(This photo has nothing to do with this post. It’s a picture I took of an orchid in Costa Rica!)
This post is strictly informational and may be of use to bloggers generally.
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Who reads your blog? What brings them to your site? What are they looking for? Where do they live? How many retuning visitors do you have? After blogging for nearly three years, these kinds of statistics continue to fascinate me.
Early on, we started using sitemeter, a reliable gadget that dutifully collects the kinds of information mentioned above. But there’s some information on sitemeter – like full ISPs – that only available if you pay $6.95 a month. Granted, that’s not a whole lot of money for the information you get. And for the price, sitemeter retains info on your last 4,000 hits. Several days ago, I ran across something even better than sitemeter – and it’s free. It’s called Stat Counter and here’s a list of its free features.
It goes on your dashboard, is invisible to your visitors, and is easy to use. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it until this morning. I glanced at the beautifully laid out graph – and nearly gagged on my coffee. Yesterday, the blog received nearly 1,100 hits. I quickly went down the list of categories on StatCounter, trying to find out what was going out. Obviously, the blog had been mentioned somewhere.
The first thing I discovered was that most of these hits were coming to a particular post. It’s one of the classic synchros, and we posted it way back in 2009. I eventually traced the hits to a mention on tumblr.
OK, I was now dutifully impressed that one mention on a blogging platform that I’d heard of had resulted in so many hits. So, this evening I spent a few hours playing around with tumblr, trying to figure out how I would set up a blog. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who uses this platform. My sense is that to customize a tumblr blog, you have to use “simple” HTML or custom coding. That’s great, if you understand HTML code, which I don’t, or know how to custom code, which I don’t.
WordPress is complicated enough for me. I must admit there are days when I long for the simplicity of blogger, for its versatility and ease of use. No code. That said, tumblr had supposedly surpasses WordPress for the number of blogs it has – 20 million and counting. Maybe it’s time to take a course in HTML code!
I enjoy my community that has been created because of blogging. Not only my own, but also the others that appeal to me. I have stat counter but really don’t use it all that much, it’s interesting but I’m looking for quality, not quantity. The worst thing I can imagine is becoming a Blog of Note on Blogger! I’ve seen that ruin some of my favorite blogs.
And I learned HTML when it was all you could use to create a website. I had to learn it at work and I took advantage of the first early editors at the first opportunity. Occasionally, though, I peek at the HTML code on my blog if something weird is happening on my site and the answer is usually immediately obvious.
WordPress is superior in every way except ease of use, IMHO.
You’re fortunate that you can peek at the HTML code on your blog and understand what it means!
So it turns out jut about everyone already knew about stat counter!
Scariest of all, after I was let go from my last job, I noticed that someone from my work had spent 6 hours of work time going through every single post for the previous year. They were looking for incriminating evidence and I did write plenty about certain people there, so I privatized my blog for awhile.
One friend of mine thinks its an invasion of privacy to have a tracker, but I don’t know WHO is doing the searching, just that someone did and where they are doing it from. Its interesting to learn what people around the world are searching for. Its a tiny sample, but it gives an idea of what ideas are resonating with people. Its good info to know, I think. Especially if someone is very interested in what you wrote (such as my previous employers), so you can protect yourself if needs be (by hiding certain posts or privatizing the blog for awhile).
I remember when your blog went private for awhile. You were smart to leave that job!
I’ve also seen my blog translated into Italian, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian and Japanese by readers using a translator function. Very interesting to read my words in another language!
Very cool!!
I’ve also been surprised that some of the freakiest searches are from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms. I don’t know why they find my blog through the searches, but let’s just say that their interests would shock Americans and probably get them executed in their home countries!
The hits from Saudi we’ve gotten have been hilarious!
I love the statcounter! I started my blog in January 2007 but didn’t ad a tracker until May 2008. Since then, I’ve already surpassed 250,000 hits. Its interesting the amount of data I’ve been able to collect from reading the stat data. I had found out through my stat data that Eartha Kitt died because there was a spike in hits on post I had written on her, so I Google searched and found out the news. Its also interesting when people in different parts the world Google search on the same topic at nearly the same time. For instance, lately, there have been several hits in Jamaica about my post on marriage “outlasting it’s purpose.” I saw that someone in Memphis had Google-searched about Navy housing in La Maddalena, Sardinia. I suspected that it was a Chief Petty Officer I had worked for, so I had posted a comment on his Facebook asking if he was Google-searching that. He was surprised that I knew!
I’ve seen hits from CIA headquarters, the FBI, Congress, the White House, Xe (Blackwater), the NSA, various governors offices, state legislatures, the mayor of Portland’s office, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Delta, and other places. I even saw a hit on a post I wrote about Palin from Wasilla, Alaska. Think it might’ve been Sarah checking on my blog?
The #1 post of all time, though, is the one I wrote about drugs being “the devil’s candy”…and boy has that gotten me some nasty comments! Thanks to the statcounter, I even learned that someone in France and in Mexico had plagiarized a novel excerpt I had posted on my blog. My guess is that they used my work for their college course assignment and the professors did a search on a plagiarism website on a long passage from my work. I was actually flattered that someone would actually do something like that!
I can’t imagine not having a stat counter on a blog, because you really learn a lot about people’s search habits. For instance, one consistent search I’ve seen from many countries around the world is the following question people are asking Google: “Is the Adjustment Bureau real?” Apparently, that movie is hitting people at a deep enough level that they are wondering if its possible that something like that can be true, and they are hitting my blog posts about the movie. Awesome! Love it!
I wish we’d known about stat counter earlier. We’ve had some weird hits, too, from various gov’t agencies. It also seems that Googlebot is searching much more frequently than they did last year….sometimes that bot comes on a dozen times a time. We had a couple hits form Wasilla, too, after
doing something on Palin.
Interesting about the plagiarized stuff, Nicholas.
i get tons of googlebot hits every day – every day –
You’ve gotten your share of gov’t visits, too, right?
I don’t think I’ll be doing anything for awhile. I miss having the energy to blog. The idea of learning HTML or any code makes me want to nap (not out of boredom). Like Nancy, I don’t do linkedin…. heck, I am having problems with the facebook changes!
Even though I haven’t blogged in months, the reindeer goddess material is still getting solid, steady hits according to sitemeter. Allot from Siberia and Russia. I have no idea what they think about the material, though.
I think Nook reader is offering an HTML 5 textbook for free.
I miss new posts on your reindeer material! Fascinating that the hits are coming from Siberia and Russia.
I know I should care more, but I don’t. I write what I think will be of interest to people, and what interests me, figuring if people want to read it they will, otherwise they will find other blogs more in tuned with their interests. I have noted, however, that Google seems to love it. Yesterday it was the first two options when I entered Life In The Second Half, and their bots are constantly reading it. Being Blog of Note helped with that, I think. Otherwise, I guess I’m a bit of a Luddite. I do not have Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. As for learning HTML – I don’t thing that will happen anytime soon. (Ask Jen.)
I think most of us write about what interests us. Otherwise, really, what’s the point?? And you’re no Luddite, Nancy!
When I started I didn’t always write about what interested me. As the aim was then (but not now) to make money I chose popular subjects … dare I say it … even celebrities!
I recall you mentioning the celeb blog. Did you make $ through ads?
Yes through ads and also with paid reviews.
oops – that should be “off now” and not “off not” in the beginning of my comment above –
I’ve never used / tried tumblr but basic HTML isn’t too difficult. In the past I have set up blogs using my own code – but nothing too fancy.
Well done on those hits. When I first started blogging (to earn money), if I could leave a link anywhere I would do so. You never know who might see it and might just do a link to your blog or post. I had a link into 67notout from Fox News a few months back and that brought in a huge amount of visits. Not sure if they were ‘quality’ hits but it made the stats look good for a few days.
Fox news – not sure if they were quality! I laughed out loud at that one.
ok – so off not to check out stat counter – thanks so very much for the info – i’ve no interest at all in learning the html thing – which is why i’ve stuck with bogger for so long – and i love the aesthetics available in the different templates at blogger which i’ve not found with any of the other blogging sites – there are other things at blogger too that force me to stay – as you mentioned, the ease of operation is a major plus – but am always interested in looking at other possibilities just to see what’s out there –
really odd [or not] your post today because yesterday i jotted down 2 different things i noticed on my sitemeter results – on one blog i discovered 16-20 searches almost in a row and just a few hours apart for “wild flowers” from around the globe – in a 30 hour period of time – on another blog, one person from another country went to the same exact post more than 10 times in a 24hr period of time [without leaving a comment] –
Wild flowers? Wonder what that’s about??
i know – very weird, to me –
I started my blog in 2007, to document a summer fellowship I had for an art project. But being able to keep such a journal, share it with my friends, and post pictures and links was such an enormous gift, that the blog became an art form for me along the way. I’m always amazed that anyone reads my meanderings, but very grateful for the friends I’ve made along the way.
It is strange though what posts get the most traffic. My all time high was a post called “green caterpillar synchronicity”. Who would have thuoght green caterpillars are apparently so interesting to people.
I loved that green caterpillar synchro!
It’s always good to learn a new skill so if learning HTML code floats your boat, have at it. I’ve done it, it’s really easy when you figure it out but I don’t worry about it anymore as I was blogging professionally before the term was coined. I’ve had stat counter for a while and it’s interesting what search terms bring a reader to a previous post. “Johnny Castle edge” was a big one. 😀
Bloggers do so for a variety of reasons but the audience of a blog is a different kettle of transitory fish. Regardless of the statistics, it will always be the content of the blog that will make the difference. Audience is a fickle mistress.
Johnny Castle! Very weird.