Lies, damned lies
Mr Stuart has no hit counter on his blog because he'd rather not know that no-one's reading his words of wisdom, cast like so many pearls before us lucky all. Without a little number flashing up, he can kid himself that he's the most popular blog on the internet and bask in imaginary glory.
The problem with that approach is, of course, when the comments dry up and you're left wondering if you're not just talking to hear the sound of your own voice. Doubt is insidious and gnaws away at even the most self-confident of us.
Me, I have a constant update on my popularity thanks to those nice people at StatCounter. And because I can't get enough validation, I also listen to what Google Analytics have to say about my website (but not this blog) too.
Now I only have a vague idea of the size of Mr Stuart's ego, but mine is pleasantly massaged by the figures. On the latest count, an average of fifteen individual people load twenty-one pages of my blog every day. And that figure is increasing - yesterday it was twenty and thirty-two respectively. Being a lazy sod, I tend not to post anything at the weekends, so that brings the average down. I seem to have fans all over the world, from Canada and the US to Australia, UAE and even Belgium.
I'm sure in comparison with some people's blogs, these are pathetic figures - the day Paberback Writer linked to my blog in one of her posts, I had over two hundred hits in twenty-four hours, so I guess she has a few readers. But I reckon having a dozen or more people who regularly come here to see what nonsense I've come up with this time is more than enough reason to go on doing it.
And don't think that going away will stop me. I can always kid myself the stats are wrong.
The problem with that approach is, of course, when the comments dry up and you're left wondering if you're not just talking to hear the sound of your own voice. Doubt is insidious and gnaws away at even the most self-confident of us.
Me, I have a constant update on my popularity thanks to those nice people at StatCounter. And because I can't get enough validation, I also listen to what Google Analytics have to say about my website (but not this blog) too.
Now I only have a vague idea of the size of Mr Stuart's ego, but mine is pleasantly massaged by the figures. On the latest count, an average of fifteen individual people load twenty-one pages of my blog every day. And that figure is increasing - yesterday it was twenty and thirty-two respectively. Being a lazy sod, I tend not to post anything at the weekends, so that brings the average down. I seem to have fans all over the world, from Canada and the US to Australia, UAE and even Belgium.
I'm sure in comparison with some people's blogs, these are pathetic figures - the day Paberback Writer linked to my blog in one of her posts, I had over two hundred hits in twenty-four hours, so I guess she has a few readers. But I reckon having a dozen or more people who regularly come here to see what nonsense I've come up with this time is more than enough reason to go on doing it.
And don't think that going away will stop me. I can always kid myself the stats are wrong.
Comments
I seldom comment because I have nothing intelligent to say about most things....but I am a big fan of the fruit of the week. Does that count?
I used to live in Wales. It brings back memories...
The thing counters won't show you is hits from people using your RSS feed to read the blog, only accessing the site when they're commenting. I started using Bloglines to aggregate various blogs a while back, despite some initial reservations about its crapness. Admittedly, the numbers of feed-readers compared to visitors are likely to be small, but still...
Oh, no, wait a minute: that’s Rolf Harris I’m thinking about. But the general principle still applies.
Sandra and Stuart, if you can't behave yourselves you'll be sent outside.
So John lived in Wales once. That explains a great deal... And as for counters and RSS feeds and the like, I'm not so hung up on exact numbers that it really matters. I'll keep blogging until I get tired of the sound of my own voice, comments, hits or resounding uninterested silence;}#
Is that a promise? And I think you should be sending John and Stuart outside, what with their preference for sheep and all.
(Thanks for dropping by James. Glad you liked the story. Sorry to hear there's nothing wrong with you, or your blood. No more exuses. Me, I blame a lot on my .0.0029% French blood but nobody figures it's so diluted because I managed to get stuck with the French surname after all these years - go figure.)
And that blogroll isn't getting any smaller after I now also added Sandra. *grin*