Five Years of Blogging

Posted by Martin R on December 16, 2010
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i-80514ca0018b62df9dcbd010091e1c3b-Demuth-Figure5InGold.jpg

Today is my fifth birthday as a blogger! (Here‘s my first entry from 2005.) Five years, that’s 13% of the time I’ve been out of the the womb so far. I had no idea that I’d be doing this. Funny how your life can change.

My 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
  • 2010: 1005 daily readers (updated after year’s end)

These stats might suggest that the blog has just regained its health after a serious slump last year, 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 an accelerating growth rate in the readership over the years. Aard is always near the middle of the traffic-ranking list we keep backstage here on Sb.

These encouraging figures are not just a result of some upgrade in Sb’s overall Google rank or of increased spillover from the hugely popular Pharyngula. Aard’s steady following is actually expanding. Three years ago 130 of each day’s readers on average were identifiable returners. A year ago 150 were. Now you guys are 185 on average! Keep those comments coming!

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.

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Comments

  1. #1 Aurnab Arc
    December 16, 2010

    Happy Birthday as a Blogger. Hope you can do much better in future as well any how . :)

  2. #2 Richard D
    December 16, 2010

    Happy Birthday! I’m one of the 35 extra returners over last year I suppose :)

  3. #3 Martin R
    December 16, 2010

    Thanks guys, your presence is much appreciated! Aurnab, I too hope I can do much better in the future.

  4. #4 Nicole Tumbleson Morris
    December 16, 2010

    Congratulations on 5 years of blogging!

  5. #5 Ian, Brighton
    December 16, 2010

    Congrats, Martin!

  6. #6 blf
    December 16, 2010

    May your blog be eaten by a reindeer—or something like that. Sorry, I’m not too up on traditional Swedish sayings saying congratulations.

  7. #7 Nick Williams
    December 16, 2010

    I enjoy the blog because of its variety. Keep up the good work.

    Terry Pratchett was obviously being polite when choosing not to mentioning that masturbation is good fun had by oneself.

    Nick

  8. #8 Kate
    December 16, 2010

    Happy blog birthday!

    Yours is actually the only one on ScienceBlogs I still read on a regular basis. So keep doing whatever you’re doing :)

  9. #9 Martin R
    December 16, 2010

    Thanks everyone!

    Nick, I’m afraid the proper reply to what you just said about Pratchett is actually “Well, duh”. But the variety aspect is here to stay, though I believe the hardcore “I want to read only about archaeology” readers tire of my whimsy pretty fast. The thing is, I’m not a hardcore “I want to talk only about archaeology” person.

  10. #10 ArchAsa
    December 16, 2010

    Who’s a big boy!?
    You are! Yes, you are!

    Happy bithday and hoping for 5 more yeats – at least.

  11. #11 Magnus Reuterdahl
    December 16, 2010

    Congratulations from Testimony of the spade – in other words I’m ca 1.3 blogg years younger than you.

    Magnus

  12. #12 Krys
    December 17, 2010

    Congrats Martin! Thanks for all the odd news you bring into my life :)

  13. #13 Tobias
    December 17, 2010

    Congrats Martin! December 16th is indeed a very special day, not the least since I turned 35 ;o)

    Looking forward to many more years with Aard!

  14. #14 Martin R
    December 17, 2010

    Thank you my friends! And congrats Tobias!

  15. #15 Thinker
    December 17, 2010

    Happy Bloggiversary, Martin — here’s to many more!

  16. #16 Paul
    December 24, 2010

    I’m a weekly reader and love your blog! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the world.