Also…..
Just about a week or so ago, I installed a site meter on my blog. Prior to that, (for the last three years!) I had no idea how many people were reading or why – unless they left a comment (which I love!). Other bloggers, of course, do this right away, but I just never did. I clicked around a few times to investigate this, but always clicked away feeling a little intimidated. (HTML and Cookies scare me.)
Now, I can check the site meter to see how many people have read the blog on a given day or week. I can also tell what part of the country or world they come from. Now, in case you wanted to remain anonymous, you will be relieved to know that I can’t tell exactly who you are or see your email address or anything like that, but I can tell if you’re from Kentucky, or Oregon, or Madrid. (Yep, several visitors from Madrid!?!) And when the site meter says that someone from Adliswil, Switzerland was reading, I can be fairly certain that it would be my friend Romy!
I am able to know things like I’ve had 1,449 visits to this site in the last week and a half, and I can click on a map of the world to see where they have come from – United States, Canada, and the United kingdom being the top three places. (Switzerland, you’re #5) Massachusetts, Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma are where the top U.S. visitors come from.
I can also see what “searches” people did to find my blog. Before installing the site meter, I would have guessed (hoped) those searches would be along the lines of – gluten free recipes, homeschooling or Jesus. So imagine my surprise and great dismay to discover that what brings people to my blog MOST OFTEN, from ALL OVER THE WORLD…..(Are you ready for this?)
is THIS post!
Oh. My. Goodness.
Of all things?!
Evidently gluten free recipe blogs, chronicles of chickens, blogs about homeschooling families, and heart-felt journaling about walking with Christ are just abounding out here in cyber-space, but information on early 70’s pop music artists are lacking??!!?? They DO have a show in Las Vegas last I heard, so why are people coming here to see them? And where, oh where will that photo of us be looked at and displayed? Oh….I’m so tempted to simply delete that post, but it was such a fun moment in our recent past, and this blog has turned into my answer to boxes of Creative Memories albums and tools that have been gathering dust in my basement for the last 8 years or so. It’s our story, and the archivist/photographer/journalist in me just can’t do it!
So, hopefully some unsuspecting person looking for Muskrat Love, will happen upon some other sort of love and encouragement here at Gluten Free Krums!
Other top searches that land people here were:
Five Aspects of Woman (My ALL TIME FAVORITE BIBLE STUDY!)
Cows Eating Morel Mushrooms and Grass
and last, but not least….
Wow! So funny, and not at all what I would have expected, or necessarily wanted, but oh well. The internet is an interesting (and scary, sometimes) place!
Even if you didn't see hits from Adliswil, you can be sure I am a faithful reader!
A tip on stat counters: make sure you block your own IP address so your own visits are not counted…
My heart sank a little when I saw what post it was – not that it's not a great post =)…but, you know…I was hoping for something like one of those great revelatory ones. I'm giggling to myself in spite of it.
And yes – I would love to see you soon too! Maybe we'll do a trip to Amherst late summer/fall with the baby, but if you come to Boston, please let me know! xo
Where did you get the traffic tracker Melanie??
I think you know I'm a faithful reader even without seeing hits from Adliswil, Switzerland! 😉
Just a tip – make sure you tell your site meter to exclude hits from your own IP address so that the count isn't skewed by your own visits. You can figure out what your IP address is by going to http://www.whatismyipaddress.com and then looking in the settings of your site meter to see where you can type in IP addresses to ignore.
It is rather scary all the info you can get from a blog tracker.