Montifax has now been ongoing for almost 4 years. For the first year or so we had basically no idea of our traffic numbers/readership. For the past two years, or so, we have had some basic access to readership and traffic numbers, mainly through services such as Google Analytics and Feedburner.
The general trend that these two services seemed to suggest is that we have, and have had, a somewhat small and stable readership.
More recently we have been able to access a new source of stats from Blogger, our blog's host. While this service has confirmed the general trends that I previously outlined, it has also provided a slightly clearer, and real-time, picture of how our content is typically used.
I guess the point I am getting to is that this picture, as consistent as it has been for years, is a somewhat more limited picture of our readership than it should be. Some recent tweaks to our Feedburner account have lead to indications that our readership through RSS subscriptions is actually about three times as large as I suspected. I always find it strange to learn that more people than I expect are reading this blog. I guess I shouldn't just assume that I know all of our readers by name.
Showing posts with label Google Analytics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Analytics. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
A Few Quick Notes 446
-We are presently in the midst of another great day in Halifax. The sun is out and there is a slight, cooling breeze. Unfortunately, I have, as of yet, been largely unable to take advantage of the great weather.
-Our over use of Neil's newly acquired SodaStream machine continues. I have to imagine that we have now consumed more than 20 litres of carbonated water since it was purchased a few days ago.
The more I think about it the more I have come to realize that these comments seem like some kind of advertisement for this product. They are not, or at least they are not paid advertising. These are coming about because I am just quite taken with the contraption and the output.
-This afternoon, while sitting at my desk with my window open, I happened to hear someone giving a tour of the adjacent building's property. While they were directly across from my window they stopped to explain the existence of a lone appearance of graffiti.
According to the gentleman giving the tour, the location on which this graffiti is found is visible at a nearby intersection. Actually, he suggested that it was more than just visible, that vehicles at the intersection would illuminate the graffiti when they stopped. While they removed the graffiti on occassion they have since decided that they might as well just leave it in place given the popularity of the spot and the likelihood that it will be re-tagged if cleaned.
I was glad to catch this snippet of conversation as it provided me with an explanation about the absence of removal attempts since the one that I witnessed a few months after arriving.
[Embedded video]
-A few days ago I became aware of a new method for tracking our site visits and usage to complement our use of Google Analytics. While this new method gives us real-time updates, because our blog is relatively unread this hasn't really meant much, at least until today. It seems that my recent post about signing up for an Empire Avenue account has been quite popular, at least for Montifax. The post in question, in just a matter of minutes, received more views than any other posts from the past two months. What was strangest about this is that most of the traffic occurred within just an hour of two of the post first going live.
-Last night, as a follow up to our recent viewing of The Terminator, we sat down to watch Terminator 2 (on Blu-Ray - a completely unnecessary fact). Contrary to opinion of the Video Difference clerk who sold us The Terminator, I think that I preferred the latter to the former, though I guess it is a matter of opinion on both of our parts. Though neither is necessarily a great movie, both continue to stand up amazingly well as action movies. I have to imagine that these two movies are much more watchable than most of their contemporaries.
-Our over use of Neil's newly acquired SodaStream machine continues. I have to imagine that we have now consumed more than 20 litres of carbonated water since it was purchased a few days ago.
The more I think about it the more I have come to realize that these comments seem like some kind of advertisement for this product. They are not, or at least they are not paid advertising. These are coming about because I am just quite taken with the contraption and the output.
-This afternoon, while sitting at my desk with my window open, I happened to hear someone giving a tour of the adjacent building's property. While they were directly across from my window they stopped to explain the existence of a lone appearance of graffiti.
According to the gentleman giving the tour, the location on which this graffiti is found is visible at a nearby intersection. Actually, he suggested that it was more than just visible, that vehicles at the intersection would illuminate the graffiti when they stopped. While they removed the graffiti on occassion they have since decided that they might as well just leave it in place given the popularity of the spot and the likelihood that it will be re-tagged if cleaned.
I was glad to catch this snippet of conversation as it provided me with an explanation about the absence of removal attempts since the one that I witnessed a few months after arriving.
[Embedded video]
-A few days ago I became aware of a new method for tracking our site visits and usage to complement our use of Google Analytics. While this new method gives us real-time updates, because our blog is relatively unread this hasn't really meant much, at least until today. It seems that my recent post about signing up for an Empire Avenue account has been quite popular, at least for Montifax. The post in question, in just a matter of minutes, received more views than any other posts from the past two months. What was strangest about this is that most of the traffic occurred within just an hour of two of the post first going live.
-Last night, as a follow up to our recent viewing of The Terminator, we sat down to watch Terminator 2 (on Blu-Ray - a completely unnecessary fact). Contrary to opinion of the Video Difference clerk who sold us The Terminator, I think that I preferred the latter to the former, though I guess it is a matter of opinion on both of our parts. Though neither is necessarily a great movie, both continue to stand up amazingly well as action movies. I have to imagine that these two movies are much more watchable than most of their contemporaries.
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Few Quick Notes 275
-Though we were lead to believe that we were in for a significant rainfall and storm late last night and this morning it didn't really materialize. Aside from a few hours of rain in the middle of the night (according to Environment Canada), we only had a small amount of precipitation during the day. Though we didn't get the promised storm, the day was pretty poor. The skies were overcast and the wind was up for most of the day, though on occasion the sun managed to break through for a few minutes at a time.
-A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had started using Google Reader to check the blogs that I regularly read. I am now just over a month in and am definitely quite impressed with the service. I definitely read a larger number of blogs than I did just a month ago, but I feel as though I spend less time doing it. I get the time saving by checking one location multiple times a day instead of checking a multiple of sites multiple times a day.
A feature that I particularly like, though it doesn't really have to do much with content is the Trends section of Google Reader. Not only can I ascertain how many posts I have read, but I can get a sense of at which time of day the most posts are made, when I read the most posts, and how many people subscribe to particular blogs. I am sure that I blow some of my time savings browsing through this feature each day.
-On a related topic, the blog-off seems to have boosted our readership, or at least made it more consistent. On the other hand, it may have nothing to do with the competitive element of the blog-off, but simply that we are posting more than we have in months. In many instances our posts also contain some form of audio-visual content, a perennial favourite with the childrens.
-Given my recent success with beans and legumes in the pressure cooker I decided to see if I could extend my streak tonight with a lentil and pork stew. Though I didn't really hear much from Rebecca and Neil, I know that I was quite pleased with the outcome. I was also pleased with the corn bread that I made to accompany the meal.
For some reason it seems that I had forgotten about corn bread for a few months until about two weeks ago. Since then I have made it on a number of occasions. Aside from the flavour, one of the things I like about it is that it is both quick to prepare and bake. Additionally, it seems to go well with these moderately spiced stew type things that I have been preparing.
-Neil and da missus is gettin' on da sauce now in a few minutes. Seems one a da b'ys from up to da school' got his missus in town and wants her to meet a few a da b'ys and get on da G.O. da same time. B'y, sounds half good to me, but if dem two comes back sauced der 'ill be werds. B'y, I don't want none a dat behaviour in dis apartment, we lives good and clean around here. Dat being said, I wouldn't half mind going on a tear wit da b'ys meself one a dese days, jayz, b'y, maybe I gets 'er done tomarrah.
Blog-off
Cameron: 28
Neil: 1
-A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had started using Google Reader to check the blogs that I regularly read. I am now just over a month in and am definitely quite impressed with the service. I definitely read a larger number of blogs than I did just a month ago, but I feel as though I spend less time doing it. I get the time saving by checking one location multiple times a day instead of checking a multiple of sites multiple times a day.
A feature that I particularly like, though it doesn't really have to do much with content is the Trends section of Google Reader. Not only can I ascertain how many posts I have read, but I can get a sense of at which time of day the most posts are made, when I read the most posts, and how many people subscribe to particular blogs. I am sure that I blow some of my time savings browsing through this feature each day.
-On a related topic, the blog-off seems to have boosted our readership, or at least made it more consistent. On the other hand, it may have nothing to do with the competitive element of the blog-off, but simply that we are posting more than we have in months. In many instances our posts also contain some form of audio-visual content, a perennial favourite with the childrens.
-Given my recent success with beans and legumes in the pressure cooker I decided to see if I could extend my streak tonight with a lentil and pork stew. Though I didn't really hear much from Rebecca and Neil, I know that I was quite pleased with the outcome. I was also pleased with the corn bread that I made to accompany the meal.
For some reason it seems that I had forgotten about corn bread for a few months until about two weeks ago. Since then I have made it on a number of occasions. Aside from the flavour, one of the things I like about it is that it is both quick to prepare and bake. Additionally, it seems to go well with these moderately spiced stew type things that I have been preparing.
-Neil and da missus is gettin' on da sauce now in a few minutes. Seems one a da b'ys from up to da school' got his missus in town and wants her to meet a few a da b'ys and get on da G.O. da same time. B'y, sounds half good to me, but if dem two comes back sauced der 'ill be werds. B'y, I don't want none a dat behaviour in dis apartment, we lives good and clean around here. Dat being said, I wouldn't half mind going on a tear wit da b'ys meself one a dese days, jayz, b'y, maybe I gets 'er done tomarrah.
Blog-off
Cameron: 28
Neil: 1
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Google Analytics: A few days on
As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently started tracking usage on Montifax with Google Analytics. While we are only about two weeks into the tracking there are a few trends that seem to be developing.
Most notably, it seems that our users are, as expected, coming largely from regions inhabited by people we know. This means that St. John's, Halifax, and Montreal are three of the world-wide hotbeds of readership, while a few other North American cities have also shown up on lists of locations of people checking the site. As time goes on we seem to be getting the occasional hit from other countries and other parts of Canada and the US. I think that I was most surprised to see China, Turkey, and Indonesia on the list of countries that have had Montifax related activity from inside their borders. As exciting as it is to get a new country, these still don't represent a large portion of overall readership/visitors (as I wouldn't want to assume that just because one visits a blog that they actually read the content).
Another trend seems to be developing in terms of daily visitors. Though we had one day with only about two, a more typical days see anywhere from 7 to 13 people check the site. While not staggering by any means, it does seem to be regular (and more volume that I can generate by checking on three different computers).
A more surprising trend is that on most days one or two people find Montifax through web searches (and on a few days up to three people found us Montifax this way). While most find us through Google, a few have found us through Yahoo (but those seem to be the only search engines people have used to find us). The range of search terms used to find us is quite impressive. Not only have people been found us when searching for the Goobies Moose, but also when searching with the following search strings: 'she served us topless,' 'market research coffee table books,' not wearing underwear,' and 'newfoundland beer consumption.'
While it seems that part of the point of Google Analytics is to help webmasters/administrators increase traffic we haven't seemed to be able to use the service to achieve such ends. Mainly access to the service has allowed us (more specifically me) to see how people are accessing the site and generally how many readers we get on a daily basis. While most of this isn't all that important or useful I have enjoyed having the information. Furthermore, this gives me something else on the web to check on a daily basis when I really can't find some more useful way of using my time.
Most notably, it seems that our users are, as expected, coming largely from regions inhabited by people we know. This means that St. John's, Halifax, and Montreal are three of the world-wide hotbeds of readership, while a few other North American cities have also shown up on lists of locations of people checking the site. As time goes on we seem to be getting the occasional hit from other countries and other parts of Canada and the US. I think that I was most surprised to see China, Turkey, and Indonesia on the list of countries that have had Montifax related activity from inside their borders. As exciting as it is to get a new country, these still don't represent a large portion of overall readership/visitors (as I wouldn't want to assume that just because one visits a blog that they actually read the content).
Another trend seems to be developing in terms of daily visitors. Though we had one day with only about two, a more typical days see anywhere from 7 to 13 people check the site. While not staggering by any means, it does seem to be regular (and more volume that I can generate by checking on three different computers).
A more surprising trend is that on most days one or two people find Montifax through web searches (and on a few days up to three people found us Montifax this way). While most find us through Google, a few have found us through Yahoo (but those seem to be the only search engines people have used to find us). The range of search terms used to find us is quite impressive. Not only have people been found us when searching for the Goobies Moose, but also when searching with the following search strings: 'she served us topless,' 'market research coffee table books,' not wearing underwear,' and 'newfoundland beer consumption.'
While it seems that part of the point of Google Analytics is to help webmasters/administrators increase traffic we haven't seemed to be able to use the service to achieve such ends. Mainly access to the service has allowed us (more specifically me) to see how people are accessing the site and generally how many readers we get on a daily basis. While most of this isn't all that important or useful I have enjoyed having the information. Furthermore, this gives me something else on the web to check on a daily basis when I really can't find some more useful way of using my time.
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