Does anybody even use Feedburner anymore? Back when I started blogging, Feedburner was an important tool, but now my only subscriber on there is the Google Feedfetcher. Thinking of getting rid of it, but as soon as I do somebody will ask where it is. I guess it's not hurting anything except my pride, sitting there empty.
I can approximate my readership by combining my Google Reader subscribers with my Feedbook subscribers and allowing for overlap, also using the stat meter as a guide. I think it's about 30 but it could be as low as 20 or as high as 40. Some are perpetual lurkers, and that's okay. There are plenty of blogs I read daily but don't comment on, so I don't mind. I've made the blog to be as public and accessible as possible. There will be lurkers.
I do wish I could get better stats from Google Reader, though. It only tells how many are subscribed, not where they are or how many items they've read, which would be nice. Since the lurkers who subscribe to my feed don't show up in the stat counter, it's really impossible to tell which posts interest them.
It's no big deal, I guess, just something I'm thinking about this morning. It's the great unsolvable Internet mystery--How Many People Actually Read This Damn Thing?--and greater minds than mine have pondered it.
Y'all have a great day, those who comment and those who don't. You're all important to me. :)
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
I read this thing sometimes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I over estimate my readership. Apparently you are the only one. Man, I better suck up to you.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't really read your posts. I mean, I come over here and tick the page counter so you'll feel better, but in the end, I really don't pay much attention to what you have to say.
ReplyDeleteJ/K.
Do you use SiteMeter? I think they have much, much better statistical analysis ability than anything WordPress or Google can offer to WP users. It's also possible for you to use Google Analytics now, too, isn't it? You're not on the free blog plan anymore, you're using a paid domain. So you can set up Google Analytics (which are free) and get some stats on where your visitors are clicking, how long they're spending on your page, what they're spending the most time on, etc.
Just some thoughts for ya. Take advantage of the un-free-ness of your domain name and find a free tool to help you wrack up the numbers and sort 'em out.
You should look into Google Analytics.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/analytics/
I read it!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not so sure that Reader doesn't ping your blog - remember when I was wondering who in GA was visiting me, and it turned out to be you? We figured it was either your email server or Reader server tagging me, and then when you'd comment I'd get a hit from that too. Stats are so hard to decipher! You could get one of those little maploco things like I have to see where people are, and statcounter's pretty good. IP2Map give me people's IP addresses and locations ... lots of options out there for you to choose from. :)
I use Statcounter. It gives me all the referrers and locations and search terms and maps, so that's nice. It's actually giving me all the information I need, but like Fal says, it's deciphering it all. It's the ones who don't actually visit my URL, but instead get the feed from somewhere else that causes the confusion. And do I really care to spend all the time necessary to cross-reference and stuff? Maybe I would have a year ago, but not now.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Analytics is way too complicated for my purposes. I had it on my old WP blog, but I found it really hard to navigate and I rarely checked it. yeah, I'd probably get more use out of it now that I have paid hosting, but...meh. Not worth the trouble. I keep thinking I might need it if I sell a book and my traffic goes way up, but then I won't have time to do it. Oh well, that's why it's the great unsolvable internet mystery. ;)
I'm a bit late on this one- but I have to confess, I don't really GET what feedburner is/does...
ReplyDeletexo
As far as I can tell, Feedburner is just a place through which you route your rss feed so you can keep track of it. It's never been of much use to me, but at one time (about three years ago, ancient times) it was THE must have accessory, again, as far as I could tell.
ReplyDelete