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I’m doing a little midnight Keepa navel gazing. My stats program preserves all kinds of measurements – number of visitors, what posts you read, how long you spend reading them, whether you leave Keepa after one post or stick around to explore, what Google searches bring newcomers. Those figures are mostly interesting to me in the case of individual posts: Is this post more popular than that one? Are you spending more time than usual to read through the post and all comments, or are you clicking away after only a minute?
Here’s a graph of daily visitor counts back to early 2009, the date when I installed the stats program. Two points interest me: First, you can tell by the white space under the spikes that readership has remained strong, even grown, despite the general decline of participation in the Bloggernacle (the actual figures tell me that, but I like seeing the picture); and second, while Keepa posts don’t go viral very often, when they do go viral they go very, very viral, and it’s happening far more often recently than it ever did during the heyday of Mormon blogs.
Two of those peaks — one in 2013 and one in 2015 — are Amy’s posts, by the way.
I think I don’t want to publicly report daily visitor counts or the number of readers for individual posts, but barring that, is there anything you’d care to ask about Keepa stats?
Very cool.
Where are newcomers coming from? Google searches, or links from aggregators (e.g., Mormon Archipelago).
Graphs can be fun and easier to ‘see’ than numbers but they can also be shamelessly abused. This is not the case here and thanks for that. The graph shows loyalty, confidence of content, and shared interest. Like the conversation I pass in the hall and find so drawn in that I want to listen in without being rude and keep my own unworthy comments to a minimum. I notice you do not self promote when you comment elsewhere. It may grow the ‘brand’ without damaging it if you were selective in the effort. But what does this lurker know?
David, about half of every day’s visitors come through Google searches, so are probably mostly first-timers, and despite those posts where I share the most bizarre search terms, most of the searches really do make sense: names of (I presume) ancestors, help with Sunday School lessons, old Mormon cultural things (bandlos, Gold and Green balls), terms that are in Mormon news (seer stone, gay family policy), or searches for missionary or pioneer or other topical stories that look as though somebody might be working on a talk. Also marijuana. Always marijuana.
When a post has been shared on Facebook — usually not Keepa’s FB page, but something a reader has shared — I see a LOT of traffic coming from FB. Ditto for posts that have been linked by one of the other Mormon blogs, or by LDSLiving or Dan Peterson, or by some ex-Mormon site complaining that I actually appear to believe in Mormonism, or some other site with a large following. That kind of sharing accounts for all of the highest spikes, and of course most of that traffic is people who aren’t regular Keepaninnies.
Thanks, Dutchscouter! I don’t promote Keepa when I comment elsewhere, beyond sometimes linking here through my signature, I suppose because it often irritates me when someone comments here solely to promote his own product: “Great post! I wrote about this topic [link].” (I explicitly exempt from that irritation people who link to posts where they have taught a class using a Keepa story, or made some Children’s Friend craft they found through Keepa, and posts by friends who regularly support Keepa and who, like Ben S., for example, link to their own solid posts on their specialties. And Chris H., of course, who always has my back and can link to anything he jolly well pleases.) But I try not to do to others bloggers what I don’t like them doing to me, and I sometimes ask for permission before posting a Keepa link in their threads.
I do like to know when a post has hit the spot, and appreciate lurkers coming out of the dark to say so. Keepaninnies often add great value to posts with their own contributions. I’ve heard from some readers who are hesitant to speak up because they don’t have some earth-shattering new thing to say — but even a brief “I liked that” or “This made me laugh” makes the effort of posting worthwhile.
Navel gazing is awesome. I’m a regular reader, but I almost always come through Feedly and only read one page per visit.