Wednesday, April 05, 2006

One Year Ago Today...

On March 27th, I was informed of my 10,000 visit to this website. And it was one year ago today that I placed the visit counter meter on this page, so it obviously hasn’t been on there since the beginning of this blog, as I have been blogging much longer than a year.

I actually have two visit counters on my blog. The original one from Blogpatrol was great, until I discovered Site Meter, which is now my favorite source of blog statistics! It keeps a lot more stats of interest than Blogpatrol, as well as seems to be a lot more sensitive to visits. I love statistics!

Originally I had planned to honor my 10,000 visitor on this blog entry, but I’m pretty sure I do not know who they were, as it was a visitor that clicked on my comment that I had left on a Mike Cope blog that day. The visit occurred around 10 PM that night and it was someone in Nashville, TN, so I suppose I’ll just give a shout-out to all my Nashville readers (which I know are more than Katey)…HA…gotta love Site Meter!

So, in honor of my one year celebration of tracking my visitors with Site Meter, I want to make note of a few points:

--I must say, it surprises me every time when I see on my stats that a link to my blog as been added on another person’s blog sidebar. It truly is a feeling of honor and for each of you who have taken the time to add my link to your list of links, I thank you!

--Second, on that same note, I want to thank some of my top referring blogs: Jackie Beth, JWalk, Katey, Nicole, and Sarah; however, I’m pretty sure most of them GET to my blog off their own blog, so it is very possible that all the visits I get from their blog is them, their selves! HA!

--Finally, it’s always reassuring to see that people do take the time to read my blogs. Most of my entries are long, I don’t deny it, but knowing that people read them, encourages me more and more to write, so thank you.

There’s no doubt that I do not have a visiting audience anywhere near that of some of “the great bloggers” like Mr. Mike Cope, but I am grateful for each reader that takes the time to stop in. While my entries are often something I write for my own good, I do hope to make some of my readers think as well. I take pride in challenging my own thinking and should I be able to challenge yours as well, it’s the icing on the cake! Besides that, if any of my entries have reached at least one person, possibly through bringing a smile to the face of a burnt-out employee, or a laugh to a student who wishes the day would just end, then success has been achieved through this website! It is a success like that which motivates my writing.

If you don’t have a visit counter on your blog, I do recommend them. A lot of people use them to track stalkers they have, or anonymous comments they get that might bother them. They are also intriguing just to use to see where some of your frequent visitors do come from—you know, the ones that only come to read and never leave comments! HA!

We’ve all done it—gone to someone’s blog and read several of their entries and refused to leave a comment because we do not want them to know we are one of their readers…HA! But I do welcome comments from all, so don’t shy away from commenting simply because you don’t want me to know you read my blog. It’s very possible that I know already, so you might not be fooling anyone—once again, gotta love Site Meter!

I can say, however, that I do have some frequent readers in a few areas that I’m still not positive as to whom they are: Flower Mound, TX; Carrollton, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Hereford, TX; & Plano, TX. The problem with a lot of these metroplex ones is that they could be so many different people, since I know several people around here. It’s like the Abilene, TX, visitors, ESPECIALLY all the “acu.edu” IP addresses; could be one of MANY different people. HA!

So, while the statistics provided are helpful in many ways, they are just short of telling me one’s shoe size and type of deodorant one wears.

But I can say this much, if you have a visitor counter on your blog, it will for sure confirm to you that I check people’s blogs at least 10 times a day…HA! Honestly, I mean what else am I supposed to do during class, while instant messaging with people and waiting for them to respond back, when procrastinating on homework, etc.

Blessings on all my visiting readers during our next year together!

2 comments:

Katey said...

There is someone in Hereford that reads your blog??!! Well there aren't many people there, not including cows- you really need to figure out who that is. I'm also sure I'm not the only Nashville person- but I bet I'm the Nashville person who reads yours the most. Miss you Kim!

FeedingYourMind said...

Nah...not a "compulsive blog checker"...I prefer to think of myself more as a well informed individual who is always searching for more knowledge, just via the internet in these cases. ;)

And as for "Hereford"...now that I took the time to actually look it up on a map...I have a feeling it might be Slagle, as it seems kinda near her on the map....Friona just might not have their own IP server location...HA! ;)