Mid-term Exam

It's time for a mid-term examination of this Web site. Sure it's a month behind schedule. But it's not like anybody in this class is paying attention anyways. Right? Yeah, I see you drooling on yourselves. WAKE UP!

Okay, now that I've got your attention, here's a little pop quiz. Don't worry, it's not like you're going to be graded on this. There aren't any wrong answers to these questions.

1. How often do you stop by this blog?
2. Do you read any other blogs and, if so, how many (approximate number)?
3. What would you do if you smelled smoke in a crowded theater?
4. What do you like most about this blog?
5. What do you like least about it?
6. What does the proverbial phrase "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" mean to you?
7. If you could change one thing abou this blog, what would it be?
8. Do you know why you are here?

Don't feel obligated to answer any of the above. I'm just trying to get a better feel for exactly who is reading this blog. Judging purely by the comments, it would be my guess that it's mostly people that I know. But the traffic stats seem to suggest that there are a lot more people stopping by here than there are people that I know.

An odd phenomenon: While I stopped doing any kind of promotion at the beginning of the year and sales of my book came to a screeching halt, website traffic here has continued to steadily grow. The last two months were the heaviest traffic months ever on ths blog, and I'm really at a loss to explain why.

Here are the Web site stats that I reported on Jan. 1 of 2006:

•  Raw Hits/Month (Avg): 5,376
• Unique Visitors/Month (Avg): 735
• Busiest Month: October (9,543 hits, 1,108 unique)
• Slowest Month: February (1,957 hits, 459 unique)
• Google Page Rank: 3/10
• Most Popular Search Engine Queries:

1. Randy Richardson
2. Lost in the Ivy
3. Marla Collins (or Cubs Ballgirl) nude (or Playboy)
4. Jo Frost (or Supernanny) nude
5. Bubs Daddy Gum

As a comparison, here are the same categories and their stats as of July 30, 2006:

• Raw Hits/Month (Avg): 8,010
• Unique Visitors/Month (Avg): 1,281
• Busiest Month: July (11,112 hits, 2,208 unique)
• Slowest Month: January (6,119hits, 1,001 unique)
• Google Page Rank: 4/10

Most Popular Search Engine Queries:

1. Bubs Daddy Bubble Gum 
2. Randy Richardson
3. Marla Collins (or Cubs Ballgirl) nude (or Playboy)
4. Gum Liquid (or Gooey) Center (or Filled)
5. Kweisi Dunlap

Super Bubble Apple is available from HometownFavorites.comBubs Daddy and Randy Richardson are actually running neck-and-neck and are well ahead of the rest of the pack. It's amazing to me that there are so many people out there searching for Bubs Daddy Bubble Gum -- which now is apparently being marketed as Super Bubble. Talk about a long-lasting gum. In the last month, 18 searches for Bubs Daddy led to my Web site. I guess it makes me feel a little bit better about the world that I'm running neck-and-neck with Bubs Daddy as opposed to, let's say, nude pictures of Supernanny, which, as far as I know, don't exist -- although that doesn't stop people from searching for them, I've previously discovered.

The most obvious absence on the top 5 is my book, which is also the title of this Web site and the impetus for launching this Web site.The last time it was No. 2. Now it doesn't make the top 5. In the past month, there was exactly one search of Lost in the Ivy that led to this Web site. That's a bit depressing to me.

A couple of new categories to chew on:

• Feed Subscriptions to My Blog: 158
• Raw Hits in the Last Year: 96,122

Not sure what to glean from all of the above. Other than that Web site traffic seems to have no impact at all on book sales. Translation: Just because people will read your words for free doesn't mean that they will pay to read them. 

Comments

[Dave]

Based on all of your stats, I have learned that all kinds of info is giving out when I am on the computer. I better be careful of what I am doing or I will never become President.

[Randy Richardson]

Uh, Dave, there was a certain picture of you that appeared in the Daily Vidette back in college which I suspect killed off any chances that you ever had of running for president. In the old days, I would have added that your college grades would have hurt your presidential ambitions. But that was before the current holder of that position set the bar to an all-time low.