New Jersey Fishing Online
Hard, clear ice you can see though is like the best writing on fishing you’ll find on the web. Writing that, instead of being self-conscious of its status as “content,” puts you on the spot while you read.
The Web is Like a Landscape
To write about New Jersey fishing online, more specifically the work I do as a blogger on fishing, might not seem relevant to my Literature and Philosophy category, but if philosophy is—in some respect—an overview of existence, then an overview of my blog posts as they appear on the web isn’t too far removed. Even though I’ll offer up a relative few examples. After all, if a map designates places in existence, then certainly the internet is like that. At least, it is with regard to locations, and fishing in New Jersey is largely about where to go.
While writing for Litton’s Fishing Lines, I began to notice that not only big-name places like the South and North Branch Raritan, Lake Hopatcong, and Merrill Creek Reservoir gave particular blog posts residence. Especially, relatively small spots gave me the distinct sense of the internet as like a landscape.
Little Nooks are Worth Serving
It felt special to me, not only that my post “Three Bridges to Higginsville” ranked on Google, as it still does after almost nine years, but that a very few people click on that post and perhaps some of them read it. In the last 10 months—since I bought my own domain for Litton’s Fishing Lines—the post has had five clicks. Google Search Console informs me of how many clicks I’m getting on a per-post basis. In addition to the date of each click, GSC shows how many impressions each post gets. An impression happens when a post is visible during a search but not clicked on. I always think, well, at least they see my name, but it’s not like people who don’t read my posts are going to buy my book. And besides, the truth about my motive as a blogger has almost nothing more to do with writing a book than that my wife thought it a good idea.
I think it’s laughable to blog for the sole purpose of getting readers to buy books. I created Litton’s Fishing Lines because my wife said I needed a blog, if I was going to get a book published. But honestly, what drove me though almost 15 years of blogging was inherent to the love of writing itself. It’s not like, every time I opened my Blogger dashboard, I had my book in mind. Never. If you’re writing either a blog or a book and don’t write for the love of it, you’re moved by something other than what moves me, and I don’t understand it.
One source I don’t remember has informed me that websites have lost about 60% of their traffic to Artificial Intelligence—so five clicks after nine years of doing better before AI took over. Even so, that post never got hit hard, which is the beauty of it.
It’s a nice little quiet spot.
Another post almost nine years old is “Roy Bridge.” I never expected it to show up in searches. I wrote it as one of the many posts I expected only my regular followers to enjoy. But it, too, ranks on Google, and a handful of selective readers interested in that Big Flatbrook spot—I’m hoping—are among the few who have clicked on the post and read it. In the past 10 months, it’s had no clicks, and I have no record of clicks older than 10 months. “Bedminster Wild Brown” is from November, 2022, ranks, and has had one click in the last 10 months. It, too, is special in the way of serving specific locale, namely the North Branch Raritan at Bedminster.
Just Because a Website Appears in Your Search Doesn’t Mean It’s Getting Traffic
Many people think that because a website mentions a place like Three Bridges, that place is spot burned, because hundreds of people are motivated by the website to go there. I use the Squarespace platform, and only 15.1% of Squarespace websites generate any organic Google traffic, not because something’s wrong with Squarespace—my site generates organic Google traffic—but because it’s inherently difficult to have visitors find your site and have them click on it. About two or three of a hundred who find a site, click on it. And of those who do click on it, the likelihood is that only some actually read it.
I’ve got some place-specific posts out there since I began the new website in October, and I’ve had a handful of clicks. “Twin Lakes Ice Fishing” has had a click. A Couple of Surprises uses the Seach Engine Optimization title feature, to name the Paulinskill and North Branch Raritan, and I’ve done Google searches to see the post where it shows up. So far, only eight impressions and no clicks, but since I recently changed the SEO title so the post will appear in searches for trout fishing in those two rivers, I expect more. “Round Valley Pond Ice Fishing” names a limited spot and has had two clicks. “Stanton Stretch Yields a Nice One" has had a click.
Why Do It?
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver wrote that if she had no means of publication, she’d write novels and just put them in a drawer. It’s not for everyone to write. It’s not even for everyone to understand that writers who do it for the love of writing may be the better writers. And just because they’re better doesn’t mean they’re read more than others.
I value my audience. I’ve valued them from the very beginning of my blogging, and from before I blogged but wrote for the magazines. I can’t tell you how I grateful I am that Litton’s Fishing Lines had a such a large following who became my inherited audience for the new website. Back when I began Litton’s Fishing Lines in 2011, it was relatively easy to rank on Google, and I immediately begin to draw an interested following. One of my regular readers told me he loves a good fishing story that speaks directly to him. My brother David has read some of the posts and says I put him right there.
Now things are very different. Artificial Intelligence has usurped so many Google searches. And it’s much harder to rank well, now that so many additional websites have come into existence since 15 years ago. Imagine if I didn’t have you guys supporting me, when I changed from the old blog to the new website you read now? You guys gave the new site its authority. And any women in the audience. All your visits the Googlebot has registered—every one of your visits has given the site authority. Imagine if I were just starting out. I’d be one of the 84.9% of Squarespace site owners who get zero traffic.
Blogging has been very fulfilling for me. Certain posts exist, like “Fishing Salmon Eggs for Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout,” and “Catching Smallmouth Bass in Streams and Small Rivers” that I have enjoyed as having done outrageously well, but they’re not specific to place like a few others: “Shipetuakln Creek,” “Millington Gorge Passaic River Trout,” and “South Branch Raritan Stocking at Neshanic” make the web like a geography of land and water.