This blog is officially a year old. A year on, Sitemeter reckons this blog has clocked up about 27,000 users, just over 2,000 a month. There seem to be about 250 subscribers.

It was always my intention to build this up as a media property, and then sell it on. An online auction should be the most effective method of disposal. Of course, I won’t keep writing for the blog (I plan a modest retirement on the proceeds of the sale).

What of the “readership” or “community,” you ask? I certainly wouldn’t sell up without ensuring that the “Adrian Monck” name remains a trusted brand in the world of unreliable media commentary.

OK, so I’m just kidding (although my wife did get briefly excited about the idea of my quitting). Still I do need to review what this blog is for.

At the Networked Journalism Summit I had an interesting chat with Tom Whitwell, communities editor of the Times (and a successful music blogger), where I disclosed my eight power strategies for keeping readers away from this blog:

1. No lists
2. No consistency
3. No playing to the Google Analytics numbers

OK, so that’s only three power strategies. But they seem to work. Whenever the blog has threatened to bubble into popularity, I’ve been able to intervene and bring it back down to earth.

The bottom line is, this blog – rather selfishly – serves my need to stay engaged with the news business. And as a way of leveraging selfishness, it’s not bad!