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April 01, 2005
Tedlog Stats for March 2005
Today is the one-month anniversary of Tedlog. Some quick stats:
- Posts: 45
- Comments: 35
- Unique visitors: 3,260
- Pages viewed: 16,384
- Number of people who clicked on the "tedhair.jpg" image to get a larger view: 100
- Number of people who downloaded the movie I made in grad school about Star Trek: 41
- Strangest search string which led visitors to the site: "a man tries to overnight himself as a package." It led to my essay on Cast Away, although the searcher was more likely looking for info on the Velvet Underground's "The Gift."
Overall, I'm thrilled and a little boggled by the numbers, given that I'm just starting this thing. I'm particularly encouraged by the upward trend. At the beginning of the month, I was averaging 135-150 unique visitors a day. By the end of the month, I was up to over 200 unique visitors each day.
By far the biggest boost was the "Pick Ted's Hair Contest," which produced an immediate uptick in visitors. I may have to start thinking about other aspects of my persona which could be made over by blog vote. Any suggestions? (I guess the next contest could be, "Pick Ted's Next Contest.")
The content of the blog has been even more all over the place than I expected. I started out with the goal of making the blog an extension of my academic work - sort of a cultural studies version of how economist J. Bradford Delong writes about the economic aspects of breaking political news. There's been a fair bit of that, but I keep finding myself getting sidetracked by cats, baseball, gardening, Buddhism, and all my other random obsessions and fleeting enthusiasms. The result is probably a more accurate map of my scattered mind, but perhaps less useful than a more targeted resource. That's unlikely to change, though, because expounding on all this stuff has turned out to be more fun and rewarding than I could have imagined. And in the long run, I guess I do still hope that I can build a grand unified theory of cats, baseball, gardening, Buddhism, and post-Marxist critical theory.
I do hope to keep building up a readership, because part of the fun of this is feeling like it's not simply spinning into the void. I started out my writing career as a freelance critic at magazines like Spin and Details, because I wanted to find an outlet where my voice could be heard. I switched over to academia, because I wanted the freedom to write more than 200-word record reviews. Blogging may offer the best of all worlds.
Thanks for listening!
Posted by tedf at April 1, 2005 01:28 AM
Comments
I like the variety! There is a collective thread in that: all posts are written in your voice. Getting a sense of these different interests by reading over time also makes for a bigger picture. The "bigger picture" being a Buddhist, baseball playing cat with a green thumb. ;-)
Posted by: Nate at April 1, 2005 04:31 PM
Hey, 200 words was when we really let you stretch out! The basic record review was just 125, I believe.
Posted by: Gavin at April 2, 2005 12:48 AM
If it's still on the table, I'd appreciate a contest that will help explain weird expressions that I'm too embarrassed to say I don't understand. For example, "I said my piece." Is that peace (like a relief) or piece (my part)? "Soup to nuts" is enjoying a renaissance, but it presents obvious challenges. And most recently, "keep it real" leaves me wondering what people are referencing. On my last visit to Target, this mantra was emblazoned on a variety of t-shirts and accessories.
Posted by: Caroline at April 8, 2005 01:53 PM
Wow, I don't know what it means to keep it real by shopping at Target. I'm a big fan of Target, but I'd think Wal-Mart would probably have more street cred. What I like about Target is exactly how well they keep it fake, with cheap knockoffs like those Michael Graves and Todd Oldham collections.
Posted by: Ted at April 10, 2005 03:35 AM
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