WordPress Is Giving Me the Finger
Let me preface this post by admitting something: I know I am being ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.
Still, I can’t stand to look at my blog statistics right now. What does this photo resemble to you?
Okay, besides WordPress.com stats?
Anyone?
It looks like the freaking finger to me.
I mean, I’m still pinching myself that a post I wrote last week about a celebrity (Kellie Rasberry) got over 4,000 views in one day. It is the biggest day I’ve ever had on this little blog.
Obviously. Anyone can see that by looking at the photo, where a day of 200 is about my average right now. And, right now, that looks like NOTHING, because of the finger.
As an unprofessional, hobbyist blogger, it is surreal to have something I wrote be viewed that many times. I’m grateful. Heck, I’m blown away.
Yet, obsessive harpie Andra, my alter-ego, is taunting me. No matter what I do or how I write it, I don’t know how I will ever, EVER top that day. I know. I know. I said that when a post I wrote about biking got over 400 views in one day. That was dumb and stupid.
This time, I really mean it. I guess the finger will just have to cycle through my statistics and return them to normalcy. It should only take another week…………..
Too Much is Just Enough: A finger in the right place
You just need another 4,000 views day, and you can have a peace sign. Much more friendly to look at. Congrats on the stats!
Anthony, first of all, I love your blog. For all my wordiness, I enjoy photos, especially creative ones, very much. So, thank you for commenting here and leading me to your blog.
I’m sure, some day, I will have another big day. I never thought I’d top my first big day, and it really wasn’t big.
Maybe it was Kellie checking it out on robo-viewer… I guess you never know what grabs folks off the cyber streets to check out blog posts, I’m just glad that they all didn’t decide to comment.
Hope the painting is going well, and remember, a little splash of scarlet will really spruce up the place.
What grabbed people was Kellie’s tweeting and Facebooking it. Period. Glomming onto all the trending topics in the world won’t pack the same punch as having the very public subject acknowledge it to their own networks. It was very kind of her to do it.
Our house looks forbidding right now. Must get the LIME GREEN on it. (I hope you can read this on your iPhone.)
Yep, can read fine, just trying to get used to the tapping.
It is a tappy contraption, isn’t it?
Sorry for the threadjack . . . Lou, what sold you on the iPhone versus the Droid X?
Back on topic . . . 4000 views!? Good Googly Moogly!!
That’s awesome.
I’m happy when I get 15 views. But then, I’m also happy (sort of, in a perverse way) when I get zero views because, hey! No pressure!
Steve, it is all my fault that Lou bought the iPhone. I take full responsibility. He did go to the Verizon store to compare them, and I know he will tell you his version of the truth at some point.
The views all came from Kellie’s tweeting and Facebooking my post to her 90,000 fans/followers. It had little to do with me. But, hey, I’ll take it.
iPhone beats the DroidX hands down! And yes, I have used both of them. I use a different Android phone daily, and have played with almost all of the ones out there. Some are very nice, but none yet come close to the iPhone. Soon probably, but not yet.
What Carnell is not admitting here, Steve, is that he carries three or four phones with him at all times. He knows his phones, and I took his advice on which one to get.
You are not supposed to be exposing my idiosyncrasies like that. And it is only 2 phones. And an iPad. And a laptop. Usually.
You have honestly and accurately portrayed the reality… as much as we strive to be authentic and do work that naturally draws people in… it’s easy to lose sight of ourselves. Oh, the proverbial “bottom line.” I believe I have referred to it as “getting lost in the maze”…
In TV, it’s about ratings. With blogs, it’s about stats. With books, it’s about sales.
But it’s also about quality. The quality of the product, and the quality of the customer (or the viewer, or the reader).
And you give–and receive– quality, all the way around. So pardon me, while I give those stats the finger.
Okay, let me be honest here then. I had to write this post because I thought the photo looked like the finger, and I didn’t know how to frame it around that topic. This was my attempt.
I work hard on my blog, and I do care whether or not people read it. But, I worked just as hard on it when nobody read it. All of the yakking I did on Facebook and Twitter before I started this blog was merely a yearning to express myself that I have now channelled into this forum. I am compelled to do it. I have to, whether anyone reads or not.
But, I’m glad people do read. Responding to comments is one of my favorite things to do every day. (And, that probably makes me weird.)
Then, I’ll be honest and admit I was projecting (obviously) my own issues around stats… where numbers don’t always accurately reflect the quality of the content. Sometimes, they do, but not always.
I think you have, what Seth Godin calls, a Tribe. And that’s all you need to change the world.
I get about 150 views on a good day. However, I’m so glad to be back blogging for the joy it gives me, and hopefully, my readers.
BTW, that stat sheet does totally look like a finger.
It inspired the post. One of the links goes to a detailed, drawn out description of how to give the finger. I laughed out loud.
I’m glad you’re back to blogging, Vera. I enjoy reading about what you’re up to, and your 80′s music videos always bring back good memories for me.
Thanks so much. I have fun sharing the process and a bit of what resides in my head.
Is the finger giving you the raspberry? Is this the taker truth about your stats? Do you need to give away free Cootchie Mama beer koozies to hold the cans of beer you give out with the nearly nude women on them?
Ok, that is it for me trying to generate traffic luring keyword fodder for you. For now.
And do yourself a favor, don’t obsess over your stats. It will make you nuts!
One would think that I would have enough colorful keywords by now to have lots of unwanted traffic. ‘Pictures of my naked father’ is still one of my highest search terms. Who are these people?
Oh, and I am happy to report that last week brought the first of this search term: Andra Watkins Cootchie.
(They did not include an apostrophe.)
I think Google gave you the finger. Should be pretty much reproducible at will. Just check Google for the currently most searched for celeb and write a post about them the next day.
Does it say anything about you or your blog? Nah. Just speaks of the unwashed masses infatuation with fame.
I’m stopping now before I go off on a rant……..
If I could be that structured and inspired, Bill, that would be an amazing plan. Usually my posts happen at 11:30PM when I know I have to write one or get phone calls at 6am from Lou and Carnell asking me if I’m dead.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. But, I think my blog is fun to read because it doesn’t go by a formula. I talk about what inspires, frustrates or amuses me, trying to tap into what topics resonate with others and create posts in which they can see themselves. I enjoy that writing much more than I would trying to make up some soliloquy to Lady Gaga.
I wasn’t actually suggesting that you do this, in fact if you did I’d probably stop reading your blog.
I come here to be amused, intrigued, surprised and inspired by what I read here. Fame and the famous are not interesting.
I was introduced to you via the Kellie Rasberry blog, I subscribed, and now I read your blog on my email so I do not visit your site….perhaps that is why? I’m very new to this (you and Dianthe are the first blogs I’ve subscribed to) so perhaps I’m not doing it correctly? Truly enjoy your blogs.
Lori, first of all, thank you for subscribing to this crazy train.
I’ve known Kellie since I was in kindergarten, and she deserves the success and good fortune that she’s garnered.
If you read the blog on the email, it counts as a view. So, you’re good.
If you subscribe to comments, please come back and post a link to the Dianthe blog for me. I’d enjoy checking it out.
Here’s Dianthe’s link to her blog: http://oneofthosemoms.com/ Dianthe used to work with Kellie before the economy took a dive. She doesn’t blog every day but when she does….she’s HI-larious!
Bill is on point. It’s a very old and common way to gain viewers. Use a topic that is currently trending upwards. You can always find out what the masses of folks are consuming digitally by going here: http://www.google.com/trends.
I’ve used the topic a few times and it does work, but some of what the public views is too arcane for me or to write about on my professional blog.
Every now and then I think that I’ll just start a a personal blog, but then I have enough to do already.
Personal blogging feeds a need for me. Maybe I just need to go see somebody.
Somehow, I don’t think my blog would be as interesting to the everyday readers if I did trending topics. I care about the people who are here and want to find more people like them, even if it means a slower trajectory. That’s probably short-sighted, but it’s true. I can hear an agent saying, “Well, no one likes to read what you write, obviously, or more people would visit your blog.”
Your blogs do make me smile
, I love reading them, you give me something to aspire to in my beginning stages. I may just take up reading blogs rather than figuring out what I want to do on mine.
By the way the day will come when your blog reaches over 4000, you just wait, when your books get published. I would love to read a book written by you, you have a lovely writing style, enjoyable too.
I always look forward to reading your blog.
Zara, thank you for the blogging compliments. I’m glad you’re here.
I’ve visited your blog, and here’s my advice (for what it’s worth): write; just write. Go back and read some of my beginning posts and compare them to today. You’ll see a difference. I was terrified when I first started blogging. What if I made a grammatical error? What if someone told me my writing stunk? What if nobody read anything I wrote?
In the end, none of that mattered. The more I wrote, the less I cared about anything other than the writing. Write about the shape of your big toe or a memory inspired by something sitting around your abode or what the sky looked like today where you are in the UK. (It’s very pretty; I love it there.)
I will subscribe to your blog and cheer you on.
HMMM…..and I was excited the day I had 80 views….seems so insignificant now compared to the finger you received….maybe that is why none of my blogs will ever make it to the coveted “Just Pressed” status…
Maybe I will have to spice up the camping shots huh????
I’m all back to normal now, so it was Kellie’s largess that caused the blip. I don’t even know how to get to “Just Pressed” status. I have had a couple of conversations with the editor of WordPress. Mostly, she tried to steer me into writing about a specific topic or helpful posts when I just want to write about nothing.
And, ha ha to spicing up the camping shots. I can’t wait to see that….