stats

#FOWC — Down But Not Out

Fandango24 Comments

1E5FB4E1-E8E7-4829-9CBE-D644DD5067B0My page views yesterday were down by nearly 50% from what they were just four days ago. After a cursory review of possible causes, I came to the conclusion that my duties as a tour guide for my out-of-town guests resulted in my writing fewer posts yesterday, posting fewer responses to comments people made on those posts, and reading and commenting on fewer posts by other bloggers.

In fact, I was so busy entertaining our guests that I even forgot to write a post in response to my own one-word prompt, “cursory.”

But far be it from me to allow my precipitous drop in page views yesterday cause me to feel woebegone. Oh no, I’m going to make that feeling of woe be gone. I’m going to plant my feet squarely on the ground, and take my guests on the best tour of San Francisco today that one can imagine.

5330D350-810F-4AD5-B29B-6F7C47F060A1I’ll be like that ant in the fairy tale that my Great Aunt Sally used to read to me. The one about the little ant carrying a huge load many times its size and storing up food for the long, cold winter while the grasshopper sings and fiddles away the summer, leaving it having to beg the ant for help.

(I realize that this Aesop fable, “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” seems to be a bit out of context here, but I had to figure out a way to use the words “great aunt” and “ant” in order to complete Teresa’s Three Things Challenge.)

Written for today’s Word of the Day Challenge, “woebegone,” for Teresa’s Three Things Challenge, where the three things are great aunt, ant, and plant, and for yesterday’s Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, “cursory.”

One-Liner Wednesday — Deep Thoughts

Fandango24 Comments

BE3EFD51-64C3-4B3F-9D91-833E75A99FB0

“It is better to speak profoundly to just one than to blather at a world of idiots.”

Suze who blogs at “Suziland Too or Obsolete Childhood”

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I bemoaned how my blog stats were recently in a nosedive. I admit that I was being a bit whiny, and that’s when Suze put me in my place. She commented, “It is better to speak profoundly to just one than to blather at a world of idiots…yes, you can quote me.”

To which, knowing that today, Wednesday, is Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt, I replied, “I just may do that. Stay tuned!”

I thought that Suze’s highly inspirational and motivational one-liner perfectly fit the bill for this prompt. I believe that Suze was telling me that

  1. I shouldn’t give quantity a higher priority than quality,
  2. most of my posts are nothing more than me blathering on about nothing,
  3. most of the people who read my blog are idiots,
  4. all of the above, or
  5. none of the above.

In any event, I thought Suze’s comment was, in and of itself, profound. Unfortunately, she has now set the bar quite high for me because I feel as though it’s incumbent upon me to come up with something profound to post about.

Omigod, where is Jack Handey when I need him?3A9F642F-96FA-47D1-8E56-1EB1EA37F669

 

Nosedive

Fandango35 Comments

A9C0F1DF-22D8-4CD3-A586-7F62125DED60It’s not that I pay all that much attention to my blog’s stats or anything. I mean, they are what they are, you know what I’m saying? And like every other blogger out there, I don’t blog for the stats. Or so we all claim. (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)

Still, when I see a precipitous drop off in the number of daily views over a four day span, it is a bit disconcerting to me. Have I lost my touch? Too many uncaught typos? Is my sense of humor failing? Are my opinions too extreme? Am I being too political? Or not political enough?

Are my posts too short? Too long? Too serious? Not serious enough? Do I need more pictures? Fewer pictures? Am I using too many curse words? Am I being too risqué?

Oh wait. I just checked my stats again.B2A3CB78-D616-4A82-A9CC-79D27226E9B2Never mind.

Tending Down (Take Two*)

Fandango12 Comments

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You’re no doubt familiar with the philosophical riddle, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

I have a slight variation on that philosophical riddle. “If you publish a post and hardly anyone reads it, does it matter?”

Why should I spend my time thinking about and writing posts that few people read when I could invest that same time and effort doing something that does matter?

I’m proud of what I write. In fact, just the act of writing what I believe to be high quality posts is all that really ought to matter. Having said that, though, I do admit that it’s reinforcing to know that others read what I’ve written, like what I’ve written, and comment on it.

So the question is, should blog stats be the proxy for blogging success?

I try not obsess over my blog’s stats. In fact, I rarely even check my stats. Not more than 15 to 20 times a day, anyway. I check them to see whether or not what I’m writing and posting is being seen by, and resonates with, others.

The good news is that some people do read my blog. The bad news is that fewer people are reading my blog now than they were a few months back.

I started this blog in late May and slowly gained an audience. But, as you can see from the chart below, my views peaked in August, dropped in September, and dropped yet again in October. And what’s even more disconcerting, comments dropped considerably from September to October.

 

Blog Stats

Should I be concerned about this downward trend? Good question.

Each of us, as bloggers, has our own definition of success. We use certain metrics — blog stats, perhaps — to measure success. It may be the number of posts you’ve published. Perhaps it’s the number of views or likes your posts get.

Maybe your primary measure of your blog’s success is your number of followers. Or the number of comments your posts generate.

I admit that views, likes, and comments do matter to me. And the more I get, the better I feel. At least it let’s me know that someone besides me appreciates my efforts.

But, again, are my blog’s stats the best proxy for me to be using? What do you think?

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “proxy.”

*This is “take two” because the first effort somehow got lost in the ether. How does that happen?

They Love Me in India

Fandango27 Comments

Image result for India flag

Just for grins and giggles, I looked over my blog’s stats for July. As expected, most of my views, fully half, came from the United States, my country, ’tis of thee. However, the country where another 28% of my blog’s views last month originated was India. INDIA!

Huh? I did not expect that.

I wanted to see if this was an anomaly, so I checked my stats for August, which, admittedly, is only four days old. What I found was that, so far, 53% of my views came from my home country, but 26% were, again, from India.

Seriously?

I figured that, outside of the US, most of my views would be from other English speaking countries like the UK, Australia, or Canada. But no. In July, only 7.6% were from the UK, 4.4% from Australia, and less than 1% from Canada.

What the hell, Canada? I have more views from Russia than from Canada. (Shh. Don’t tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller.)

It’s pretty much the same so far in August, with 10.9% from the UK, 4.2% from Australia and, again, less than 1% from Canada. Seriously Canada?

If someone from India is reading this post, please help me understand why I have so many readers from India. I’ve never ever been to India and going there is not high on my personal bucket list. So why?

What about all of you? From which countries are you posts getting the most views? Take a look at your WordPress stats. You might be surprised.