I've been continuously experimenting with my blog to see what works and what doesn't. I check my Analytics tracking results daily to see if I can understand what's happening. Maybe I need to keep careful records to do this scientifically, but I look and guess. I'm guessing that I haven't come to any real conclusion.
Blog-boggled is what I've been calling it. Each Monday for the past several weeks I've been posting my thoughts about the topic of blogging. This past Monday's post got the most comments of any post so far if I'm not mistaken. Why? I've got some thoughts and I guess I will continue at least one more episode of Blog Boggled this coming Monday. Let me know if you get sick of the topic -- or maybe Analytics will let me know.
Then Tuesday I went from big response to much smaller response -- my hits to the site went down by nearly 50%. If you didn't read the post, please check out CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME and tell me what was wrong. Was it "Christmas" in the title? Or was the story a downer like Stephen McCarthy suggested? I really liked this post, but maybe it was too personal like Carrie was talking about yesterday in her blog post. Let me know if you have an opinion about this.
The popular pictoral series about My Mom's A Dancer sent the hits back up. Not sure what I'll do for this coming Wednesday, but I may continue with some more memoirs with pictures.
My real experiment this past week was my Thursday post on scams . I did not get the response I had hoped for, but I thought I was pretty creative with this idea and I'll talk about this some on my Blog Boggled post on Monday.
Dreaming is one of my favorite topics of all and once again on Friday I stayed with the topic of dreams. Had a little guessing game that I hoped would have had more participants and I will be posting the answers in the comments for that post tomorrow. Should I do more dreams next Friday? I probably will unless the crowds become unruly and clamor for me not to.
What about the Tenth Annual Weblog awards also known as The Bloggies? Is anyone following these or voting for these? Have events in Haiti disrtracted you from blog activity? Do you think that Pat Robertson is an insensitve jerk? Or did you actually grasp the meaning of what he was saying before the media and the blabbering fools on YouTube distorted his statement? Did I pack enough ideas into this last paragraph that could provide fodder for two or more blog posts?
You've got some great posts up!
ReplyDeleteYou know, there's really just no explaining traffic. For me, personally, I've had two kids home all week with seasonal flu, bronchitis, and sinus infections. And then I realized that my Google Reader had gotten messed up and some blogs were in the wrong folders (folders that go unread). Like yours! So I've fixed that.
Are you on Twitter? I don't have your blog page up right now, so I can't tell. If I feel that I've written a really strong post that has gone unnoticed because of slow traffic (for whatever reason), then I'll tweet the link to the post with a really strong headline--and watch as my traffic is driven to the old blog post.
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
Well, you've definitely got my curiosity going! I hopped over here to thank you for visiting my blog and commenting. I'll have to come back later and read your other posts. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've come to the conclusion (for myself) that I can't take personally how many hits and/or comments I receive on my posts. It used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore.
Also, I've had to accept the fact that I can't control the number of followers I have. The number will shoot up, then I'll lose one or two. I had more followers when I was spending hours visiting other blogs and commenting. However, my life has gotten too busy to do that anymore. It's been a tough season physically, financially, emotionally. Maybe others are going through similar situations, so they aren't blogging as much.
Didn't mean to jabber away....thanks for visiting my blog. Please come back, anytime.
Blessings,
Beth
I honestly haven't tried to analyze comment levels, although I do check out my StatCounter once in a while.
ReplyDeleteMy life is chaotic and I assume otehrs are the same. There are some days I just can't check all the blogs on my blog roll, although I try to ensure I check everyone's at least once or twice a week. I would assume the comment fluctuation is more about the readers' lives than your topics, but I could be wrong :)
I appreciate the comments so far --they contribute greatly to my process of learning when they are as insightful as yours have been.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth --- I stubbornly have not gone to Twitter yet, but from things I've been reading perhaps that is something I should consider. It just seems like there are so many things to keep track of. Sometimes I do announce a post on Facebook-- I don't know how effective the announcements have been although I think about a quarter of my hits come from FaceBook.
Beth -- thanks for "jabbering" and I hope you will return now and then with more. You are right about the high maintenance of a blog and how everyday life needs priority attention. Hope you find time to comment on any other posts you have time to read. Time!-- there never seems to be enough.
Jemi --- I'm pretty sure you are correct about the busyness of readers' lives affecting how much they can play with blogging. But I'm still trying to figure in how interest factors in. News like what's happening in Haiti I can understand, but how do people find so much time to be distracted by stories about Tiger Woods or whatever is the latest sensational non-story of the day. Or frittering away time on nonsensical games like "Farmville". Indeed some recreation is important in our lives, but absolutely mind-eating crap is what I wonder about. I've always been fascinated by advertising and things like that so I guess I'm just curious about the way a blog works. Not too disassociated from what sells books I guess.
Hey Lee...
ReplyDeletethanks for stopping by my blog! hope you become a regular...as for blog traffic, I wouldn't take it personally. I find that sometimes I get on here and realize I've missed many blog postings and have to back track my readings...and admittedly have to skip them sometimes... :o/
and now here are the five words for the Five Word Association Meme.
fierce
snake
cook
bliss
tomato
Have fun Lee!
Arlee, I know this is an experiment even though I haven't been following every post on the subject. I think you should just enjoy the art of blogging and interaction. Enjoy posting your intriguing and diverse topics. Statistics are merely numbers. They fluctuate. Some days or weeks you will get many hits and responses, others times not so much. Just relax and ride the wave.
ReplyDeleteHope I'm not being disrespectful.
rLEE-b ~
ReplyDeleteWhen I said that I thought maybe the "Christmas Away From Home" Blog Bit was too much of a downer (particularly because of your son's situation), I was attempting to potentially explain the sudden lack of comments for that one.
However, if the hits to your Blog that day was far fewer than usual, then that would also explain the meagre number of comments posted. But why you should have had far fewer hits that day, I wouldn't know. Nothing about the title should have affected the majority of your Followers. But as to why everyone would stay away on that one particular day, I couldn't guess.
In other words, the Blog's content itself might explain why few people wanted to comment after reading it (maybe), but I can't even offer a guess as to why it drew few readers to begin with, if in fact the "Site Hits" were noticeably fewer that day.
And... this dawned on me yesterday while I was working out: In reading your "Christmas Away From Home" post, I didn't see anywhere in it a mention of you having tossed a coin into water on Christmas Day and making a wish for a second Tiny Tim hit song. You're not going to tell me you forgot, are you? Are you?! ARE YOU?!
~ "Lonesome Dogg" McMe
Hi Lee:)
ReplyDeleteYou have carried out a detailed analysis of blog readership and comments on your post.
I feel the number of comments you receive on your post depends on the your ability to keep up with your followers and comment on their posts. Besides your have to visit new blogs on a regular basis.Some successful bloggers just do that.And the number of comments they receive doesn't actually depend on what they write. They will get the comments on whatever they write whether interesting or not interesting.
You have more than 100 followers and if you visit all of them in a week you are likely to get about 30 comments on each of your post. As far as I am concerned, I have about 60 followers and I visit only those who comment on my post. So I get about 10 or 15 comments. Everything depends on your capacity to invest time to visit other blogs and comment on them.
Have a nice day Lee:)
Joseph
Sol --- I will post my response to the "Word Meme" and a link back to your site on Tuesday. Thanks for today's comment.
ReplyDeleteSharla-- I find your comment in no way disrespectful. Believe me, I'm having loads of fun with my blog-- probably as much as in much show biz career. I guess it's just my business side that likes to try to "increase sales" so to speak and the same curiosity that in childhood made me take my toys apart to see how they worked.
Stephen -- I agree with your assessment and I will go back to your Tiny Tim post to address that issue --- for anyone who is interested go to:
http://stephentmccarthysstuffs.blogspot.com/2010/01/original-tiny-tim-wishing-site-photo.html
You can follow other related Tiny Tim links from there.
Joseph -- I agree with your assessment-- I've taken this into account and it definately does work the way you describe.
First time visitor, found you from http://blogbrewreview.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say that I am following! Love the questions!
AJ -- I'm really happy to have you with me here. I hope you will visit and comment often.
ReplyDeleteLee
I just think, that I can't keep up with your postings! : )
ReplyDeleteAs life is very busy, I find that there are certain days when I think, ok, let's check out what people have been up to. Small pockets of brain clarity (as opposed to brain fog and tiredness) and time, when I chill out and catch up. That is pretty much it!
A blog I follow had a post about how to increase comments, and I linked to it in one of my posts. Not the post you commented on (in such a succinct & funny way btw) but the previous one, in case you want to go click on there. I thought it had some pretty good tips.
ReplyDelete