So I'm not sure who you are in Iceland but it's cool to know you are tuning in and checking out the blog. Even if it is for only 2 seconds.About a week ago, I put a stat counter on the blog (see column to the right under Visits since November) to get a notion of how much traffic we see and who is watching us. The results are in and a fascinating look emerges at who is tuning in. We have had almost 200 hits in the last seven days, mostly from returning friends and family. Here are some interesting facts:
~ According to the visitor map, the pacific northwest, naturally, is where a majority of our traffic is coming from. Our hub of friends and family there make that an easy stat to believe. New York, we know who you are. California and Medford, Oregon: you are accounted for. Germany, we love you. Saudi Arabia is Heather's folks. After that, it turns into a bit of guess work: Texas, Louisiana, Poland, England, France and Iceland are harder to peg but only stick around for a second or two...hello, window-bloggers! Is that a term? I may have just coined a new phrase: window-bloggers. Drop a comment if you've heard of this one before.
~ The following blogs link to us: Zesty Enterprise and The Freelance Mama. We get traffic from both these friends sites and encourage you to check them out. Facebook has a link that we have posted that brings some visitors as well from the PLU side. (View Erik's facebook) (View Heather's facebook)
(SIDE NOTE: At the risk of sounding too eager we should mention an exciting potential link to our blog. There is a bit of chatter right now of a link (potentially) to HongKongMelver from the official PLU website. Having worked at PLU and been intimate with the meetings to discuss such linkage, I'm not holding my breath. It would be an unprecedented occasion to see such a bold and controversial connection made by the PLU web. HongKongMelver would welcome the additional audience but understand the complexity involved for PLU to make the changes in policy to allow such a thing. You'd think having a willing and visible presence of a Lute couple and their family living overseas would be a great thing to share with the world from a PLU perspective. I've added a link to PLU's website on HongKongMelver as an offering to forge the alliance. Bring it on, PLU! We love you like family. )
~Almost half of our visitors clock in at under 5 seconds. Those must be our returners coming to see about new news or vids (or lack thereof). Hopefully, it takes you longer than 5 seconds to read down this far and pop you into a different visit-length category: the 30-seconds-to-five-minute club. The 30sec-to-5min crowd makes up about 15% of the traffic coming to check in.
~ Our second largest block of visitors stays on the site for over an hour. Almost a third! Now I'm not sure what you are doing hanging out for more than 20 minutes on HongKongMelver but keep it up. Having your presence means a lot and we love the company. It's you hour-or-more folks that I feel guilty about not having more new content more often to reward your dedication. Stay tuned: exclusive Hong Kong Disney footage, a visit from long time friends (Ed and Geoff Gibbs of Fools Play Improv fame) and an Anika dream sequence are on the way to video as soon as our out of town guests are on a plane.
~ Everyone is linking to our blog using Google. Hands down, the favorite direct entry of 99% of our new and returning guests. I guess that's a significant tidbit albeit a bit nerdy to list here.
So whether you are coming from a google search or tracking from a friend's blog, keep checking back everyone and know that we are watching you watching us.
By the way, we tune in several times a day to read your comments. A new trend that confuses us is (since the videos have gone up, starting two weeks ago) is that your posted comments to us have trickled off. Not sure why but we hope you'll take a minute to get registered and post so we and everyone else can hear from you. We love reading what your first impressions are after checking in.
By the way, all the stats about HongKongMelver are on display for you to look at anytime. Just click on Who's reading HKM around the world? in the column to the right of this entry.
16 comments:
First of all, LOVING THE VIDEOS. As one of your main commenters, I can see how my not commenting was noticed! No reason, really. :)
Secondly, can I go on record as being against the PLU thing? Of course I will read you and love you all the same if you do it, but I like the voice of your blog as directed towards your friends and family. I think it would change it a lot if you were speaking to the larger Lute-y audience. Just my .02.
The videos are so cool!
So when do I get to be listed as a "Friend" in your sidebar? Huh? Huh?
--J
Copy that on the Lute-connect tip, Jenny!
Even with our increase in audience, the voice of HongKongMelver will not change. It will always remain me talking to my close friends and family even if there are a few strangers peaking in from time-to-time.
I'm most excited about the PLU link getting in touch easily with friends and colleagues from PLU that may find me and Heather through PLU that would be otherwise hard to find. On a limb (and here is where I might eat crow later), I think that the number of people might go up momentarily once on PLU's website but then trickle back down once the PLU regulars figures out it's not directly about them.
All that said, your $.02 is more like a gold brick to Heather and I so I'll definitely be weighing everything with Heather later on today now that you mention it. Thanks for the kudos on the vids and being so rad. As a blogger, I look to Zesty Enterprise as the original inspiration for the blogging I do now.
Freelance Mama is on! Cheers ~e
Aw, shucks. Thanks!
BTW, I love seeing Hong Kong on my site meter! :)
site meters are pretty fun; i have a strong following in bulgaria & am not sure why. But, I too love seeing Hong Kong in my stats..
by the way, HKM has quickly become one of my favs because of the videos..
xo
I'm like the last person on blogger to check my stats it looks like, Dahli. Is it weird that I took a whole blog entry to talk about the details?
Hey Erik! fun to see where all your fans are! That's pretty cool. You should check out goodsearch.com instead of google. You pick a charity and every time you search money goes to that charity. A small amount of money but still . . . I personally use Vadis as my charity. It's the org. Darren used to work for when he found jobs for adults with developmental disabilities. But there are lots of charities to choose from and you can even add one I think =) check it out . . .
Love you! I will be there in 33 days! AHHHHHH!
nice hair by the way!
Dude - WHERE IS YOUR HAIR????
This reminds me of the part of The Truman Show when he becomes aware that he's being watched by everyone.
And don't worry about us 'over an hour' people. We just dont reed that gud.
love from nyc
BTW love...France is Kolby!
It's all good y'all!
Erica, Hair's on hiatus until Christmas. Do you like it?
Annelise, love the idea about goodsearch...I'll look into it.
Christopher! Holy outta-the-blue, Batman. Love that you are tuning in, brother! I gotta get a link to your blog. Could you send me the link?
The reduction in comments is normal blog behavior. And I will cry myself to sleep tonight because I also link to your blog and got no shout out. It's just buried in my long long list of links. I am super curious about your upcoming post with Geoff and me in it. I'm thrilled we got to spend a week with you guys. Jenny and Aaron are going to prang out when they visit.
Hey Mrs. Mevler!
I love using the stat thing to keep track of people visiting web sties. I used to use it back when I had xanga, it was so useful.
If you go to your stat to check for details, you can easily find me, since I am the only person in HK that you know that is using a mac to visit your page..
I haven't seen you all week last week during your WWW activity, well I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. I'd better get back to my homework.
Bryan
I'm just going to say: Thanks for sharing your adventure.
And you're likely going to be one of many influences for me going into the next year. I started blogging almost a year ago, mostly on why I love living in Tacoma ... but after following more blogs, I'm thinking of branching out. Still offering Tacoma some love ... but I'm not quite as scared of the outlet anymore. Thanks for being a teacher while still being a student! :)
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