Blogography

                                                     

It's the weekend so I thought I'd do a little "contemplate my navel" thing and write a bit of my blogging life.  I was notified recently that I've again been nominated this year for the "Coolest SOB In The Conservative Blogosphere".  I appreciate the support but don't expect to win.  According to my Alexa score I am relatively small time.   

What the hell is an Alexa score?, thought I.  So I looked it up.  Alexa runs a pretty tight program; they calculate your page views per day, the number of subscribed followers, how long your blog visitor stays on your site, and how you rank world wide with other blog sites.

As I said, relative to the big bloggers I'm pretty small time.  I don't employ a professional to generate blog traffic to my site and I don't spam other blogs trying to get readers to follow through to my blog. However, all is not bleak.  In looking at my Alexa stats, readers who come to my site spend more than 4 minutes reading the daily blog.  That's twice the time spent on the average blog.  That makes me feel good; once someone does visit my site they stay engaged with what I'm writing about.  

I also seem to be a "big fish in a small pond".  My page views average about 10,000 per month.  That is far above the average.  Here's how the blogging experts grade the small guys like me:

“Up and Coming”: 500 unique visitors each month (16 visitors a day/1100 page views month)
“Loyal Following”: 3500 unique visitors each month (112 visitors a day, 10,000 page views per month)
“Popular Blogger”: 15,000 unique visitors each month (483 visitors a day, 45,000 page views per month)

So, as you can see, my page views indicate that my blog is three times the rate for a "loyal following" and I'm about 75% of the way toward achieving "popular blogger" status.  Some months I achieve that goal, especially when one of my blog entries go "semi-viral".  I've exceeded 20,000 page views in a month three times since I began.

I would guess one of the things I have going for me is that I write daily, so there is always a steady stream of material to be read.  I would further guess that, because I write on a wide variety of subjects, my blog count is hindered by those who want to concentrate their interest on one subject.  I write about politics, history, societal trends, family, my dogs, earthly oddities and all manner of things.  So, for those who seek out blogs that specialize in cranking up their areas of interest, my blog drifts into areas that don't hold their interest.

I am often aided by referrals from some of my loyal readers, and sometimes my readership gets a big bounce from some pretty big dogs in the publishing world.  I've had honorable mentions and link referrals from The Wall Street Journal and other major publications which contribute to those "semi-viral" page view days I've enjoyed.

Finally, like every other writer who ever lived, I"ve dreamed that someday I'll be "discovered" by the reading world.  That, once visited, thousands will flock to my blog, find those 630 blog entries, with all their golden vision, and say to themselves "how could I have waited so long to discover this wonderful writer!".  

I enjoyed a bit of that last year when a distant family member discovered my blog.  She spent days poring over the hundreds of blogs I've written.  She was quite complimentary of them and I enjoyed immensely her enjoyment of my efforts.

For now, I'll keep plugging along, writing often, because a writer does that whether he has readership or not.  For those who come to me each day; you'll never know how grateful I am for your loyalty.  Perhaps someday, when I'm rich and famous, when everyone uses my Netrition and Amazon ads as gateways to their shopping sprees, and my ad commissions make me independently wealthy, you first loyal readers will say "I was there first!".

From my keyboard to God's ears.  :)