The SEVEN Joys of Mary

Stats

Blogging is an interesting thing. The first year I did it, mostly it was just for fun, and I didn’t think anyone would read it. But then my mom’s friend Sybil read it and commented, and that was positive reinforcement. Then Sandy Tuttle read it and sent me an email and that was good too.

Last year I paid more attention to the stats that I get on the blog site. I could see how many page views each blog entry had. Last year it was the Granfa Owin’s fudge entry that was the most popular. But sometime recently the Advent Calendar entry pulled ahead.

The other interesting thing I get to see is where the blog is being read. I had readers from Canada, and Japan (Hi Becky!), Malaysia (which I think was just church friends on a mission trip). But I have been surprised to see that I have had visitors from Russia, Brazil, Slovenia, Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark. I don’t think I know anyone in those places, so how cool is that? For those readers I want to say ‘Hey thanks for stopping by and Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom! Boas Festas! vesel božič! Froehliche Weihnachten! Vrolijk Kerstfeest! Glædelig Jul!

But perhaps the most fascinating stats I get to see is what websites people find me from. Lots of readers come from facebook, which makes sense because I post when I blog. I also get readers from yandex.ru which is some Russian site that I think is like Google, which explains the Russian readers. I get some readers from my friend Jessica at Overflowingbookshelf. And of course I get readers who find me from Google. What I really love is seeing what Google searches led people to me. Judson’s 25 days blogspot is the big one, (duh, right?). Granfa Owin’s fudge gets a lot of hits, followed by JC Farrand, Shawnee OK. I hope that no one was disappointed when the searched the last one and found my blog about how I was disappointed in his Christmas eve service one time. It was all about me, not about what he did. I also had some people who found me searching for the lyrics to On December Five and Twenty say Fum, Fum, Fum. A couple of people looking for Advent Calendars in Albuquerque stopped by, and so did someone wondering why the advent calendar had no candy on the 24th. I didn’t provide any answers, but that does explain how Granfa Owin’s fudge got edged out in November.

My top favorite search that led someone to my site really makes me laugh, but then it leaves me wondering so many things. The stats don’t tell me who did the searching, or what they read once they were here, or where they were from or anything like that. And in the case of this last search I might be better off NOT knowing. Because what would I say to someone who Google searched “vinyl pants” Christmas? I mean SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?