This chart depicts WHERE the people who came by to read this blog today reside. The big majority, 88%, are from the U.S. A year ago this chart looked very different because only 57% of my readers were from the United States.
WHY the change? The difference can only be attributed to my more U.S.-centric posts. I feel somewhat sorry that I have become more obsessed with United States politics. There, no doubt, have been great stories from other nations that I neglected to write about. And because these other countries' names did not come up in any of my tags, foreign readers' interest diminished.
WHO still comes by? I continue to get a few readers from the racy Miss Welby site in Italy, and I have a regular loyal reader from Ireland. But the others get to South by Southwest via a hit/reference that was returned by a search engine, mainly Google.
WHEN does South by Southwest celebrate? Even though I still qualify as a "little blogger," like many other bloggers with egos, I mark a variety of Blogiversaries. Bobby F. was my 9000th visitor 13 months ago on 1/24/07. Today the 17,000th visit to this website was recorded by my SiteMeter. See the report:
Location
Continent : Europe
Country : United Kingdom (Facts)
State/Region : Bristol, City of
City : Bristol
Distance : 4,688 miles
Language English
Time of Visit Feb 22 2008 12:28:05 pm
Referring URL http://blogsearch.go...F-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wb
Search Engine blogsearch.google.com
Search Words obama clinton ticket
Visit Entry Page http://carol-sandy1....-to-dems-debate.html
Visit Exit Page http://carol-sandy1....-to-dems-debate.html
Visit Number 17,000
WHAT else is there to celebrate? Another thing I celebrate is that my a number of my favorite writers and bloggers are still posting away and making me smile. I am also continually amazed at the way search engines, big sources of my readers, work well for me. I am pleased to be relatively "optimized" as a source of information. And the following posts continue to return as hits in web searches over the years, or as posts featured by another site. I will call them The South by Southwest "All Stars."
- Some will be Hungry this Thanksgiving -- Yesterday's search term was "how does it feel to die from hunger").
- US News names America's best leaders -- The Google search term yesterday was "government leadership qualities." In recent days 8 older posts on leadership brought site visitors.
- Fifty Ways to Understand the "Protect America Act"This post was unique, and probably the one of which I am the most proud. It was almost original research.
- A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act primer Written in August of 2007, this post is a regular reference. A search today on "foreign intelligence surveillance act" turned it up as number 82, surprising given the increased interest in the subject in recent weeks.
- Friedman's Flat World -- This post has brought regular visitors for 2 1/2 years now.
- Condoleezza Rice's Iron -- This is a post written in 2005.
- Women are good communicators -- an oldie that regularly turns up in Google searches
So, today I have written my story, using the Five Ws, just as we learned in high school English. That takes me back to 1953. My, oh my!
View my current slide show about the Bush years, "Millennium," at the bottom of this column.
My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.
Technorati tags: best blogging current affairs google internet news thoughts
4 comments:
My 1st commandment of blogging - Quality will get read! Stupid will too, occasionally, as I have proven on mine.
Shame on all those readers that helped give you such good numbers, for not commenting! Naughty,naughty!:)
So, today I have written my story, using the Five Ws, just as we learned in high school English. That takes me back to 1953. My, oh my!
I was a year away from Kindergarten that year.:) 5 W's:
"Who, What, Where, When," and "Why"?:) I thought those had vanished from the face of the earth!
Future - What a great cheer leader you are. Thanks for your kind and supportive words, my friend.
You are about the age of my "baby sister."
BTW I have done my share of "stupid," too.
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and ....How! They gave us some good writing tips back then.
You and I have both been involved in American politics because these last seven Bush years have been so critical and dangerous. On the other hand, when readers come in from the global blogosphere to read us, they will see that not all Americans are not militaristic imperialists. We are ambassadors.
I just passed my three year blogging anniversary on Jan. 26th and soon I will write and post my 200th. I will include a statement of celebration on that one.
I've done some silly that's for sure. I did one comparing Karl Rove to Baby Huey cuz that is who he reminded me of.
KWW (Wow, two more Ws)
I do take that "ambassador" role seriously, though I still try not to edit myself too much. I think that, over time, you and I are rather steady in how we hew to our own voices. Our voices speak out rather differently, but from the same kind of hearts.
One of the reasons I read both you and "Future" is that both of you are so fierce. You say things in ways that give me courage to be less polite. And that is a real compliment, my friends.
I look forward to your 200th post, KWW.
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