Still Blogging: What If No One’s Reading?

Blog Stats Users 2019

I’ve been pretty steadfast in my view that this blog is mostly a place for me to think out loud and curate my teaching, reading, music and making experiences. I can’t tell you how valuable the search engine widget on my blog is to me.

Still, my blog is open and public, which makes me periodically curious about whether anyone else bothers to read what I am writing. I don’t have empirical proof (no raw numbers) but it does seem as if the reading of blogs, and commenting on blogs, has been on a trending decline for the last five years or so (probably right around the time Google pulled the plug on its popular RSS reader and Facebook emerged as the place to share, unless you’re me.) Or perhaps I am just losing traction with readers.

The other day, I went into the back end of who comes here and does what while they are here for the past year. It’s a curious inquiry to dive into the numbers, which reduces the humanity of interactions to data analysis.

So, if you are a human who comes here to spend a few minutes with my words, thank you. I appreciate it. And if you are someone who spends a couple of extra minutes leaving a note, comment or observation, thank you. I write for myself but I appreciate the company.

Blog Stats Activity 2019

Here are some observations:

  • I had 11,000 or so people visit my blog during the year. That’s a nice crowd of peeps to wander through my space
  • The average time spent for each person was only 40 seconds. Not sure what you can read beyond the header in 40 seconds
  • The top users are also repeat visitors. Probably my friends in CLMOOC and other connected spaces. We visit our spaces and interact regularly — a reminder that small is good and large might just mean getting lost in the mix
  • Most visitors only go the landing page and leave — the number of folks who go layered deep is pretty small in comparison to the larger visiting numbers
  • Only one post with the most page views of the entire year of 2019 was written and posted in 2019 — the rest of the top ten list were all from other years. I guess that’s an argument for having a curated space. It also is an argument that I am not writing much interesting stuff anymore. 🙂

None of this will change the way I write and blog my days. But I do find it intriguing to see how the space is being used by others.

Peace (and thanks for spending more than 40 seconds today with me),
Kevin

 

20 Comments
  1. I get fascinated by the amount of accounts that are created to use my WP blog – I assume just to write spam comments. Do you see the same on your blog?

  2. I only come here for the anti-spamitude, but I stay for other stuff.

    antispamibirdie: golf coma I had a golf coma after only nine holes. What will the back nine do to me?

  3. You make an important distinction, Kevin, between your purpose in blogging in this space, and what your visitors are looking for. At the end of the day, I think most people who blog without $$$ attached do it for the reasons you state, “think out loud and curate.” I am glad for your steadfastness!

    • That’s a good point. If you are making a living from blogging (well, good luck to ya), then the approach would be different. I’m not and don’t intend to.
      Kevin

  4. I do love blogging, Kevin, reading responses, and reading your thoughts. I am giving a nod to you on my blog tonight for your thoughtful poem response you sent me.

  5. I read your site regularly along with a few others. I’m using Inoreader to archive blogs I value and also have a section in my web library with links.

    I have used my blog since 2005 as part of the overall public awareness and education strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I formed in 1993. I’ve tracked hits for 15 years and agree traffic has gone done since the early years. In 2016 i recorded 206k hits, in 2017 that was 123k; in 2018 it was 80k and in 2019 it was 57k.

    While I’d like to see the numbers going in the other direction I also believe that it only takes one reader to have a transformative impact on what I do and how the ideas are used.

    During 2007-2011 I had graduates from Northwestern University serving as full year fellows, and I asked each to write regular blogs to reflect on what they were learning and share it with their networks. Yesterday I created for articles on my intern blog to point to the blogs these students wrote.

    You can see them here. https://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/search/label/NUPIP

  6. I have also noticed this pattern over the last few years. It’s one of the reasons that I started putting more time into making videos and started a podcast this fall.

    I read your blog through Feedly. To my knowledge, those who read a site entirely in Feedly and other RSS readers don’t show up as visitors in Google Analytics.

    • Thanks — so looking at any data like this is an act of incompleteness …. all the more reason to write for oneself, with a window into the room for others, if interested …
      Kevin

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