Saturday, July 19, 2008

Concerts and Boy Parts

So.... I use this service called SiteMeter to count and track visits to this blog. Perhaps you've seen the little icon at the bottom of the page? It's a pretty nifty little tool that shows me how many people visit my site, where they are in the world, and how they found my blog...which I think is cool. I was pretty thrilled earlier in the week when the SiteMeter counter passed 1000 hits...really small potatoes in the world of blogging....but again, cool to me. Look, here's how many people looked at my blog this week.
clipped from www.sitemeter.com
This Week's Visits and Page Views

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Anyway, this week the number of hits on my blog just jumped. First on Monday, I posted the email conversation between Mona, Betty, and me about going to see a concert, then on Wednesday-Friday, I wrote about the concert.

Then I started wondering, what other days had high readerships (and for me, a high readership day means more than 25 hits...again sorta pathetic in the world of blogging) and I wondered what I was writing about then. So there were the two concert reports and then I was a little surprised that the blog about running at Lake Murray and how the route on MapMyRun looked like a "boy part" got a lot of hits...

When I checked SiteMeter, I also noticed that for the first time this week, some people were finding my blog due to a Google search...Seems like people were looking for concert information about Journey, Cheap Trick, and/or Heart and found me...how cool is that? On the other hand, who does a Google search looking for "boy parts." Hmmmmm maybe I don't want to know the answer to that question.

So...I'm wondering if I combine the two terms in the title of this post, if I'll get even more hits from today's blog...and won't they be surprised when they get here ...

I think it's really cool how SiteMeter tracks these "referrals." Most of the time, people "find" my blog because I have trolled or stalked their blogs and left a comment. Those bloggers then come here to find out: "who is this person?" and probably to verify that this person is not particularly stalker-like and is only marginally crazy...but within the boundaries of acceptability (Hello all my Internet friends!).

Also, the vast majority of blogs I read are written by women who run and are about running, and/or their families and friends, and/or both, so we have that in common (see the blogroll on the right for all of them). Although I read a couple of "dude blogs" (here and here) both of which are incredibly well written and funny, and I hate them because they write better than me, so I haven't left a comment yet, mostly because they're really popular blogs and by the time I get there, they have about ten-gazillion comments, and I can't think of anything clever to write, so I don't...I know, my bad.

In fact, most of my non-blogging friends do find this practice of leaving comments on stranger's blogs a little strange. In truth, so did I in the beginning. I lurked for a pretty long time before I called up the courage to leave a comment on someone's blog (I think it was Irene over at Magazine Smiles). I mean, many commenters leave these clever, pithy, humorous, comments, and mine seem clunky and...well boring. But I figure I like getting comments from others, and since I figure most people who have public blogs are somewhat like me in that regard, I've started to leave them anyway (boring or not...here I come!)

In running news...I ran 9.5 miles this morning in 1:47 (11:15 pace). This morning's run was again in Coronado..almost perfect running weather, morning coolness and misty fog. I didn't have to use MapMyRun this morning because I ran with a woman who had a Garmin on her wrist...an item which I now COVET. I think she had this one. But there's also this one (for $100). Does anyone know the difference?

Only 4 weeks to the AFC 1/2 Marathon. Gosh, I hope the morning fog stays until August!

11 comments:

  1. I, for one, am glad you gained the courage to come out of lurkdom and leave a comment. Looking forward to someday meeting in person.

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  3. I did a post a long while ago about running skirts. Through sitemeter I've discovered that my little ol' blog gets hit on by (I'm assuming) guys looking for women/girls in short skirts, and not in a good way... Gah! There's another post on my blog that generates perves looking for heaven knows what, too, they never comment (thank goodness!) but I'm debating on either changing the title of that post or deleting it, even though it was a long while ago.

    I'm glad you commented on my blog! I would have never known that we sort of already know each other! (That sounds weird, but you know what I mean.)

    Enjoy your weekend. :)

    PS: That was me up there... I forgot to type an entire word in the first sentence.

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  4. I am obsessed with the site meter. I love that tool! I am glad you came out of lurk mode because then I would have never found your blog.

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  5. Ooooohhh girl you gotta add Statcounter too (I have both of them :P). Sitemeter is coolio, but Statcounter gives you a more detailed report. Not only that but sometimes Sitemeter doesn't pick up all your hits?!?

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  6. Hey, I'm glad you came out of lurkdom, too... I sometimes feel that way about my comments!

    I have the Garmin 305- it was the model before the 405. I highly recommend it.

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  7. Add another who's glad you commented on her site.

    I don't know much about forerunners but Garmins are so cool. I can say the $299 one does more than the $99 one. Or let's hope so anyway.

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  8. Thank you for leaving comments, I know you left me one a while back. I appreciate it, and feel the same about commenting.

    You totally rock on that 9 miles. I about fell off my chair reading that.

    And dontcha just love sitemeter.

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  9. Site Meter has turned me into a worst stalker than I already was. LOL! you should see how people get to my blog the numbero uno is a post I have labled Crash Test Dummy, now there is something to be proud of.

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  10. it's amazing what terms pervs will google to find sites.

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  11. comments are what it's all about . . .

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