Googles' Blogger Statistics

Friday, March 14, 2014
    Cold, cloudy, and snow forecast

Google's Blogger Statistics

Introduction

   I thought I'd write about a topic that most people who just read blogs are not aware of. It's the topic of statistics. The company that I use is Blogger, and it's owned by Google. When I started to blog, I researched the blog companies available, and my search narrowed down to the 2 biggest by signed up writers. The 2 were WordPress and Blogger.  I can;t really remember why I chose Blogger,  but after 3 years, I can now give you my opinions and write about the stats.

   If you're going to blog, then you have to do it because you like to write and in my case enjoy taking photographs. However, sooner or later, you want to know that there are people out there who actually read what you write. At the beginning, I would check my stats, because you have to get to the stats page in order to get to your blog. Again, at the beginning, I had 3 blogs. Eventually, I decided to focus on just one - this one. In the beginning, nobody knows you exist, and so, if you are sensitive, you may become disheartened very easily. 

   My suggestion to anyone wanting to blog is to write because you want to, and forget the statistics. If you are  up to a challenge and want to see your readership increase, then set yourself a goal or a time limit. Challenge yourself to see just how people that you can attract within let's say 6 months or a year. If you don't achieve your goal, then simply leave it at that.

   As of this time, I am averaging between 8000-9000 page views per month. A page  view is a number that informs me that someone has visited a page of my blog. The problem with  Blogger's stats is that Blogger doesn't or won't give you exact figures. Numbers can be off on a stats page, you can't tell if one person had read 100 of your pages or 100 people have each read one page. To try and get answers to questions, you have yo sign up for Google forums, then get into specific forums such as Blogger, and then into sub-menus of blogger. The biggest "issue" that I have is that the forums are monitored.  If you wrote a question that even in the slightest is interpreted by the "monitors", then your question will be classified either as a" duplicate", or "as a question that does not meet the level or proper decorum for questions". In both cases, your question will never be seen nor answered. Of course, you can do searches with non-Google search engines to get answers to your supposed challenging questions, but in the end, Google will not change in terms of listening to suggestions.

   I do have to say though, that Blogger is a very good site and platform to use,and overall, I 'm moderately happy with it. I will address my "concerns" in later posts. Hopefully, Blogger and Google will not find fault with my writing.

A Screen-capture of my Stats Page at about 08:00 EST

This is an Enlargement of the previous Screen-capture

I'm still unsure what the difference between a "Referring URL" and a "Referring Site" is. I think a "referring site" is a broader-based site, whereas a "Referring URL" is more specific. In other words, if I simply go to Google, that would be a "Referring Site", but if I now type in "Old Antique Toys" in that search engine area, and press return, then that stat would be a "Referring URL".

A "Search Keyword" is simply what people enter into the search space. I'm a bit "suspicious" about this, because I don't believe that there are so many people in the world searching for the "Cedar Rapids Rock Crusher Toy", and then coming to my website. 

The "Ugly Stats"

A Non-Person/ Non-Legit Stat

The Non -Person Stat

  Feedspot is a non-person and a non-legit stat. I would categorize this as "referrer spam". Referrer spam is a way of saturating a blog with their address, and when people (bloggers) are curious and decide to press the address, they come to that site. Feedspot is looking for business and to expand, so they, like many other "referrer spammers" can send out millions of these URL's to all bloggers. The entry was done  on a computer "en masse" (millions at once), and no person is actually visiting your site.

The Non-Legit Stat

  Blogger (a Google company) offers bloggers something called "Adsense". You make a request to Blogger, and if Blogger accepts you, you then sign a contract. I believe the responsibility is on you to get advertisers to be added to your blog (on the sides). What Google then does is send out "feelers" to those companies who might be interested in advertising on your blog, and these companies then "bid" for the right to advertise. You then get a small percentage" or money from "visits" by people to your website, who have to then press on the company advertising to be redirected to their website.

  The thing with making any money from your blog has everything to do with visitors to your blog and of course - stats.  So all of the referrer spam, including Feedspot above is not counted as a stat .  

I'm estimating that I would need to have at least 40,000 page views a month to even think about Adsense, and then there were be the numerous disqualifications. Narrowing these stats down, then would require people to click on the ads, and be redirected to the advertiser.  The whole topic of "Adsense" is very sensitive on the Blogger forums, especially when it comes to what is a legitimate" "hit" on an advertising page. 

Here's another non-person / non legit stat or referrer spam

This isn't a person, but an"en-masse" email sent out to thousands of blogger sites. I haven;t gone to this site, but I thing it's one of those sites who will offer you their version of stats and hits and legit/non-legit hits.  What irritates me most is that these "referrer spammers" are on Google+.

At one point , several month ago, I was literally being "bombarded" with hundreds of referrer spam visits per week.

 The Nicer Stats

Below is a  screen-capture for today as of about 08:00  EST.

Before  my problem with referrer spam was resolved, I had more non-Google URLs. As you can see, the numbers are very high for Google. I keep sending Google "feedback",  to ask for authenticated audited verification to confirm these stats, but being "feedback", Google does not reply.

A magnified screen-capture of the previous image

Mr WhatIs is a new search engine 

Globo SOSO is another new search engine

A Month's Worth of Data

Notice how the numbers are totally different from the 8000-9000 that I do get. truing to get answers on the Google forums is very frustrating.

This is the "Referring Site" in yellow:

ct.moreover.com

Surprisingly, it's my own website. When someone visits my website, then goes to another page, that is amy own page view. As to why Google and Blogger write is this way is a mystery to me.

The highlighted in yellow addresses are my own blog: oldantiquetoys.blogspot.com

when I pressed on the address http://ct.moreover.com?a=169399,

I was redirected to my own blog.

This Screen-capture is called the "Audience"

   It's quite gratifying to see from where people come from to read my blog. I think Blogger offers a translation so that people who are non-English speaking or reading can read my blog in their own respective language.  

  Most people are from North America, followed by Europe. If I were to present to you my "all-time" audience, you would see Asia, the sub-continent (India, and other nearby countries), and Australia.

A Screen-Capture of My Last 15 Posts

   To the right, you can see comments, page views, and when I added the post. I try to answer people who comment as fast as possible. Would I like to have more people comment? For sure! But most people don't write in, and those that do generally like my blog. That's the way stats are for comments, so I live with it. As for page views, I will sometimes go back in time and see which posts have been the most visited over time. I will them use these stats" to write another article on a similar topic or "revisit" the topic.

Personal Comments

  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my main reason for writing is because I like to. I used to write books, handouts, and notes for all of my professional photography courses. At that time, It was because students were students and for whatever reasons always had "reasons" for missing classes, studios, or losing notes. In this way, they had "less reasons". Eventually, I began to enjoy writing, and turned a "negative" into a positive.   

  You can write on any topic you want, and there are all kinds of topics on blogs. There are some blogs who have similar titles as mine, but when I visit, some authors have not entered anything in years.  As far as search engines go, it's important a s a blogger to post as many times as you can. Search engines rely on finding you, and the more you post,the more they find you. I sometimes will search with many different search engines to check whether I show up or not. Of course, I do, but it depends on the words that I use. Also, since I use Blogger, which is owned by Google,   I show up much more on Google. Even better, when I search under "photos", I show up  much more that any other search engine.

  What's interesting is that as a blogger, and I'm sure I'm not unique, I often get proposals from companies offering services to make my blog better, and attract more people.. The problem,m is that I am not making any money from it, and I couldn't want to  or could afford to use such services.

 Yesterday, I even go a "proposal" asking if I would like to write a book on a certain cast iron toy company. My problem would be to get access to photographs, since I only have so many of my own of that particular company, and the ones that I do have are not so rare. On my budget, when I bought and sold on ebay, my maximum limit for a toy was $ 250.00 U.S. I would have to see if I could use other people's photo, or find a collector who would allow me to photograph his/her collection, in return for a share of the compensation from the book royalties. For now, I  haven;t decided.

 I've already mentioned about my having signed up to those social media sites to broaden my blog's exposure. As well, I've met many fine people who have been willing to help me out with my blog, and who have complimented and thanked me. But in the end, I always thank them, because it's these benefactors" and my reading audience that are helping me out, and not the reverse!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Please feel to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com