by G. Jack Urso
On Saturday, August 29, 2026, Aeolus 13 Umbra hit two million individual page visits. To put that in context, it took 14 years to hit one million, but just 17 months to hit two million. At the
present rate of page visits, the blog hit three million in about 12 months. While
the number is perhaps not as impressive as an influencer’s blog or a published
author’s, it’s not too bad for an academically-oriented history and literary journal.
The
main contributing posts towards the number of hits are much the same as
reviewed in Aeolus 13 Umbra: ONE MILLION HITS! While a broad range of topics are reviewed, over
time, a trend towards chronicling mid-Twentieth century social history with
multimedia content has emerged.
Some things that are unique for the
blog include that of the hundreds and hundreds of videos embedded or linked to
in the articles all are hosted on one of over a dozen Ae13U YouTube channels (see Media Links on left). There is nothing more frustrating than
finding an article with a clip of a video that is a dead link. Of the hundreds
of videos posted, only one is off-site and that is from PBS.
Another feature is how the text is laid out and formatted. Nearly all the posts are double-spaced, and all have justified
margins and a larger text size, 14-point rather than the default 12-point size.
Instead of the standard left aligned text, justified margins,
where both ends of the line are aligned to the left and right margins, are used. Most
people just skim text and do not read every word. If the margins are justified,
then the eye will more likely follow along until the end of the line. Left
aligned margins, which produce a ragged, uneven end to the lines, reinforce the
natural tendency to skim text while margin justification engages the eye and
helps maintain focus.
Additionally, the blog and YouTube
channels are not monetized. The main reason is that ads ruin the aesthetic of
the design, such as it is, and the page already has a lot of imagery, but also when trying to get an interview with a
noted individual (and I have done dozens for this blog), the lack of ads means
that my interest in an interview subject is based on a sincere interest in
their work, rather than how much money can earned from ad revenue.
Special thanks to all my readers for
joining me in this journey and making it successful!
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