Photo Finish: Will Greenlee Gazette Hit 200,000 Hits or 49 Months First?

49 months? What? Yeah, I know. I've been blogging for just a skootch past four years now. But I only added the Site Meter thingy about a month or so into my project. So the point when I started measuring is sort of nebulous. But I'm watching my numbers (with ridiculous interest), and wondering. . .which is going to hit first? 200,000 visitors or 49 months? It's stupid--particularly when you figure that the big blogs like AmericaBlog or DailyKos get 200,000 visitors on a bad day. . .or hour--but for me? I'm a virtual one-man-show (with the occasional exception of Stupid Monkey Planet), with no promotion whatsoever beyond the built-in Google AdSense.

I've also discovered that smart phones and RSS visitors do not register in the total. So, my total visitor count only logs those people who arrive here by traditional means, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari or Opera. My real visitor count could be double, triple. . .hell, let's guess quintillion times higher! I am the internets!

Seriously though, I see the 200,000 milestone as a semi-big deal. I know that others with more laser-like focus have hit my readership in days or weeks. But this blog was started on a whim, and is still only a hobbyist venture. I consider every visitor to be a victory for the little guy, and a testament to America, and so should you! Or something! Thanks for stopping by, and please, bring your friends!

Happy New Year to Me: 150,000 Readers!

Okay, maybe this is lame. I've been blogging for 3-1/2 years (and the blog archives now span five different years), so 150,000 readers doesn't qualify as much of a big deal. Some of the other stats in the image at left are a little anemic. But still! I happened to check my stats at the exact moment that I hit 150,000 readers? That's kind of serendipitous, don't you think? Also, remember that people access the blog in ways that don't register on the Site Meter counter. RSS readers, for example (you fickle people you!). In addition, I only added the Site Meter dealie several weeks after I started blogging. So I lost--oh, I don't know--dozens of people right there. So, sure, the bigger blogs might register 150,000 readers in an afternoon. So what? When I started this blog thing here, I never thought I'd get more than friends and family (again, dozens) as readers. So, yayyy me! Heh. Happy New Year!

Greenlee Gazette Lights Up the World

How's this for a back-patting post? Greenlee Gazette has readers in every continent on the world, minus Antarctica!  I was inspired to look for this phenomenon by fellow blogger Jill Sixpack, and it didn't take long to find proof. Thank you to all of my readers, world-wide, and please, bring your friends!

Milestone: 100,000 Hits!

I'm jumping the gun only a little here, as my 100,000th reader will log in sometime in the next 12 hours or so. Actually, that is probably a little off. People access the internet in many ways, and the SiteMeter I use only counts them if they enter a certain way. RSS readers don't register, and I'm sure there are other methods that don't show up either. In fact, Google AdSense says I've had over 183,000 "page impressions." I didn't sign up for AdSense until sometime into my first year, and didn't put the SiteMeter up until month 4 or so.

But hey! That just means that at least 100,000 people have clicked in! Sure, I've been doing this for almost three years, so that is rather paltry by other bloggers' standards. But this is (with rare exceptions) a one-man show, done as a hobby with no promotion. So woo-hoo! Thanks for reading, and please bring your friends!

UPDATE: It happened!

Greenlee Gazette Milestone

As a few critics have been delighted to point out, this blog does not receive a massive amount of visitors. Fortunately for me, I don't really care. This is a one-man show (pretty much), and done as a hobby on my own time. I don't make a cent from it, and have no publicity outside of Google. So, I'm rather happy with what small audience I do manage to pull in. It's a little over 100 people per day, in addition to a fluctuating amount of RSS readers, maybe 30-50 more.

I happened to check my SiteMeter account at an opportune moment this morning, and grabbed the page at left. 88,888 visits! Nifty.

Blogger Alert! SiteMeter Fixed

UPDATE 08/02/08: SiteMeter is working again. Too bad it was out too. At the time I removed the meter, I was on the road to my best day ever for visitors. Rats!

ORIGINAL POST:

Apparently, the cause of my Blogger woes was a problem for many of you too. If you're using Internet Explorer and the site you're visiting contains a SiteMeter. So, this is a public service announcement:

BLOGGER ALERT, BLOGGER ALERT!

The SiteMeter service--which I love, and a complete addict of--is apparently being upgraded right now. But something is causing Internet Explorer (and AOL) to crash, if the site contains the SiteMeter script. Use FireFox to open your blog (FireFox seems unaffected), remove the widget for SiteMeter, and your blog will work again.

It breaks my heart to do this. I love and probably obsess too much over my "hits" for the day. I'm pretty sure removing the script will halt them completely. I'm definitely going to be going through withdrawal! I'm not sure if SiteMeter itself knows about this glitchy little problem yet. I'll be sending them a letter forthwith.

The error message that appears when hitting a blog with a SiteMeter is: "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet Site"

Milestones: 20,000 Hits!

Well, the other day, I was feeling a little sour about the whole blogging experience. After what looked like promising growth in readership for a few days came crashing down with a whopping 55 hits. . .for the whole day! I was in a funk, and I even wrote about it.

I feel better now. I just got my 20,000th hit! Sure, many of those hits are repeat readers (and I thank you), and a great many of them are me, logging in, even though I've set the site meter to not record my visits. It still does, now and again. But who cares? I hit 20,000 (and almost 32,000 page views)! And considering that I didn't add a site meter for a couple of weeks after I started the blog, I'd say the number is close to accurate.

I am aware, of course that the "big boy" blogs can register this many hits in an off morning, and it took me over 10 months to get here. But I'm (mostly) a one-man-show with no promotion, so I'll take it. And considering my current hit total is double what it was on December 8, it's even better. That's only four months, y'all! So, I'm making progress, if only in baby steps.

Thanks for reading, and bring your friends!

Blogging and Web Surfing: I Don't Get It

I do this blog mostly for personal gratification. I enjoy the creative outlet, I like to rant, and I want to share it with people--rather than muttering to myself. Occasionally though, I get frustrated. My site tends to attract an average of under 100 people per day. That's OK, I mean when I started I thought I'd have no readers.

And this is as much for me as for you, so the number per day is sort of irrelevant to my desire to post things. But then I check my site meter, and find that I've gotten 125, 150 or even more posts, and I start to get excited. Wow! What if it hits 200? 250? 500??? That'd be cool! And then the next day, I barely squeak out 55 hits. What gives? What did I do differently?

I will often then make a big mistake, and check out other people's site meters. Some of my favorite sites might hit 1,500 hits a day, maybe as much as 5,000. Then I might check out AmericaBlog, one of my inspirations, and find out that they get 17,000 hits by 10 am! Shoot, what am I doing that's so different? And then there is the RSS count, which maddeningly will fluctuate here from 8 to 25. . .never more, never less, and never obvious why.

A couple of my posts, one about tattoos, and one about a streaker at the White House, will get 50 hits in one day. Even though I've updated those posts to ask "why did you come here?" I've gotten no answers. Maddening!

Check out the graphic at the top of this post. I've been writing the same basic mish-mash of pop culture, politics, news and personal observations, and yet the hit count fluctuates wildly. I just don't get it. But if you've found me, thank you, and please bring your friends!