Four Years of Blogging

Posted by Martin R on December 16, 2009
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i-3da4681e807251ca9dcccfc70d6a8180-PNCA-4.jpgToday is my fourth birthday as a blogger! (Here‘s my first entry from 2005.) I see myself as the proprietor of and main contributor to a small daily paper on subjects that interest me. And I am enjoying myself! Trafficwise, the mean number of unique readers per day has been as follows.

  • 2006: 157 daily readers

  • 2007: 852 daily readers
  • 2008: 937 daily readers
  • 2009: 714 daily readers (update 3 Jan)

These stats might suggest that the blog is ailing, but actually the mean values for ’07 and ’08 are skewed by huge spikes on a single entry each for those years (here and here). If we looked at the median (which is much more labour-intensive to calculate) instead of the arithmetic mean we’d see continuous slow growth in the readership. Aard is always near the middle of the traffic-ranking list we keep backstage here on Sb.

The blog’s not expanding its steady following much. Two years ago 130 of each day’s readers on average were identifiable returners. Right now 150 of them are. There seems to be considerable turnover among the regulars. Blog readers are fickle creatures.

I plan no changes around here, so unless you guys write me interesting letters whose replies might make good blog entries or give me speaking gigs in funny places, I’m simply going to continue writing about whatever pops into my head at the current rate of six entries a week. Because, as Terry Pratchett once said, writing is the most fun anyone can have by themselves.

Update same evening: Turns out Abel Pharmboy over at the pharma blog with the confusingly archaeological name, Terra Sigillata, celebrated his fourth blogiversary yesterday. He’s a single day ahead of me! And he’s also an extremely nice guy. Congrats, Abel!

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Comments

  1. #1 NIck Dvoracek
    December 16, 2009

    Happy Anniversary, Martin.

  2. #2 afarensis, FCD
    December 16, 2009

    Happy Blogiversary!

  3. #3 Krystal D'Costa
    December 16, 2009

    Congrats, Martin! (And the stuff that pops into your head is pretty neat at any rate.)

  4. #4 immo
    December 16, 2009

    Well done Martin!
    Have you tried Google analytics for pretty stats? http://www.google.com/analytics
    immo

  5. #5 Nick Williams
    December 16, 2009

    Trafficwise you seem to be doing well. No crashes or drunk driving! Congratulations.

  6. #6 Simone
    December 16, 2009

    I generally read through my google reader and then its sucked into an igoogle page – so probably doesn’t show up in your stats.

  7. #7 James W.
    December 16, 2009

    Congrats! Along with traffic, I think the interesting-ness of the content has gone up since I started reading back in 2007!

  8. #8 Martin R
    December 16, 2009

    Thanks guys, you’re very kind!

    Immo, Google Anal is actually the traffic counter I use. But it gets a little weird when you have to share it with all the other blogs on Sb. I don’t know what kind of stats I might be able to coax out of it for Aard only.

  9. #9 cicely
    December 16, 2009

    Happy Blogiversary!

  10. #10 Piere
    December 16, 2009

    Happy Blogibversary from me too, you are doing a great job!

  11. #11 Larry Ayers
    December 16, 2009

    Happy anniversary, Martin! I’ve greatly enjoyed your posts for at least a couple of years. Keep up the good work!

    I’ve also been blogging for about four years. Blogs create community, it seems.

  12. #12 Rowan
    December 16, 2009

    Happy Blogiversary!

    I am one of your daily, regular lurkers. I think I have been reading you over a year now.

    Keep on keeping on.

  13. #13 Paul Hanna
    December 17, 2009

    Happy birthday and keep up the good work. Now i found your blog i will read more often.

  14. #14 Barn Owl
    December 18, 2009

    Happy Blogoversary, Martin! I enjoy reading your perspectives on Swedish culture and on archaeology. I hope to be able to travel to Sweden again some day (realistically, the very distant future), but until then, perhaps I can have a vicarious experience through your posts. ;-)