Here are some random thoughts from the blog’s first year.
Prior to my first post, which was insubstantial and lame, I came up with about 45 ideas for posts of actual substance and saved them in my Drafts folder. Some of the ideas were, and still are, junk and will never be published. But, even with a large number of post ideas, I worried that I wouldn’t have enough material to sustain the blog for more than a few months.
Now, I have made 52 posts and my Drafts folder has increased to 66 ideas. Some ideas are new, others have sat around from the initial 45. I’ve learned that Robert Boice was correct–the more you write, the more ideas you generate.
The numbers of views and visitors (counted by WordPress) for those 52 posts are shown below.
With these numbers, I won’t make any money off the blog any time soon. If making money was the objective, I would have given up after a few months. However, the numbers are not bad for year one of a blog about OpenSees, a niche topic in earthquake engineering.
I share the posts on Twitter, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn–the same places other researchers share their latest journal articles. I also link to relevant posts on the OpenSees message board and on the OpenSees GitHub page.
It’s a good sign that the number of referrals from search engines has increased in the last few months. For the record, I don’t do SEO. Inconsistent OpenSees documentation is all the SEO I need.
But the most interesting thing to me is derived from comparing the word count to the number of views.
The total word count, 24,862, is equivalent to about two journal articles. Over 18,000 views in one year on two journal articles worth of material? Yes, please!
Portwood Digital 
Dear P.D.,
I want to thank you for helping us.
The effort you put in can turn into hundreds of thousands of views and leads in the future
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Thank you, MSB!
I’m glad the blog has been helpful.
PD
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Hi,
I want to ask you provide a post about equaldof and rigid-beam.
Does equaldof transfer forces?
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Hello Hadier,
equalDOF transfers forces, but you have to be careful summing reactions in some cases. Take a look at this post: https://wp.me/pbejzW-2l
PD
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Hi,
What is different between “”rigidLink -beam”” and “”equalDOF”‘?
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rigidLink -beam enforces beam kinematics (translation and rotation) over the length between two nodes. equalDOF sets two DOFs to be equal without any kinematics.
https://opensees.berkeley.edu/wiki/index.php/RigidLink_command
Search the OpenSees wiki and message board for answers to modeling questions.
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Hi,
Thank you.
But what is the kinematics (translation and rotation) effect exactly?
I mean so equalDOF and rigidLink -beam are the same to create a rigid beam or rigid diaphragm!!!!?
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I would recommend rigidLink -beam for a rigid diaphragm.
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If in this example you m use equalDOF instead of rigidLink -beam. Are the result equal?
I am so confused about this two command.
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Give it a try!
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Dear P.D.,
Thank you for all the hard work you put in for this blog! Know that it is recognized and greatly appreciated.
Many thanks!
Cristian
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Hello Cristian,
Thank you for the kind words!
PD
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Hi,
Nice to see the stats! Do you also have data to identify where in the world those views come from?
Best,
Bryam.
P.S. I look forward to attending the Matrix classes in OSU this term. 😉
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Hola Bryam,
I have the country stats. US, Italy, and Turkey are 1,2,3.
Nos vemos en la clase en linea!
PD
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