Stats – Here’s Looking At You, Kid

According to the little counter I installed on the upper left of the page, Boggy Thicket just went over 800 views yesterday.  That doesn’t sound like much of a return for my efforts, and I’ll admit that it is  a little but  discouraging.  

I mean, just think about it, I’ve come across blogs about crocheting miniature doilies that have almost as many followers as I have hits. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing this and would probably keep doing it just because it gives my tired old brain much needed exercise.

Then yesterday, I came across something that makes me feel much more justified about the hours I've spent. 

There is a tab called STATS on the blogspot dashboard that allows the blogger  to view all sorts of interesting information – not only how many views the blog has had (almost 2200) but where the viewers are, what Browsers and Operating Systems they used, and which posts had the most hits.  The software won’t tell me your shoe size, number of siblings, or even your name or IP address, but it does provide a remarkable amount of information.

By far, my most popular post to date was Can't Fix Stupid - well - Sometimes You Can posted back in June.  Other popular posts included those about Brookings, Oregon and the one last month I called October and Awareness .

Most folks view my blog via Internet Explorer, and almost all of them (95%) are using Windows.  Some - 1% or less, - used browsers I had never even heard of; things called OneRiot, BAVM, and Jakarta Commons-HTTPClient.

The vast majority of my visitors are from the USA, but I’ve had at least 64 viewers from Canada, 34 from Brazil, 30 from France and 20 from China.  There have been 19 each from Spain and Italy, 16 from Switzerland, and 15 apiece from Turkey and Japan.

The STATS tab also lists  search terms and referring sites.  Most visitors came to Boggy Thicket via Google and the next largest group via FaceBook.

I have no explanation for the disparity between the counter on the page and the one on the dashboard, but I think I’ll believe the one on the STATS tab and keep the other one up there just to keep me humble.