Friday, May 16, 2008

A Path Less Traveled

Dear blogger, ever wonder who visit your blog? And where they come from? Or even what they visit in your blog?


Sitemeter can be a credible source enough to learn about them. Especially if your blog is pretty much like mine, where unique visits are few and far between. Currently, I get a little less than 40 unique visitors each day.


One or two are quite regular visitors, like fellow blogger PhilippinesPhil, and thus would not be representative for why a typical or casual visitor decides to open up on my site. Phil visits almost all blog entries I write, whether serious, fanciful, or even those which may be woefully adjudged by some as bordering on inanity.

But many (and I say that relatively and advisedly given my blog’s miniscule reach) span the entire globe – from Finland, to different African countries, to Palestinian occupied territories, to most Asian countries including the old homeland Philippines, and even to unfamiliar places like Stoke-at-the-Trent, UK. I have been introduced to so many unheard of places that Google had only been too happy to oblige. And for me it is addedly exhilarating to note that certain things I write about, which admittedly have some profound importance to me, are also sufficiently interesting to other people in the globe.

But what things?

When I wrote a little piece on Cartesian logic, really just a passing reference and a little exposition of its meaning, little did I realize that to this day I continue to get visits from different parts of the world, but more likely from France and neighboring European countries. Of course, this type of logic is oft described as a national trait of the French.

The same thing happened when I started the series on food recipes of the different regions of the Philippines. In any given cluster of visits, I could depend on one or two visits looking for recipes of regions they originally came from, that is, from Filipinos who are now living abroad pining for the local cuisine of their youth.

One time I wanted to find out what could make my blog garner more visits. And early on had decided that writing about a breaking news scoop could be a good vehicle. Try I did about a grisly suicide of an accused husband to a murdered Philippine actress, and immediately tripled my readership. Unfortunately, the spike did not correspondingly elate and elevate my spirits. It was sort of an empty victory. Don’t they refer to this as Pyrrhic victory? I wanted more, more in terms of what I felt was important for me too.

So immediately reverted to my usual tack, writing mostly about things that meant something to me, and as much as possible giving them a positive spin. This way I felt good about myself, and thus motivated me to regularly go back and reread the stuff I had written, not so much as an ego-trip but to try and relive the warm feelings engendered by my writing the entries.

Writing about the genealogies of my father, my mother, and my wife’s mother have also stirred continuing interest. Right now, the genealogy of my father’s family continues to get hits from around the globe which I suspect come from possible relatives who want to learn more about their past and relations.

But beyond this, and more like the wayward but equally delicious crust of a favorite pie, it also made me feel fuzzy to discover that strangers from some distant corners of the world, populated by people who do not even share commonly my background and predispositions could find some of my writings interesting enough to go and visit for a few minutes or so. Like entries about credit unions, some hobbies and pastimes, even deeply personal things such as sketches and drawings.

All these have helped make regular blogging to this day a sustaining effort for me.

Thanks to all visitors. You are most welcomed.

15 comments:

  1. Yup, sitemeter is cool.

    I discovered that even when I don't write for a while my visits remain about the same, especially during school here in the Phils.

    The reason: I have about a half-dozen treatises on Philippine History that is continuously visited by the school kids over here intent I'm sure on plagiarizing my stuff. I love it. Cut and paste people! Cut and paste!

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  2. Phil:

    You know I have not really tried if some of my readers do copy parts of my entries without my knowledge. Not that I will not be tickled proud.

    Google can be helpful in finding out.

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  3. My post arguing for Bonifacio over Rizal as national hero is my most popular. I'm sure it gets pasted into lots of "reports." I say go for it...

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  4. And I did read your piece at one time. And more importantly, many would agree with you on that score.

    Strangely and maybe sadly, I never really was deep into hero-worshipping as a kid or even as a student. I confess I was more attuned to the wrong things in this regard - adulation of singers and movie stars.

    But I do read up on these matters, even at this late stage. The discovery that the choice of Rizal as a national hero was pushed harder by our American benefactors has thrown a different light into this issue. Plus, the coming to the surface of other hitherto unread materials about the two makes the debates not only relevant, but more animated. And maybe, more controversial.

    So I salute you on your efforts regarding this.

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  5. Come now buddy, that "stuff" about the Americans "pushing" Rizal down the throats of the people doesn't hold much water. For the most part, Americans had very little luck forcing Filipinos to do anything they didn't want to do. THAT was always a primary complaint of administrators trying to break the locals of "bad habits." No, the real reason Bonifacio was so easily glossed over is due to his shameful and ignominious end at the hands of his fellow countrymen. Even today, the average Filipino does not know or understand the circumstances of his death.

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  6. As i said the debates persist. But I tend to straddle the sidelines more, thus you won't get any quarrel from me on these issues.

    More power to all!

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  7. You running for office Amadeo?

    grin...

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  8. Let us just say that I do not know enough to pick a side.

    and unfortunately, my interest on this is rather limited.

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  9. You crack me up Amadeo...

    "...my interest on this is rather limited."

    In other words, you don't give a ... ! I love it!

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  10. Fun conversation you have here. For a while, with the doggie pics you keep on displaying I was expecting that you reveal that your recent entry on Princess resulted in an increase in visitors.

    My blog gets visitors curious about the year 2012 and the Bicol region. Your 40 unique daily hits is enviable for me.

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  11. Dave, unfortunately the pics of Princess did not really spike hits. Anyway, I placed them there because I liked the pics I took of the puppy.

    True, many visitors like to read up on places, especially as possible vacation destination. 2012 is just around the corner.

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  12. Hi,

    I'm Elmer and I work at pacificadvance.com, a company interested in blog advertizing. I found your blog theignatianperspective.blogspot.com engaging and I'm contacting you to ask if you are interested in blog post sponsorship.

    If you are interested, kindly mail back (elmer@pacificadvance.com) and I'll send you pricing details, guidelines and processes. Looking forward to doing business with you.

    Sincerely,

    Elmer
    Pacificadvance.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. I heard some bad things about Sitementer, including spreading of malware. Its reliability is also dubious. I'd go with Google Analytics, if anything. Normally I would rather use my server logs, but of course at Blogspot it's impossible.

    BTW, Ani-nouto pulls about 3000 visits a day (not sure about uniques, probably at least 500). Unsurprisingly, I find Tracy Today less rewarding.

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  14. I was told the same thing about Google Analytics, but I confess I have not really paid much attention to it given that my blogging really does not need such sophisticated data-gathering.

    From the sunny tropics a warm welcome to a fellow Tracy resident. No more news to tell about your forthcoming move to a sunnier state?

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Welcome. Your comments are appreciated.