I missed my own blog birthday! On June 3, ARHtistic License turned five years old.

My goal for ARHtistic License is that it would be a place where creative people would come together to celebrate the arts and discuss the creative process. A year ago, AL had 683 subscribers; today it has 941, an increase of almost 38%. I’m happy about that growth. I’m on track to hit 1000 subscribers before the end of 2020. Are you a subscriber yet?

Here are the ten most popular posts on ARHtistic License in the past year, based on the number of “likes” they earned:

1. Hiking in the Arboretum
2. Tuesday Photo Challenge: Tourism
3. Creative Juice #188
4. Creative Juice #156
5. Creative Juice #159
6. Wordless Wednesday/ Flower of the Day: Lavender Daisies
7. Creative Juice #171
8. Sunday Trees/ Flower of the Day: Palo Verde Blossom
9. Flower of the Day: Palo Verde Blossoms
10. Wordless Wednesday/ Flower of the Day: Flowering Cactus

Nine of these posts fall in one of two categories: photo challenges and curated articles (Creative Juice). The outlier, “Hiking in the Arboretum,” is a photography-heavy post, more of a photo essay. So, should I focus on photography and reading recommendations, since these are the kinds of things that my readers apparently like? It would certainly free up a lot of my time, since those kinds of posts can be generated fairly quickly.

In contrast, here are what I consider to be some of my very best posts this year, in no particular order, which received very few likes:

• Franz Schubert
• Interview with Author Paul Mosier
• The Red Priest
• Quiz: Are You 65+ Years Old and Cool?
• Mathew Brady, the Father of Photojournalism
• An Interview with Vesna Taneva-Miller
• Why Writers Should Review Books
• I’d Rather Be Dancing Greek Folk Dances
• Common Misconceptions About Creativity
• Fra Angelico, the Angelic Friar
• Review of Crazy Brave: A Memoir, by Joy Harjo
• NaPoWriMo Day Eight: Starting with a Line from Sylvia

Are these articles dull? Should I avoid spending time on posts like these?

Please help me. What would you like to see more of on ARHtistic License? What would you like less of? If you read a blog post you like and there’s a “Like” button, do you click it? If not, why not? I’d love feedback on all the questions that appear in bold throughout this article. Please comment below.