A year ago I added a stat counter to the blog. It counts:
- Pageloads - which is simply the number of times a browser opens the blog. It's meaningless because I could sit here all day and click refresh and the number would go up.
- Unique visitors - This counts all the visitors to the blog.
- Returning visitors - All who come to the blog more than once.
This is the "useless" page loads graph. Some days I'll have some odd place - New York, Canada, Germany - come to my blog 200 times. The visits are likely not real humans. I've noticed many blogs show the page loads on their blog. The numbers are highly inflated and fake. I'm sure they are the same guys who add several inches when talking about their anatomy. (The W's along the bottom are for "week." These graphs are from week 46 of 2008 when I installed the stat tracker to week 46 of 2009 which ended this past weekend.)
Here are the unique visitors per week. For reasons I don't understand the blog became much more popular four weeks ago and set a record of 660 visitors last week.
The number of returning visitors is more predictable. Last week I had 336 returning visitors. That doesn't mean I have 336 regular readers because someone who checks the blog every day would count 7 times. Since I know some check once or twice a week and others only at work, it's hard to know how many actual regular readers there are.
Here are the unique visitors per week. For reasons I don't understand the blog became much more popular four weeks ago and set a record of 660 visitors last week. 
The number of returning visitors is more predictable. Last week I had 336 returning visitors. That doesn't mean I have 336 regular readers because someone who checks the blog every day would count 7 times. Since I know some check once or twice a week and others only at work, it's hard to know how many actual regular readers there are.And finally, here's a look at returning readers on a daily basis for the past two months.
Looks like huge variation from one day to the next, right? Each Saturday blog readership is down almost 50% from the weekdays... so a daily chart will look like steep mountains.
What does any of this mean? I don't know. The blog has tremendously helpful for me. Living in the UAE can be a lot of fun but it can also be stressful. Blogging has become my way of processing my world. I've never been able to stick with a journal or diary and I'm surprised I've kept at this for 15 months. The stat tracker has helped. I don't need millions thousands hundreds of readers to be happy but it's good to know a few people read it.
I'm one of your daily visitors! :)
ReplyDeleteI am a unique visitor but I can promise you that I won't be returning. This is just crap.
ReplyDeleteI'm often a daily visitor - but since I rarely shut my computer down and generally just leave up the sites I go to regularly - I don't think that counts? Unless it counts when I'm hitting refresh?
ReplyDeleteKarey, click on my stat counter and click around their site to find how it can be added to yours. I can't find it any more on blogger (where I had it installed.)
ReplyDeleteTo Sandy's question of, "Does it really count me everyday if I leave my computer on?" I don't know. Since I have two computers that go to the blog I've been able to run that test and the answer is sometimes I count and sometimes I don't. If there's a rational reason I can't find it. In Stat Tracker's website info it says you are logged as a new visitor (returning) if you leave the blog and refresh after a few hours. Again, for me that is sometimes true sometimes not.
I've given up trying to understand the nuance of a stat counter, but I do like the general information it tells... few read the blog on weekends... If I post to Facebook I can expect a 50 hit bump, etc.
i'm gonna make my own journal
ReplyDelete