Sunday, September 01, 2024
Sept. 1 blog report
Blog visits are down again this month; as I went through, I hoped August would at least be better than July (recorded Aug. 1), which was already miserable, but most of the time it wasn't, and overall averages were down too. Very down. There are some possible reasons which I will explore. There were also two exceptions, the genealogy blogs and the main blog itself, which had unusual success.
My main explanation is that blog traffic is seasonal; in August people have way too many other things to do. Same with July. They just don't sit down by their computer and cruise around, clicking on random blogs. And that's where I get most of my traffic, bored people clicking, who obviously aren't looking for books to buy (if they could even find them on my templates?) but are rather attracted by a catchy title and whatever snark I've included with the word or words they are looking for. These people aren't book shoppers (clearly, since even a lot of traffic has never converted to book sales of any kind) and are not likely heavy readers either. But they do visit and my little book of numbers is testament to that.
On the topic of a book of numbers, I sit here with the recording of all blogs, 28 personal, 8 commercial, ~6 dead, and I've calculated the monthly traffic for each one, the rolling average (last three months averaged) and whether that's trending up or down. I'm down on myself because if I even put a fraction of that time (this tallying, which happens at the first of the month, took me about two hours), into making the blogs better, it might make a difference. In fact I put very little time into updating templates, connecting them, etc., and rather just try to post on twelve of them each month. I'm relatively successful at my limited goal but unhappy with the big picture every time I encounter it. And, in the big picture, things have gotten better; 25 of the 28 personal ones get more than a hundred hits a month (which is actually up from a year or two ago) and the main one is over a thousand a month. People visit. I don't do anything with them, or lead them to the purchasing counter. On the contrary, I just sit there, waiting for Godot.
Get out and see my blogs. Go to the main one, or one of them, and scroll down until you see the lighthouse. Clicking on the lighthouse will take you on a tour, and if you keep doing it, you'll have a longish tour. All kinds of things in they system. Too bad I myself visit only once a month, and even then it's only to snatch my numbers & run.
My main explanation is that blog traffic is seasonal; in August people have way too many other things to do. Same with July. They just don't sit down by their computer and cruise around, clicking on random blogs. And that's where I get most of my traffic, bored people clicking, who obviously aren't looking for books to buy (if they could even find them on my templates?) but are rather attracted by a catchy title and whatever snark I've included with the word or words they are looking for. These people aren't book shoppers (clearly, since even a lot of traffic has never converted to book sales of any kind) and are not likely heavy readers either. But they do visit and my little book of numbers is testament to that.
On the topic of a book of numbers, I sit here with the recording of all blogs, 28 personal, 8 commercial, ~6 dead, and I've calculated the monthly traffic for each one, the rolling average (last three months averaged) and whether that's trending up or down. I'm down on myself because if I even put a fraction of that time (this tallying, which happens at the first of the month, took me about two hours), into making the blogs better, it might make a difference. In fact I put very little time into updating templates, connecting them, etc., and rather just try to post on twelve of them each month. I'm relatively successful at my limited goal but unhappy with the big picture every time I encounter it. And, in the big picture, things have gotten better; 25 of the 28 personal ones get more than a hundred hits a month (which is actually up from a year or two ago) and the main one is over a thousand a month. People visit. I don't do anything with them, or lead them to the purchasing counter. On the contrary, I just sit there, waiting for Godot.
Get out and see my blogs. Go to the main one, or one of them, and scroll down until you see the lighthouse. Clicking on the lighthouse will take you on a tour, and if you keep doing it, you'll have a longish tour. All kinds of things in they system. Too bad I myself visit only once a month, and even then it's only to snatch my numbers & run.
