Happy Blogiversary

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. / Comments

May 15, 2010 will be the one year anniversary of Tristan's Landlord-Tenant Law Blog.  I thought I would use this occassion to post some interesting data that I have learned about my blog over the past year - thank you Google Analytics.

When I first began this project I did not know what to expect.  I have been overwhelmed by the blog's popularity and the support of its readers over the last 12 months.  My initial hope was to create a site that landlords and property managers could go to to learn more about landlord-tenant law in Wisconsin.  It was also my hope that this blog would allow for those of us who own rental properties to discuss best practices and to learn from each other.  I think these two goals have been achieved, and then some.

As I write this post, there are currently 111 posts that viewers can read covering all aspects of landlord tenant law including: new legislation affecting the rental housing industry, new case law that has changed Wisconisn landlord tenant law, discussions about best management practices including how to legally serve a 5 day notice and how to draft a 21 day letter (statement of how security deposit was applied), fair housing/discrimination law, upcoming seminars on topics of interest to landlords and much much more.

There have been over 233 comments posted about the 111 blog posts.  With an average of over 2 comments per post it seems as though there has been at least some discussion about the topics that are important to the readers.

Since going live, there have been over 17,000 visits to Tristan's Landlord-Tenant Law Blog.  During those 17,000 + visits over 42,375 pages have been viewed.  When visiting my blog people spend an average of 2 minutes and 38 seconds on the site and view an average of 2.47 posts.

Of those 17,000 + visits, over 16,400 of them came from visitors within the United States.  The site has also received visits from readers in England, Canada, India, Austrailia, the Philippines, Ireland, and Mexico.

Over the past 12 months, the most popular blog posts have been:

1.   Late Fees-Part 1: What Amount Can You Legally Charge?

2.   Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Form: You Must Use This Document

3.   How To Legally Serve A 5-Day Notice To Pay Rent or Vacate

4.   Suing An Ex-Tenant For Past Due Rent: What Factors To Consider

5.   SSN Validator: Free Website That Allows You To Verify A Social Security Number.

Just this past month I have started to receive several "pingbacks."  I had to call my IT guru to efind out what the heck a pingback is, but I learned that they are a good thing.  Essentially a pingback is someone linking to your blog - a sign that you have some useful content.

To give you an idea of how the blog has grown since its debut, during its first full month only 28 people visited the site.  The next month that number jumped to 731.  Last month there were over 2,221 visits to the blog. 

I realized the value of this blog one day when I was sitting in Eviction Court in Milwaukee County and overheard one landlord talking to another and telling him about my landlord-tenant law blog that he needed to check out because it contained some helpful information.  A few days later, I was approached by a Legal Action attorney said that she appreciated the information on the blog because she felt that it was important to get the correct information out to the public.

One unexpected bonus that has occurred as a result of this blog is that I have been able to use some of my posts to assist my current clients.  I have started providing clients with links to certain blog posts to emphasize a point that I made to them during a consultation.  Being able to provide a client with the basic law about a particular topic that we just discussed has been much appreciated.  They can then print out the post and refer back to it in the future.

Along with the good, there has some bad.  After one recent post dealing with the City of Milwaukee's plan to enact a new ordinance requiring mandatory rental inspections, I was flamed by another blogger.  My skin is pretty thick so this didn't bother me too much although I still have difficulty comprehending that the same person who will rant and rave to high heaven on the internet and call you every name under the sun and attack you personally, would never have the nerve to say things to your face.  Just read some of the comments that people post on the journal Sentinel blogs -- WOW.  Hiding under an anonymous screen name seems to give some people carte blanche to act without consideration or foresight.

Even worse than being flamed myself, was the fact that a friend of mine was also flamed because he was attempting to assist me on a technical matter beyond my grasp.  My friend uploaded a flyer that had been distributed on the east side of Milwaukee and which contained some very outrageous rhetoric against the proposed ordinance.  Because I did not yet know how to upload a document and then link to it on my blog, I needed some assistance.  Unfortunately, it was spread across the blogosphere (OK just the Milwaukee blogosphere) that my friend was the author of the flyer - which was not the case - just because he was the person that uploaded the document. 

Over the past year however, that was the only sour moment related to my blog that comes to mind.  For the most part I have enjoyed publishing this blog and hope to continue doing so as long as it continues to be helpful to others. 

I have learned much about myself during this past year as a blogger.  First, I have learned that I am not as fast of a writer as I thought I was - my fiancee will testify to this as she has watched me sit in front of my computer for hours only to have a short blog post to show for all of my work.  She has often had to encourages me to turn off the #%@* computer and come to bed.  Second, I have learned that I actually do procrastinate (at least I do when it comes to writing a blog post).  Third, I have also learned that while I type fast for a guy with no training, I do not type accurately.  This sad fact dawns on me time and time again each morning as I sit with my bowl of Kashi cereal proofreading the post that I drafted the night before.   While I actually do proof read my posts multiple times - I still find many typos and grammatical errors.

While I have been pleasantly surprised with the success of this blog, I by no means plan to sit back on my laurels and stagnate.  If you have any suggestions of topics for future posts please let me know.  I would like to tell the reader who faxed me months ago and asked me to write a post about how a tenant's bankruptcy filing affects the eviction process, that I have not forgotten about you.  While I often cannot post as frequently as I would like -- that darn "work" thing seems to get in the way -- I most certainly am willing to write about topics and issues that are of particular interest to you.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone that has visited my blog this past year, and especially the 80 of you that are currently subscribed to my blog.  Without your interest and readership, this blog would just be another lawyer spouting a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo.