibitions in London to visit
• Just a few problems
• The Good News

The Good News

After 12 weeks of not a lot of blogging - and living on one leg and a knee scooter - my tibia and talus are fusing nicely (courtesy of two titanium screws in my right ankle).

As a result, I'm out of the abominable boot and my right foot is now allowed to touch the ground properly and go back into shoes. 

This means I can now start relearning how to walk normally with a calf which is seriously atrophied and an ankle which does not move!

The tibia (leg bone) is fusing with the talus (ankle bone)
which means my ankle is now permanently at a right angle and won't flex

I've now had two days now of walking very short distances around my home very slowly. It's not without pain and it's not easy. It does get slightly easier once I get going and hanging on to a rollator also helps.

HOWEVER I think it's going to be a few weeks more before I'm walking normally again and/or any distance.

Next week we're going to try taking my normal rollator outside to see how far I can walk comfortably.

Then it's going to be a question of doing the physio exercises, pacing myself and very gradually extending the distance I walk.

I'm hopeful that I will make good progress - but there's no way of knowing when I'm going to be back in town and looking at exhibitions

The whole process is completely exhausting and consequently blogging is going to have to continue to be completely sporadic.

PS. For those thinking this is like a hip replacement or a knee replacement, those two operations are akin to "a walk in the park" compared to my ankle fusion. Essentially because with hip/knee replacements you get given a brand new joint while I have to "grow my own bone replacement" for a joint - and this carries on for the next 9 months or so....

PPS THANK YOU to all those of you who have written to me - on Facebook or via email - sending your good wishes . It's much appreciated.

READ THIS: If you get emails from Making A Mark

I've finally committed to a new email subscription service for Making A Mark - and I've decided to go with Mailer Lite. 

What I'd like you to do now - if you are an existing subscriber (i.e. receiving an email everytime I publish a new blog post) - is ask you to PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AGAIN  

This is because my subscriber list dates back some 15 years and I think a number of subscribers are no longer "live" - literally and/or figuratively - and I'd like to get back to a clean subscriber list. 

BELOW is what the top of the new email will look like - when you SUBSCRIBE to the new Mailer Lite Subscription list.

It will come from the email I use for contact purposes - and the sender is 'Making A Mark Publications'.

What the top of the email will look like

THE SHORT VERSION

 

If viewing on a mobile/cell phone 

please click the CAPTION underneath the image and this will take you to a screen where you see a live version of this email subscription form and can complete it

I'd like to complete this form

 
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS when you get the verification email - otherwise you won't get email updates.

 

If viewing on a desktop or tablet 

Please go to the side column and use the subscription form there.

Or, do as suggested above and click the caption which says  I'd like to complete this form and complete the form on a separate screen.

If you're still getting emails via Feedburner

I'd be surprised - because the email subscription list disappeared today - hence this post. 

However, all you need to do is unsubscribe from Feedburner AFTER you have subscribed via the new subscription form - and that way you won't get two emails about the same post.

THE LONG VERSION

Today has been devoted to yet another attempt to find a substitute service for the really easy to use and set up Feedburner.

I've come to the conclusion - after seeing awful adverts on Follow.It that Mailer Lite is a superior service which offers a much more business-like service. Plus it gets a lot of rave reviews from people who have been looking in the RSS feed to email conundrum post Feedburner.

Mailer Lite is actually quite sophisticated - with some very helpful videos

SO.......

You need to resubscribe to Making A Mark

I could import all my current subscribers - and I've got nearly 2,000 subscribers (via Feedburner) 

BUT I'M NOT GOING TO ADD THEM TO MAILER LITE subscriber database 

This is because:

• I suspect there are any number of reasons why some are not opening their emails (eg changed email address / died / no longer using the internet as much or just not opening their emails!)
• I get charged if I go over 1,000 subscribers! So an incentive to stay under....

I've also got to sort out other email subscriber services for other sites and I still am not entirely clear whether the charge is per campaign site or per the overall number of subscribers - so I may well end up paying out anyway. However, I'd like to avoid paying out unnecessarily.

Profuse apologies to all those who signed up to Follow.it - I'll be writing to you all personally! 

and finally......

Mailer Lite is very new to me and I'm not entirely sure I've got it right yet.

DO LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS!

Making A Mark on Facebook (12 July 2021)

This highlights items I've featured on my Making A Mark Facebook Page during the period 1st - 12th July 2021 - with a bit more detail. For those who "don't do Facebook" and those who may have missed some of the items.  

Latest banner image is Gillie & Marc: Tandem Lovers
- seen last week on a trip to Canary Wharf

Articles

How an Art Museum Betrays Its Social Class Bias | Hyperallegic

When I worked as a security guard at the Toledo Museum of Art there was no mechanism by which the frontline staff could help shape the museum's content.

A really interesting article about class bias within the museum system.

I've often thought some curators were guilty of not knowing a lot about how artists work (i.e too steeped in art history and academic art - and never ever got their hands dirty!). It would seem some curators are often not very sensitive to how "the other half" live either. 

 

Plus you get to find out more than you possibly knew about Wayne Thiebaud.  

An awkward, lifeless shrine – the Diana statue is a spiritless hunk of nonsense | The Guardian

It's not often I agree with Jonathan Jones - but I do on this one. That's just not her face - and it feels very stiff. It certainly doesn't resonate with me. I think I'd have rather seen her with her landmine kit on - that's an image once seen never forgotten.

Plus I also commented on the Best comment yet - from old Waldy.

https://twitter.com/JANUSZCZAK/status/1411257801515601922...

 

There were some astute comments on my last post (re Jonathan Jones's article re the unrealistic proportions of the kids bodies. My observation would be that bare feet also tend to go with clothing which looks a lot less like middle England middle class on their way to church on a Sunday. There is something very incongruous about this sculpture and such decision-making by committee tends to suggest the wrong people were on the committee.

Leonardo Da Vinci project finds 14 living descendants | The Guardian

Researchers hope to understand genius of artist by reconstructing his genealogical profile 

My view?  This project to identify da Vinci' 'talent' gene seems to be:

• EITHER: deeply sexist (i.e. talent for art only runs through the Y chromosome)
• OR: deeply ignorant (i.e. I thought everybody knew that if you want to find genuine reliable descendents, you have to go through the FEMALE line!!)
• OR: both??

What do you think?

As the Art Industry Has Ballooned, So Has the Number of People Claiming to Be Expert Advisors. Here’s How to Tell If They Actually Are

Beware the individual touting the title "Art Adviser" UNLESS they have significant credentials to their name and can demonstrate an understanding of professional standards.

Artist Activities

Follow.it falls at first hurdle re. Feedburner replacement

THIS IS NOW A BLOG POST OF TWO HALVES - LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING.
Last night I was very frustrated with follow.it which had promised a lot but not delivered as well as it promised. This morning we seem to be approaching something like normal and I'm not feeling so negative.

___________________________________

Last night - after much effort.....

I'm very sorry to all those who have tried Follow.It as a substitute for Feedburner. (i.e. this is an update on my previous post What next for Feedburner email subscriptions?)

This was my message to Follow-It after a very disappointing afternoon trying to get my RSS feed to be recognised in my Follow-It account.

This was AFTER I had paid for the Cool account.

Two more critical comments on another tweet got deleted..... but the person doing the deleting doesn't realise it doesn't delete from my side

Tweets are only deleted from one side - it's still there on my account

I'm NEVER impressed by people who don't pay attention to good customer service.

It now turns out that their response to signing up is neither automated nor very prompt - but might possibly respond to tweets.... ;) (Facebook does - so maybe they do too!)

In addition, in order to transfer more than 100 subscribers you have to PROVE you have them - by taking a photo / screenshot of your Feedburner Page AND contact them separately to get those subscribers brought over. 

But there's no way to indicate that when setting up the RSS feed.

I am, in part, trying to determine whether:

• the feed gets recognised when I publish this post - given I've signed up to subscribe via follow.it - but it does not recognise my blog - nor does it seem to go straight to my blog....
  
• whether to now transfer my subscribers given my growing doubts about follow-it for big accounts
  
• whether to abandon ship and go elsewhere. Mailer Lite and Mailchimp being possibilities - but they will cost more...

UPDATE: I'm feeling better about follow.it this morning. 

• Somebody got my feed set up and it's now on my dashboard. 
• The feed for this post was published - late. I always sign up to my own blogs - because that way I can check if the feed is working! This is what it looks like. It's supposed to arrive within 30 minutes of publication but this one took about 3.5 hours - which is not OK. I'll see what happens today. It might just be the new account bedding in
  

This is what arrived in my inbox late last night

• The statistics also showed up - and are OK - but I'm not getting anything like the detail I got with Feedburner - even with a paid account. I guess that's because follow.it can only count the emails via their set-up whereas Feedburner counted everything from whichever way people subscribed.
• The way it presents in the "read" side of my follow.it account also looks good. See below

 

 

Ponderings on the future

I'm still in pondering on what to do. I think I may run an A/B test and set up my Botanical Art and Artists blog - which has c1k subscribers - with another set-up and see if that works better.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to set up a Patreon account and start subscriptions all over again, but limited to those who pay a very nominal amount to get the blog posts.

I am also thinking along the lines of getting everybody to subscribe again - because I've absolutely no idea how many never open their emails and I'm not keen on paying for subscriptions from people who never open their email!

However do not fear - I have downloaded all current subscribers as a csv file - and will be keeping that safe until such time as I decide where subscriptions or going....

At the moment I've not pulled any hair out but getting close.....

There again maybe I shall go and take another look at Substack which manages to create a much better impression with me and has both free and paid options for followers.

(NOTE: All this within the context that I'm now listed for surgery and am expecting that my ankle fusion operation will take place in the Autumn and I'll then have very limited movement on one leg only for at least three months followed by not a lot more mobility for some months after that - followed by a shoulder replacement - when I'll be doing everything with one hand. So exhibition reviewing is going to be minimal for some time... I'm thinking of switching to art book reviews and getting the art material and tips and techniques websites finished!)

What next for Feedburner email subscriptions?

On April 14, 2021, Google announced that Feedburner would be losing its email subscription service. Which means that my regular email to those who have subscribed with the latest blog post title and the first 200 characters of the blog post will be no more....

If you’d like to continue using email subscriptions after the June transition, we recommend downloading email subscriber data so that you can migrate your subscribers to a new email subscription service. This data will also be available for download after the transition.

I'm absolutely sure I'm not the only regular Blogger and Feedburner user wondering what to do about a replacement.

[Note: Apparently Google intends to remove all non-core functionality and make it maintenance only - which conflicts with what they're saying re. the removal of the email subscriptions - because that's the only reason I used it - that and the fact it's free!]

Feedburner email subscriptions stop in July 2021

Switching to an alternative for Feedburner email subscriptions

What I want to do is migrate to a Feedburner alternative which

• Provides me with a free service (like Feedburner)
• Allows me to import all existing validated emails from Feedburner
• Allows a subscription for RSS Feed to email subscription option (i.e. replace what I've got at present)
• Works with all existing RSS services (like Feedburner) - for those who like to read blogs in Feedreaders (like Blogger's Reading List)
  
• Gives me some basic statistics. (I have other services which provide me with in-depth stats. All Feedburner tells me is how many subscribers opened the emails).
  

I'm still trying to work out what to do about the imminent (in July) demise of the Feedburner email to all those who have subscrived to date. 

I've actually got so many subscribers that it very definitely makes some alternatives rather expensive - and I'm running a blog NOT a business!

Some Issues

 

Email marketing is targeting ecommerce not blogger

Most of the email subscription marketing options are set up to provide an "occasional newsletter / marketing via email" facility for those who have websites and want to communicate with their followers from time to time

i.e. they're set up for ecommerce operations and not for bloggers

You know when you're dealing with one of these when:

• EITHER there's a limit on 
• the number of subscribers
• the number of feeds
• the number of emails you can send in a month
• OR you have to pay a charge - - which can mount up - to enable you to carry on as at present.

Another thing - not everybody opens their email

Why should I pay for people who do not open their emails?

As we well know, people are apt to sign up for email subscriptions - and then don't bother validating them and/or reading the emails. I certainly do NOT want to pay for a service which is charging me for those who have subscribed but do not bother to open their emails.

For me this is all the more reason to find a good quality basic service - or a very cheap one.

One more thing - migrate or sign up again?

I could migrate all current subscribers - BUT..... there's a bit of me which would quite like to get people to sign up all over again. That way I will know what the number of 'real subscribers" are.

Or maybe I should just use Twitter more to signal new posts

I already announce everyone via my FB Page....

 

Possible contenders

Below I tell you about my favourite option(s) to date 

There's also a summary of some Feedburner Email Subscription Alternatives - plus a link to a post which includes a very useful tabulation to help you decide.

After 17 million pageviews!!!

I missed the moment this week when the counter ticked over and Making A Mark got its 17 millionth page view

 

17 million pageviews means that this art blog - Making A Mark - which I started on 13th December 2005 (see below), and then went public, after 4 "try out" posts, in January 2006 -  is now averaging over a million pageviews a year.

My very first blog post on Tuesday 13th December 2005

 

It's also been repeatedly recognised as one of the best art blogs around. That might be partly due to the fact it's one of the few which have kept going for the last 15 years!  So much content has moved to other media channels - especially if they are picture oriented with very little text. It's almost as if blogging has died - and yet it remains popular with a lot of readers.

Suffice to say, I still enjoy writing and doing rather more in-depth pieces which won't fit in a tweet or an Instagram post or whatever.

While I write fewer posts (I stopped my habit of regularly writing one blog post a day a while back), I'm still keen to keep the blog going even though it's now a teenager.

However, I am thinking of whether I want to change it and, if so, how.....

Tomorrow - I'm writing about a possible successor to Feedburner

One change I have to make is deal with the upcoming major changes to Feedburner - which I use for email subscriptions

Given the imminent demise of the Feedburner email service in July 2021, tomorrow I'm going to be writing about WHAT NEXT? for those 

• who are currently Feedburner EMAIL subscribers
• fellow bloggers also using Feedburner for their email subscriptions.

I think I've found a viable option which won't break the bank and has a viable free option.....