Let's Talk About...You.

One of the neat new features on Blogger (well, new to me at least, it could have gone in any time between 2006 and now) is the stats page. It lets me track all kinds of information about who is reading what on my 'blog, where they're from, how they got here, etc. Now before anyone panics, it's very top level information; things like country of origin, domain that referenced the hit, and platform type. It's nothing that I, or likely anyone else, could use to identify any of my readers.

I've been going over my stats recently and I've found a few interesting things that I wasn't expecting:

1. 60% of my page hits are from iPhones. That's right, 60%. Windows-based platforms make up about 30%, and everything else makes up the remaining 10% or so. Android hits make up a mere 1%. I'm not sure why there are so few Android hits, unless they're getting lumped in under iPhones. I was also so surprised to see how much traffic I'm getting from mobile devices in general. Good to know.

2. I'm an international 'blog! Although the vast majority of my traffic comes from the US, I've gotten hits from The Netherlands, France, Ukraine, and Germany to name a few. I'm surprised that of my foreign traffic sources, I have to go down five entries before I reach one that speaks English as a primary language (UK is right after Germany). So either this is further evidence that people in The Old Country are better about being multilingual, or it just shows that I'm getting hits by some people who can't read what I'm typing.

3. Oh the joys of Facebook. Not surprisingly (considering that I post links to all of my entries on my wall), Facebook is my biggest traffic source URL-wise. I guess it is good for something after all. And speaking of traffic sources, apparently there are people out there Googling my 'blog by name. Go figure.

4. The power of love? The biggest shocker for me was which posts had gotten the most hits. (Mind you, I know this is an imperfect measure since people can read a post without actually going to the post's specific URL. But it's all I have to work with.) My most popular post was the one about unrequited love and second place goes to love being all you need. Who knew that me, a thirty-something divorcee, would be such a popular writer regarding matters of the heart? I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm thinking of future posts.

5. Reading and Writing? The last thing that I'm going to comment on is the ratio of page views to actual 'blog comments. It's not even close. I have 13 comments here on my 'blog (and probably a similar number on my Facebook entries announcing new posts), but my pageviews rate in the thousands. That's not much feedback folks. I don't really mind 'blogging to a black box as long as I know people are reading it, but a little interaction is a good thing as well. Is there a reason why you don't comment? Are the security measures or need to not post anonymously too annoying to deal with? Any feedback would be helpful. (Yes, I realize it's somewhat futile to ask this question here, but I figure that my readers who know me will get back to me somehow, even if it's not here.)

So that's the state of my audience after roughly three months of 'blogging. I'm really loving having the creative outlet, and I like that I have some tools to help direct my creativity. Thanks to all of my readers. B^)