Saturday, April 26, 2008

Who are you people? Part 2

About a month ago, I wrote a blog entry about the “hits” that my blog gets. At the time, I was just checking out my cluster map to see how many visitors a day I get. After some comments…I added both sitemeter and neocounter. Because I want to know who comes to this site. And who actually reads my ramblings. I mean, who are you people?

Neocounter is really cool because it tells you total visitors from each country. At first I had a city counter…but if I wanted to continue to use it after the trial, I’d have to pay for it. Ummm…the rivers of cash from Amazon and ads are in a drought…so, the free version is what I use. I’m always amused to see new countries added to the Neocounter. Just added Saudia Arabia today. I have actually had to look up one country: Montenegro.

Montenegro is a country on the Adriatic bordering Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Albania. See:
I have had visitors from 31 countries. Who are you people? You’ll notice that there are a lot of countries with just one visitor. That means they didn’t come back. Perhaps it was a mistake when they stumbled into my patch of the internet. The only international that has posted on my blog with any sort of regularity is Lorna from Socks and books – she is in Denmark. But what about the hits from Australia? Or The Netherlands? Or England? Who are you people?

Now, Sitemeter allows me to go to a whole new level of obsession with my blog statistics. I can see how many people are on my site at a certain time…how many hits per hour…the number of page views…how long they stayed…and where they came from. I can see if they jumped over here from another site. Or, what becomes endlessly fascinating are the Google searches that are done. Oh, wait. Let me clarify. Endlessly fascinating. To me.

There are some “normal” searches that yield hits to Sunshine and Lemonade: book searches – someone looking for previews of “Lover Enshrined” and “Brisingr.” Lots of people looking for reviews of “Body Drama.” Then there are recipe searches – for Irish Soda bread or chicken cordon bleu. And more recently, people have searched for “sick Japanese Maples” and “Japanese Maple Farms in Georgia.”

There are strange google searches. Like for poison spiders. Or four day old diaper. Why would someone do a search for that?! And I have had my first “porn” hit. They were searching…with a variation on the words “Katie Cooks.” Not exactly spelled the same way. Which makes me curious. If they were looking for “cooks”—why would they actually click on my blog. It’s *obviouisly* not what they wanted to find. But they looked anyway. Just in case. And that search has been done twice. I don’t really want to know who these people are.

Really…who are the rest of you? Come on, click on comments and say “hello.” Stop lurking. Blog lurking. Blurking. Stop it. You know you want to say “hi” or “hola.” Or whatever. Pretty please. Or I might have to find another stat counter. And obsess a little more.


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16 comments:

Rhea said...

The site counter is both a blessing and curse. I love seeing where people come from, what site refers them, how long they stay, etc...but then I start to obsess even more and it doesn't give me enough info!

The Google searches are hilarious...and scary.

Heather said...

Yes, I find the site counters intriguing as well. I obsess over mine daily. Well, I didn't waste any time lurking. Nope. I proudly stand up and say I am Heather and I love your blog.

The Joye of Teaching said...

i stalk your blog- but you know me- in Memphis, TN- not so mysterious :)

Julie said...

Since the name of my blog is Causes Rats in Laboratory Cancer -- which is what I say to my kids when they want me to buy them PopTarts and other non-food food (rats in lab cancer instead of the other way around because my family is very good at mangling words and sentences...) -- I get endless hits about lab rats, cancer, photos of lab rats, photos of cancer in lab rats, funny laboratory photos, how to give rats cancer, and so on.

I am with you -- I don't get why they bother to click through, since it's obvious sometimes I cannot be what they are looking for.

I think I stumbled across your blog through a Thursday Thirteen...

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

I am so glad that I am not alone in my obsession. I think I am on the sitemeter site just as often as my own blog. Rhea, you are right...blessing and curse. And Julie - you are right...why do they click on the link?! It's funny the hits that people get because I have written the words they are searching for...but not necessarily together!

Anonymous said...

Neocounter looks fun! I'll have to check that out, though I can spend a lot of time checking stats. It's fascinating. I get hits from far out places and I wonder why in the world....
Search terms are always interesting too although I get a lot for homeschool stuff and I come to your blog from the WTM boards. I just don't comment a lot (there's only so many hours in the day!)

Debbie said...

That is hilarious. I too "review" my stats. But I use Statcounter to see where people come from and if they come back. Sitemeter doesn't give me all that info. Are you using the free one or the paid one??

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Debbie--I just added the stat counter. I now have four counters! I am truly obsessed :-) What I find interesting is that don't all say the same thing.

Anonymous said...

You are cracking me up with your sitemeter obsession. You've got all kinds of recon work going on... I love it!! It is weird knowing people are blurking and not showing there true identity. Who are they? Why won't they surface? Hee Hee! Your worst nightmare has blurked around the corner... yet another tag! See my latest post for the rules. :) ~Jill

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Jill--I know...crazy, huh?! It was actually our email exchange that sparked me to write about this *again.* I really do want to know. It's kinda like puzzles and riddles. I don't want to think about the answer...I just want to know what it is.

I'll be heading over to your site for my tag...

Anonymous said...

Hello. I found you on the WTMBoards and have been coming here every day just to let your playlist run in the background while I do other things. I'm too cheap to download the songs myself.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Rose--welcome! I am so glad that you decided to say hello. I had no idea that my musical tastes would be a draw. You know you can get a playlist for free? Even if you do, I hope you'll still come by to "hear" my ramblings...

Jen said...

I'm obsessed with my hits too - it's a sickness for sure!

Unknown said...

I've been noticing a lot of hits on my recipes and other stuff.

But they never say anything, not even 'I tried your recipe and it sucked' ...

Sheeesh...

Rhea said...

I don't know who I am. Really. It's still a mystery to me.

Unknown said...

Well ... we all stopped lurking :-)