Some things to think on
I have found a new toy. Because I own my site, it comes with some things I never got around to looking at until yesterday. One of them offers a bunch of different statistics programs that allow me to see who comes here (generally, it doesn’t give me your name or age) and from where. It also tells what OS you use and which browser, and there were some I’d never heard of in my life. It also tells how many pages were looked at and how much time was spent on the site. None of this information is connected, so I cannot say that someone from the Netherlands spent an hour here, but I hope (s)he did.
It is a revelation to me. In October people have come from absolutely everywhere. Kuwait, Slovenia, Korea, Japan and a list as long as my arm of places I’ve never been and may never go. Not that I wouldn’t love to go, but you’d have to send tickets.
Now the truth is that most of you are in the United States, as one would expect. After all, that’s a big population. Then the United Kingdom and Italy and other EU nations. But some of you are visiting from Russia, too. And quite a few are here from China.
Do you know how much that means to me? Do you understand how happy I am that you come here? Now that I know about you, I think of you when I’m writing. I wonder what appeals to you, what you’d like to know that I can find out, and if you are English mother tongue folks who happen to be in those places or if you are reading English as a second language.
One of the programs available shows a list headed by flags. I am so delighted when I see that row of flags marching down that chart. Jamaica, Barbados, Canada, Malaysia. It gives me a thrill so potent that I sign in and look just to see it. And that is just for October, only four days old. Over eighteen-thousand page requests from dozens of countries. I hope the only change will be that the list grows longer and longer… just how many flags exist anyway? I want them all.
I am left with only one question: why don’t you talk to me? Imagine how happy I would be to hear what it’s really like in places I barely know!
I am hoping you got my last message; technical probs occured – probably “cooking too much fresh baby”…
Cath (Kukla)…
OK.You didn’t….so much for all the praise I sent your way :)
Maybe good it didn’t land; probably getting too mushy anyway!
Pleasure to finally meet you; and, I will be back time and again!
That was one of the best laughs I’ve had in months.
Hello !
Junglegirl from Hawaii, here! This is the first post of yours I\’ve read, and I am just surfing farm blogs, as farming is a movement gaining momentum here. And everywhere it looks like, I am happy to see!
Back to reading, then. Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.
Okay, busted! I’m at least one of your readers from Canada. I connect to you through Ronni Bennett’s site. I’m so intrigued whenever I find someone who has made a major life change or shift to do what they love, above all else. It’s providing inspiration as I prepare to make a career change at the age of 37 – which may include going back to school. So thanks!
-Nicole, a blogger with the following readers: herself from home, herself from work, her mom, her mother-in-law, and her sister – ouch!
Well, I wish I could be one of the exotic ones, but I’m just a USA parish priest preparing for a sabbatical next year. But you do know I’m here, and reading faithfully, though not every day. It’s so lovely that you have readers in so many places — it makes me smile just to think of it!
To me you are all exotic, because how else would I ever know you? Sure, I spent a lot of time in the US and Canada, but I knew whom I knew and didn’t get around to all 400 million.
I’m so pleased that people are talking to me.
I’m a first-time reader of your blog from Southern California. Sorry I’m not adding another flag to your list!
hi judith,
how did you find all that stuff. I just write, but I can’t figure out the techie stats inside my site.
anyway — I stopped by!
It’s part of what comes with my site ownership. There’s a lot of stuff listed and some I don’t touch because I learned the hard way I could wreck everything. But one of the icons is stats and there are 9 different statistics programs. It has nothing to do with WordPress, but the people I rent space from.
It also tells you who crawls the site. Everybody crawls me, even some I didn’t know about. I have so far one scraper. It tells you who has outgoing links– important if you are being plagiarized as I am not. (No one even steals my stuff!)
If you google using something unique to you, you’ll find sites all over the world who have translated your work into other languages. It’s pretty cool.
I always read Cross-cultural Moments. Loyal subscriver, I am.