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Polar bear with carrot

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Horn tooting

I started checking my blog stats a few months ago. A purely academic exercise since I don't advertise and I try to keep the evangelizing to a minimum. The blog is a word of mouth affair or something found by blind chance, I don't even send it out all that often anymore, hoping that the people that enjoy it will figure out how to bookmark it.

And many of you have. Every trip I take I meet scores of people who follow the blast saga through thick and thin. I am a regular part of many people's day that I have never met personally. Even got a free dinner or two out of it recently, thank you! Apparently people that don't read blogs read this one, your humble author included.

Anyhow we had 7160 unique page views this month, up from 7066 last month. This is very consistent readership. My all time high is a little over 11,000, probably when I was picked up by Crooks and Liars last time. Of course I have only been checking for four months. Numbers aren't earth shattering but they ain't bad at all. Many of you just keep coming back.

I dig the fact that I have developed a regular expatriate readership, even if most of the arab guys are just surfing for porn. But feel a little closer to my pals in Thailand, New Zealand, Japan and Hawaii who still check in regularly. Still little traction in Africa, Europe holding pretty steady. Not to mention those in  Indiana, Virginia, Toronto or those lurkers who have managed to cloak their identities.

I have about 6000 of my photographic images floating around cyberspace, saw one of them get appropriated today for a McCain poster. Flattering, I guess. I have written a ton of shit, and it is going to live for eternity or at least in cache memory, that is if the plug ever gets pulled. I would probably be drawn and quartered for my subversion in some less forgiving country so god bless the old U.S. of A.!

KJ has been telling me for years that I should be making money off this thing but I must admit to not really figuring a proper way to sell out yet. Not that I have been hit with many offers, the folks at Harpers must have lost my number. I am actually in the middle of some educational writing that might prove financially beneficial.

I met an old acquaintance at dinner who informed me that he has been reading the blog for a long time, back before I tried to quit in fact. He found it one day surfing and keeps pretty close tabs. Said that he really liked my writing. I had no idea and thanked him. It is a real compliment.

Thanks everybody! Thanks for tuning in.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Needs more movie reviews, less commentary on the fig crop yields in Bhutan.
Thanks.

grumpy said...

love those Bhutan figs baby

Anonymous said...

It is every blogger's fantasy to make money off his blog. You might as well fantasize about schtupping Scarlett Johansen too; neither is going to happen!