I think I'll probably change the look of my blog sometime soon. I'm going to use one of those wide screen layouts. I want to still try and keep my backyard pic, but right now, it looks like it's a little small for that layout.
Also, if you're a regular reader (or even if you're not), please tell me if my blog looks all squeezed up in the middle of the page with a lot of wasted space on the sides. And, if you have any other points to make about the look of the blog, the content, etc., please feel free to let me know. Like that famous guy who's a hero to the Japanese, W. Edwards Deming, we at the Post are interested in total quality improvement. BTW, that's his pic to the right. You can read the wiki about him
here.
Besides all that, I've been trying to make some sense out of the stats I'm accumulating.
Although my profile says I've been on Blogger since 2007, I didn't really get started on this platform and the Cumberland Post blog until January of 2010. (What I was doing in those seven months in 2009, I don't have a clue. Seriously, Blogger may know, but I honestly don't remember.)
My first post on this blog, The Cumberland Post, a test in January 2010, had a pic of the woods behind our house and our snow covered backyard.
Since then, I've rarely checked the stats or any of the other data available. That stuff just didn't interest me because I mainly wanted a place to write from time to time. Recently, however, I've become more interested in all the stats. I'm curious, for example, about Germany. Why do I have more German google hits than English google hits?
And, why don't I do well in Japan?
Like somebody said to Alfie a long time ago, "What's it all about?"
So, here's some of my stats and my comments about them. But, before you look through these materials expecting some kind of denouement or rhetorically satisfying conclusion, let me warn you that I'm afraid I ended up with even more questions than I started with. And this stuff is awful boring, so don't fall asleep and knock the toaster over and burn down your house.
Okay. Here goes. This snapshot is taken from a day last week, Saturday if I remember right.
All Time Page Views Chart
Page Views
Pageviews last month
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3,488
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Pageviews all time history
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40,318
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Comment on the chart and page view summary.
The number of page views has grown which is good. I think a good part of that is related to the fact that the older posts have accumulated and the frequent hits (unknown to me before now) on several of those older ones account for many of my current daily hits. You'll see those in another section below on Posts. But first here's the chart on my page views by country.
Pageviews by Countries
Comment on Page Views by Countries
Most, as you would expect, come from the U.S. But there are more from Germany than the U.K. I wonder why? And why are Russians more interested in my posts than the French? Slovenia doesn't show up here on the all time list but it did show up during the months of February and January. Why?
Posts
Comment on all time leading posts.
I guess there must be lots of people around the world who are still amazed at the story of Audie Murphy. I'm glad because he's been a hero of mine since childhood. I think I understand why the Bardot post is in #3 and why Lady Gaga is probably more responsible for the #2 post success than the five '50s cars I selected as most beautiful. But there are two other car posts on the list as well which tells me that I should keep doing those car posts (which I really enjoy). But that Forsythia poem post and the Blackhawks airplane post and the "What Super Bowl" post...I don't have a clue.
Referring Sites
Comment on referring sites.
Thanks Andy. Thanks Cookie. Way to go Google Canada.
Pageviews by Browsers
Comment on browsers.
What the hell is Opera? GranParadiso sounds like a casino. Man, Netscape, which I used to use back in the day, is just about gone.
Help! What does it all mean?
Content = A+
ReplyDeleteAppearance = C- or D+ (vis-s-vis what could be)
The good news, you've got GLOBAL readers! The bad news, the appearance is tantamount to b&W TV back in the 50's. Click & drag your blog into 2012. Get off (not a double entendre)Blogspot.com! Like a plane Jane, (who is actually quite beautiful), you need a total makeover!
Yes I know, people in glass houses should not throw stones. I'm in the same boat, I've just not had the time to read Dreamweaver & HTML to learn how to create an awsome looking blog. Once you've got the fundamental skills, let your creative mind take off. You will need to spend time and energy to learn the skills for the visitor to say WOW!
Two yrs. ago, I was on my Harley passing through Idaho. It was late at night and I could not find a state camping site so I stopped at an RV park at Sandpoint, ID. I set up my tent with amenities of electricity and water. I stayed several days. At the RV park I met a couple from South Africa who were traveling the USA via a rented RV. I learned a quit a bit of South Africian politics & economics but that's another tale for a future blog.
Way in the back was a small RV. I asked about it and the RV park owner's said it belongs to a chef who spends his summers here. Locks up his RV and returns to Lousiana to work in a restaurant. Being curious, I ambled over to meet the guy. It turns out he has a state of the art blog site which he created himself. He is a nature photographer. He showed me some simple steps how to dress up your existing blog site. I practiced his instructions and created an awsome website inside my VAIO laptop. I've created one hell of a looking site but it lives in my PC.
My point? YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
PS: This is raw comment, i.e., no spell check, just like Jack Kerouac type fast, don't check anything, and click "publish".
Thanks George. I really appreciate your comment. I'll try to find the time to check into this stuff, but HTML may be too much for this old brain to wrap itself around. Also, I'm busy working on another mystery manuscript which I've set myself a deadline for and that's taking a lot of time too. But I will look into it. Meantime, I'm experimenting with some of the newer templates at Blogspot this week. Tell me if you think any of these trials improves the look any.
ReplyDeleteI did not know you are gearing up for a new mystery novel, ergo, regarding my above comment, remember Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) on SNL...NEVER MIND.
DeleteLooks good, perhaps a big can of "Dapper Dan" is in order!
ReplyDeleteEd, if you mean that DD pomade for a fellow's hair, you know I won't be needin' any of that!
ReplyDeleteIs the wind blowing up on the Ridge? It's beginning to whip around here.
please tell me if my blog looks all squeezed up in the middle of the page with a lot of wasted space on the sides.
ReplyDeleteIt does. I looked for a long, long time at Blogger's expanded templates before settling on the one I have right now... which I think is called Minima Stretched. I never liked the "picture box" look of most blogger templates, what with all that wasted space on both sides, along with the problem of images and videos bleeding into the sidebar unless they're sized just right.
I've kept my look since Day One and it's been six and a half years now. I WILL admit I've played with some of the newer "Dynamic" looks Blogger is offering but I don't think they offer any real improvement in the reader's experience.
I've had a lot o' folks tell me I should get off Blogger as well; that usually comes from the Wordpress crowd. I looked into Wordpress, and a lot o' the folks on my blogroll keep WP blogs. Those same people have also complained about "ease o' use" issues with WP, especially when a new release is rolled out with buggy features. WP also requires some knowledge of HTML and like you... I don't wanna go there.
In re: Blogger stats. I've noticed a significant delta between the stats Blogger provides and the stats I get from Site Meter. I like Site Meter a LOT and used their basic (read as: free) version for the first year I blogged. I popped for the pay version (five bucks a month) once I decided that I was gonna do this blogging thang Fer Real and like it much better than the free stuff. SM has great reports (as in daily, weekly, monthly, and annual... the pay version lets you go back to Day One, on an annual basis) and a much expanded set of stats, compared to what Blogger gives ya.
Just as an example o' the delta I mentioned... SM sez I have 372,945 all-time page views, Blogger sez 209,645. I would think Blogger's numbers would be higher, as I didn't install Site Meter until I'd been blogging for about six weeks; Blogger has been tracking me since Day One, I would assume. Another one: Blogger's "Pageviews last month: 17,849;" SM: 11,727. How can this BE?
So. My rather lengthy $0.02. Prolly more like $1.02.
Buck, Thanks for the detailed and useful comment. I like the greenery of this template but I'm gonna try another of their looks ("Simple" and plain, no color), probably tomorrow, and see if it widens out the space for the text any.
ReplyDeleteI'm also gonna look into sitemeter at your suggestion. I think I already have that basic thing going now, but the discrepancies you mentioned between SM and Blogger, as well as the other features of SM might make that $5 a month worth it.
Also, your numbers IMHO are very good, whichever stats you use. Do some of your older posts get a lot of hits? Would you recommend a few that I might check out? Send an email if you like or just stick 'em on here. Thanks again.