Hi Readers!
I’m always wondering if anyone is out there reading. I’ve gotten some comments on my posts, so I know Mike, Mike, Tony, and Randy are reading. My college roommate Jay commented, and my friend Mell tells me he’s learned a few things. And my wife and daughter have read a few – but they have to.
I also got one comment in Russian. Thanks to Google Translate, I know it was an advertisement for HP servers. I removed it.
So, by my count, I have roughly 8 readers. Thank you for tuning in!
Statistics
But isn’t there some way to measure? Great question. Yes there are some ways. They are quite inconsistent.
Let’s start with AWStats. This is a function that comes with my blog hosting site. It is a simple open-source log file analyzer. Read more about it here though I’ll warn you, it’s not that interesting. In a nutshell, AWStats provides some metrics based on counts in my website’s log file.
What Does AWStats Tell Us?
According to AWStats, I have had over 7,000 visitors, and those 7,000 visitors visited 12,000 times in 2024.
This makes me happy. It seems like lots of folks are enjoying the site.
Unfortunately, I’ve learned that a whole bunch of web traffic comes from bots and crawlers and other automation that is scouring the internet for interesting stuff to read, index or steal.
For me, a more meaningful chart is this one that shows the time spent by visitor.
Under 30 seconds is likely a bot, but a good chunk of the ones over 30 seconds are likely readers.
They Love Us In Russia
This one makes me laugh.
What’s Popular?
All that aside, there is some valuable info here. This is a list of the top posts.
Nothing happens on the internet without Google knowing. That’s a little scary, but for someone who has a website, it can be helpful. Google has its own web traffic stats and it promises to filter out bots and even filter out the website owner (me) so that the results it shows are actual real people who have come to read.
This makes sense as the count is significantly lower. I started the site in January 2024, and it took me a couple of months before I set up Google Analytics, so the data I have is late April through December 2024, v. a full year of AWStats.
…and the answer is…
Google tells me that I’ve had 269 visitors over the past year. I don’t think this is exactly true. Many folks get a new IP address every time they go online with their internet provider, so it’s probably mostly Mike, Mike, Tony and Randy, but there are probably a few others.
Google also tells me that the average time spent per visit is about 2 minutes. It looks like most folks drop in for a quick read, though there are some instances where readers have spent more time.
And Google also tells me what are the most popular posts. Here’s a snapshot of the top hits.
Who’s Right?
I tend to think that Google is a more accurate representation of what folks are reading. I’ve had a lot of comments, feedback, discussion on my posts on hearing aids, ball-hawking, and media bias.
But who really knows. My post on compounding is one of my favorites. When I teach that in class, there is a lot of interest. It doesn’t show up high on the Google list, but AWStats has it as #3. And I hear it’s trending in the Czech Republic.
What’s Next in 2025?
I’ve written 132 posts in 2024 and I would expect another 100+ in 2025.
I started the blog because there are a huge number of websites that tell us what to do, but relatively few that explain how something works and enable us to make good decisions on our own.
I also have a lot of stories in my head that have no place to go. I enjoy putting them down on paper.
And it helps me think things through. For every post, I do some research, I challenge my knowledge and my assumptions, and I write what I’ve learned. While I can fool myself, I know Mike, Mike, Tony and Randy will call me out if I don’t do my homework.
I’ve evolved over the year. I’ve continued to write about finance topics, explaining how things work, encouraging readers to save and to invest, but I’ve expanded into some opinion pieces, info on hearing aids, which is a subject near and dear to my heart, and even car detailing.
Ball-Hawking was one of my most read. I’ll try some different things in 2025. One of the big things on my list is to find a better way to make all the posts I have more easily accessible, More to come on this.
But I’ll keep writing and would be happy to take ideas and suggestions. Many of the most popular posts come from suggestions. Ball-Hawking was my wife’s idea and Mike T suggested I write about my hearing aid journey.
I hope you’ll continue reading and please continue with comments, suggestions, and calling me out.
Thank You!
Brian