Friday 22 August 2008

Does Anybody Else Drill Down The Data On Their Counters?

Some days I could write lots of posts, but I restrain myself and stick to what I think somebody might like to read, and some days I have real problems thinking of anything to say; today is one of those days. I've been taking a break from working on the TMA for my OU course and I started to look at the kind of information that I can determine from the counters that I have on my site. As a result I found that there is somebody in the US who also uses the name Madsadgirl. She does not seem to be writing a blog but writes to a chat room or forum under this name, and her big gripe is about the plastic surgery that she had on her hindquarters, putting it politely. I'm sure that she had her reasons for undergoing this surgery, but it is not something that I would ever consider, and I hope that no-one will think that I am this other person.

I regularly look to see how people have arrived at my blog. Have they come via a reference to me in somebody else's writings, or is it the result of a web search? It is certain that I have a small group of regular readers, because that is one of the things that the counters tell me. As a result of doing this research I found that I had a reader in the UK who is also attempting to write a blog but of whose existence I was not aware. Random Musings from a Wannabe is the name of the blog and it is written by a law graduate who is about to start work as a lecturer at a UK university. The reason that I did not know she was a regular reader was because she had never commented on any of my posts.

Now you are probably asking yourself why is she writing about this? The answer is quite simple. The blogger in question wanted to study medicine, but ended up doing law instead, and because medicine was what she had really wanted to do, many of the things that she reads regularly are blogs from various members of the medical community. So I began to wonder why she reads my blog? The best way to find out is to see what the person concerned is writing about themself. It seems that the thing that we have in common, and what probably drew her to my blog in the first place, may be depression. Depression and a lack of self-confidence.

She hasn't written anything for a couple of weeks, and there is no indication of how many may have read her blog, because when I was reading it there were no comments to any of her posts. That has changed now. I've written a comment because I know how much getting that first real indication that somebody has actually read what you have written can mean to you. The blog has very few posts at the moment and I hope that the blogger isn't going to give up because I think that a blog from a law lecturer could be both informative and amusing at times, after all, don't they say that the law is an ass.

We all write our blogs for different reasons, but I am sure that we all hope that we won't be the only people to read them. Even a simple hello as a comment shows that we are not alone. It has made a big difference to me and I know that one of the reasons that I am feeling better than I have for years is writing this blog and knowing that it is not falling on stony ground.

3 comments:

Elaine said...

Okay then "Hullo"

I do read your blog, usually every day, but comment only rarely. I do the same with the very many blogs that I read. Sometimes I feel that someone has commented just what I was going to say and I think there is no point in repeating it. Sometimes a post does not resonate with me.

But I am here...

madsadgirl said...

Elaine,

I know that you read me regularly because you often comment. What I was actually trying to say with this post is that it can be quite interesting to look at the statistics that these counters can collect, and find out how people arrive at your blog in the first place.

You were an early commenter on my blog and I have always appreciated your early advice about commenting. I'm glad that you still find me interesting enough to visit on a regular basis.

alhi said...

Thank you for the comment on my blog. I haven't written anything in a couple of weeks as I've been on holiday and things were hectic before then! It will be rectified soon.

Alhi