4 Questions Every WordPress Blogger Asks Themselves
1. How do I get a hit from somebody located in China/Greenland/Iran?
There is just something horribly frustrating about seeing that empty white space for certain countries on your page views map. When your are just starting out you notice that most of the hits you get are from the country you are in (and if you don’t live in USA that is probably where you will get most of your other hits from). Slowly you will start to cover other spots on your map. For some reason there are going to be some countries you want hits from more badly than others. Possibly because the country has a huge land mass or because of its geographical location. For me the elusive country of the moment is Libya, so if anybody reading this knows anybody there, please send them a link. I don’t mind if they don’t read English or leave me a comment saying they hate my content, just as long as Libya is no longer white on my map.
2. Who are these random people following my blog?
Sometimes you find that you have new followers even though you don’t have corresponding page visits. I had 2 followers before my very first page visit. How exactly do these people follow you if they haven’t been to your site and clicked on the follow button? I did take the liberty of looking at blogs of some of these random followers and found that some of them belong to businesses, including escort services. I’ve yet to figure out how to stop specific people from following me.
3. What is up with people liking posts without reading them?
We’ve all been obsessive about stats at some point, something which makes it easy to notice people liking posts without it affecting your page views. Recently though I had the displeasure of being on the other side, in a manner of speaking. I returned to a blog I used to read a long time ago and liked a recent post (that I actually read). The next day I found a nasty comment on my blog from the owner of the other blog who accused me of not reading his blog. I ignored the comment and subsequently received another nasty comment the next day. By that point I realised he wasn’t going to leave me alone until I proved to him that I had actually read his post. In case you are wondering I did (eventually) receive an apology.
4. Why would anybody use that search term?
New bloggers might not see too many crazy terms but seasoned bloggers can probably write a book (or blog post) on the terms people have used to end up on their site. You see everything from racists statements like ‘do filipinas pretend to be pregnant’ to confusing searches like ‘i just want to be your friend summary’. Then there are the people who are lucky they can consult Google for questions like ‘are you allowed to honk a car in dubai’ so that their friends don’t think they are a complete moron.
Bonus question: Should I Google how to get someone from Libya to visit my blog?
Like it…
I know what you mean by the ‘map’ dilemma. I have a few more white spaces that your good self I would guess, but yeah, 100k hits from the US (yay), but it’s the single hit ones I love to see appear 🙂
Plenty of businesses, plus I have 4 ‘ladies’ in south america. My wife is just amused by it all.
The like not read issue could also be down to WP Reader or suchlike, where posts such as photo competition entries can be viewed in full without registering a page view.
Searches – tell me about; cracks me up some weeks.
🙂
SPIKE
Wow I would love to know your marketing strategy! I don’t forsee myself getting 100k hits in total let alone from one country…
Which white space are you looking to fill on your map?
Sure. Contact me sometime on uncle.spikes.adventures1@gmail.com and I’ll let you know what I have and haven’t done. All blogs and experiences are wildly different I know, but happy tell my side of it. Perhaps such knowledge sharing it would be mutually beneficial.
SPIKE 🙂
Reblogged this on Alexa Rose.
I would love to know how some people find my blog but I nearly always get “encrypted search terms” in my stats. I’m still very new at this so perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye?
For what it’s worth the majority of search terms that lead to this blog are listed as ‘unknown’. However the longer you blog for (presuming you post on a regular basis) the better you rank on search engines… which ultimately results in more people finding you via search… that’s when you start seeing more search terms that are not encrypted.
Thanks. I think I still have a long way to go then 🙂
I love this post letting other bloggers know we are not alone in our frustrations!
I’ll admit my ulterior motive was persuading followers to visit my blog on business trips to Libya
Am sorry….if I had any Libyian followers, I would definitely send them your way!
Greenland folk are very friendly and curious, (although there are not many of them) so if you do a post about Greenland—they will cautiously stop by. And you may even make a new friend in the process. I admit that I did a self-serving post with the clear aim of filling that spot in—–and then did a follow-up celebration post. 🙂 I love Greenland!
I’ve been fortunate enough to get my Greenland hit 🙂
It’s the African nations I seem to be struggling with… have you tried a self-serving post for any place other than Greenland?
Sort of–I did make a joke about a Mongolian yak herder and got a hit from Mongolia-That surprised me!
And I shamefully admit overdoing “like” buttons on blogs about Cuba to get that hit.
I am just down to countries that scare me for the rest of my map. 🙂
Oooh I didn’t even think about Cuba…I may need to get on that!
Pray tell which nations scare you
I will have to do a post around my map to explain it….maybe “scare” is the wrong word—there are many places with war, famine and other terrible things going on—I don’t fault them for not plugging in to my site.
True internet access is a lot less common in poorer nations
http://caveoffame.com/2014/11/01/what-we-doing-tonight-brain/ You inspired this post with my world map!
You have a hit from Libya!
Yea…that is from last week
I did read your blog, just in case your wondering ! lol…..
I recognise my regular readers don’t worry 🙂
Those search terms can really be amusing sometimes. And I don’t know anyone in Libya but if I am ever there , I will remember to look up your blog. 😀
What’s the weirdest search term you’ve seen?
Hmmm, weirdest has to be whether possum meat is edible.
I’m on the floor laughing over here.!! For me, it was Uruguay.!! For the longest time, every other South American country was looking or had looked at my blog. But not Uruguay.!! Finally, someone over there has taken pity on me.! lol…:)
Haha I’m still waiting on Uruguay and Paraguay myself
They’re tough nuts to crack.!!
I don’t worry too much about which countries visit my blog, but what does my head in is people liking one of my 1000+ word posts within 20 seconds of me publishing it. And where do all the followers go who follow you and then never seem to come back and visit? Why did they follow in the first place if they are never going to come back? I worked it out recently that just under 80% of my followers have never ever liked, commented or ever contacted me.
Yeah I’m pretty sure a lot of my followers have never seen my work either… I reckon businesses follow us in hopes of us using their services… but why a photographer half way across the world thinks I will want his services I really don’t know…
I have ceased to look at stats much. I love to write, and I try to remember that is why I blog. The internet is so many different things to different people as is blogging, and to try to figure it all out or apply a one fit for all to those who stumble upon my blog or are regular readers is not going to work.
You have readers and better still readers who comment you must be doing something right.
Very true it is definitely better to have regular readers than random hits from every country.
Oh me goodness. Firstly, thanks for liking my post. I hope you read it! ahem. Secondly, if I end up worrying about my stats and begin arguments with my ‘fake’ readers, just break my fingers so I can’t type another word. Oye! I love your humour. You have a ‘real’ follower.
Thanks for your kind words.
And yes I did read your post. I’ve really gotten into the Jian Ghomeshi case and can’t wait for a verdict.
Wow, I can’t believe how aggressive that blogger was! How rude! Glad you got an apology in the end. And the search terms – I just love them 🙂 Today’s finest ‘how does german guys sign of peace offiring for there girlfriend’ and ‘big cluu iy tomorrow cunninhbg’ ??
Pray tell how does a German guy sign such a peace offering
I’m still working on that 😉
Looking forward to that post!
I “liked” this post because I actually read it. Honest!
So does that mean you read the part about the monkeys applying for passports so they can travel to Niger?
The story in #3 is so bizarre.
I know eh… I was rather amused when he accused me of trying to get him to follow me because he had been following me for over a year!
This is true.
There was a search term – “How to get rid from a old crooked man who’s after your life?”
And I wondered Eh?
🙂 Can your blog answer that question?
No,not in any way.It’s just that my blog’s name is -Thoughts of a crooked mind.So maybe because of the name popping up in google search.
I got plenty from greenland but maybe because I’m talking about Iceland which is nearby 😀 As for China, I think the government is banning this, like facebook and other social media network. It’s still going to get tricky to get in touch with them 🙂
I’ve gotten one hit from China… officially WordPress is not blocked there but the low traffic seems rather suspicious.
Very suspicious indeed 😀
Yes, I read the post before liking it…Now, I’m drinking sweet tea and reading comments.