My first year as a blogger - the stats

I didn't start to write my blog in order for people to read it. It seemed to me a good way of keeping a diary and various thoughts/essays in a format that I could maintain more easily than pen and paper.

The fact that other people could read it is not a problem. There's nothing too personal and if I write anything bad about anybody, then they deserve it and should act better in the future.

One of the good things about Blogger is that it keeps all kinds of stats and, although I didn't start a blog to attract readers, once I started to write things and saw that people were reading them, it became something of an interest.

These are the stats. I'm not obsessive, by the way, Blogger makes it easy, almost compulsory to record every click.

My year started quite well in November 2011 with 117 page views and the records kept tumbling. I hit pay-dirt last month when I wrote a piece about a bike racer's battle to get fit after an horrendous leg injury. Tom tweeted it and the rider - Ian Hutchinson - retweeted it, so my page views went through the roof!

This is the records of page views from November 2011:

November.....117

December......69

January......118

February.....342

March........251

April........208

May..........348

June.........309

July.........324

August.......234

September....384

October......518

November...1,671

Total......4,893

and in graph format ...

It's interesting to see where blog readers come from (well it is to me). Most are UK based, with the USA being the next biggest, then Russia ... let's make a nice list:

1. UK

2. USA

3. Russia

4. Germany

5. Ireland

6. France

7. Australia

8. Belgium (thanks Tom and Hannah)

9. Sweden

10. Isle of Man (probably due to writing about the TT and TT racers).

Now I've started making lists I can't stop. These are the top search terms that have brought people to my blog:

1. Boris bikes

2. Nina Conti

3. Saxmundham (a bit random)

4. Burston Field House

5. Barley Field

6. Astbury Pelsall

7. Ian Hutchinson leg

The top stories, by page views, were:

1 Ian Hutchinson - Closer to the Edge (824)

2. Cakes, Puddings and Quince Jelly (151) - I think this benefited from being next to the Ian Hutchinson post. Bike race followers read that and went to see what was next. They must have wondered what the hell they were reading.

3. Taking in the TT (130)

4. The Joys of Motorcycling (70)

5. My Wedding Diary (54)

6. Mad Sunday T-Shirts Banned (53)

7. Save the Suffolk Newts (52)

8. Pedalling my Boris Bike (50)

9. What Colour is the Highway Code? (50)

10. Letter from Amarica (50)