Who's Reading the Ramble?

by Pa Rock
Really Good Typist

A few weeks ago I made a whiny statement in one of these posts regarding all the effort that goes into writing something every evening for a very limited audience. In fact my youngest son and a couple of close friends were the only ones who seemed to be following my daily ravings. One of my old college buddies, Mike Box, suggested that I start using the website that he uses to track the hits on his blog – www.sitemeter.com.

On Thursday, July 23rd, while in San Antonio, I finally checked out Sitemeter and figured out how to connect it to Pa Rock’s Ramble. To my utter surprise and disbelief, I learned quickly that I have a small core of regular followers, and, in addition, the blog is pulling in a couple of dozen surfers a day. Just eight days into this process, I now find myself checking my stats on Sitemeter several times a day. I can tell how many hits The Ramble has had in the past hour, day, week, and beyond – and I have access to the locations of anyone who is or has been on the site.

Here are just a few of the basic statistics: Since signing onto Sitemeter a week ago yesterday, 223 people have visited Pa Rock’s Ramble, or an average of 27 a day. Those visitors have logged onto 370 of the articles that I have written. Most enter the site through the homepage, but many have come to The Ramble through search engines while seeking out particular topics. Over a third of the visitors have been referred by Google.

The most common points of entry besides the home page for the past eight days were: The Sad Ballad of Randy Leach (published on April 16, 2008 with 8 hits), Lovecraft Words (June 14, 2008 - 6 hits), Pa Rock's Dead Pool Entries (January 2, 2009 - 6 hits), August Rush (June 2, 2009 - 6 hits), A Tale of Two Vets (July 28, 2009 - 6 hits), and Rest in Peace Emmett Till (July 11, 2009 - 4 hits).

I was also interested in where all the visitors were coming from. Sitemeter can identify the preponderance visitors by the geographic location. Most visitors to The Ramble are from the continental United States. The blog appears to have regular readers in Kingwood, TX, Ochelata, OK, Topeka, KS, Leawood, KS, and San Jose, CA. It has had hits from a majority of the states - which was quite a surprise to me.

Today Pa Rock's Ramble had a visitor from the southern coast of Spain. Other international visitors over the past eight days have included APO Armed Forces in Europe (Middle East), Saudi Arabia, Germany, Holland, Romania, Japan, Kuala Lumpur, Canada, Puerto Rico, and 5 hits from the United Kingdom - including London, Edinburgh, and three smaller communities.

As I type this, there is one person reading The Ramble in Langhorne, PA. That person entered through the homepage, and this appears to be his or her first visit.

Okay, 223 visitors in eight days is not a huge readership - in fact, it struggles even to even be considered a modest audience. But that modest number has me pumped and gives me the energy to keep typing. So I guess that you all are stuck with Pa Rock for awhile!