Blog Stats Update – International Readers Come into Focus!

The last time I updated you on my blog stats was in October 2012, so I figured it’s time to share more good news with you all!

This past week, my blog hit a new milestone of 12,000 page views since it’s “birth” in March 2011. Yay! I’m thrilled with the new WordPress functionality that shows me the number of individual visitors coming to my blog page in addition to the page views (since people usually click on more than one page.)

Also… I now have 168 people subscribed to my blog for regular updates. Thank you, and Welcome to all the new readers that have joined in the last few months, it’s really encouraging to see my audience growing.

And speaking of my audience, there is one statistic I am MOST PROUD of for my blog:

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People from NINETY (90) COUNTRIES visited my blog in the last year!!

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WOW!!

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I’m really amazed by this statistic and I can’t tell you all how much it means to me to have made so many friends from all over the world through my blog. Nearly EVERY CONTINENT IS REPRESENTED in my readership – how fantastic is that?!?

Since you are probably curious, here is a list of the “top countries” where readers come to visit the blog (the countries I did not include in this list are the ones with one (1) page view):

United States	5,467
Canada	540
United Kingdom	318
Netherlands	261
Australia	157
Germany	117
France	81
India	68
Spain	50
Brazil	43
Turkey	43
Philippines	38
Italy	36
Indonesia	36
Mexico	34
Kenya	33
Ireland	28
Norway	24
Singapore	19
Russian Federation	16
United Arab Emirates	15
Japan	13
Taiwan	11
Switzerland	11
Denmark	10
Republic of Korea	10
Malaysia	10
Ukraine	9
New Zealand	9
Czech Republic	9
Argentina	9
Pakistan	8
Poland	8
Egypt	8
Belgium	8
Nigeria	8
Thailand	7
Romania	7
Guinea-Bissau	6
Sweden	6
Colombia	6
Venezuela	5
Austria	5
Slovenia	5
Greece	5
Israel	4
Hungary	4
Costa Rica	4
Bahrain	3
Lithuania	3
Peru	3
Serbia	3
Puerto Rico	3
Sri Lanka	3
Namibia	3
Mauritius	3
Cyprus	3
Saudi Arabia	3
South Africa	3
Estonia	3
Chile	3
Iraq	2
Slovakia	2
Panama	2
Bulgaria	2
Malta	2
Ecuador	2
Viet Nam	2
Hong Kong	2
Bangladesh	2

Blog Stats: The Elusive 1K Click Month

A few months ago, I mentioned a primary goal for 2012 was to hit 1000 clicks per month. I came soooo close last month, in July, and I hit 990 clicks – but I was still shy of my goal.

But, I have noticed a great trend. When the blog celebrated it’s one year birthday in March 2012, something magical happened. I began having nothing less than 800+ click-through months. I wasn’t posting more than I had previously, if anything I posted somewhat less, and yet there was momentum building.

From March through July 2012, I have had over 800 clicks. For 2 of those 5 months, I’ve had more than 900 clicks / page views. Since I am tantalizingly close to my 1K goal, I’m optimistic about achieving that with you, dear readers, at least once before the end of this year.

I think there are a few good reasons why the traffic to the blog has increased, which I share below:

Reasons Why My Blog Traffic May Have Increased

1. Overall readership is up based on subscribership. A consistent base of readers interact with the community of writers that has formed on this blog (for which I am always and ever grateful for the support, the dialogue that happens here and everyone’s contributions)
2. Every blog post has numerous, searchable tags. Many people conduct searches for random stuff. People regularly read blog posts from my archive based on these search results, which I know based on the WordPress Stats page, which I monitor regularly.
3. Reasonably consistent content. My posts are usually about writing; the creative process; short story writing; art & artists; and the ongoing torture, neuroses and afflictions writers and creative types suffer on their way to producing great art. That… and insomnia by way of diet cola pretty much covers what I talk about most of the time.
4. Reasonably consistent posting schedule. I’ve had my ups and downs on the number of posts I put up each month, but it’s usually somewhere between 9-14 posts per month. Readers can count on having something hit their in-box regularly, but not so frequently that they can’t keep up with the reading.

BUT… I haven’t been lucky enough to get Freshly Pressed yet. Yes WordPress blogging community, I lament that I have not yet gotten that elusive and magical POP!! that happens when you are Freshly Pressed. That wonderful, yummy torrent of new readers and commentors, that oh so fantastic flood of endorphins associated with blog readership spiking into the many multitudes of hundreds.

So, IF I get Freshly Pressed someday, I am quite sure I would greatly exceed 1K clicks in a month. Heck, Freshly Pressed probably would make me exceed 1K clicks in just a few days! Oh well, I’ll continue to hope…