June 07, 2007

Sitemeter!

This is another bloggy post that has nothing to do with health. Immediately preceding this one, however, is a nice boring study about Tea. Readers, you know who you are and what you want to read about--feel free to skip either or both of these.

(Similar to Crabby's 90/10 rule for healthy eating, she has a rule about what she writes about: every now and then, if she's managed enough broccoli sprouts and strength training and Omega 3's, she gets, as a treat, to indulge in a post about blogging itself. She is somewhat obsessed with blogging, being brand new at the whole business, and has reluctantly given herself a diagnosis of blogitis, which may or may not be a real disease).

So Crabby, as a blogitis sufferer, naturally finds herself totally infatuated with Sitemeter. For those nonbloggers who've hung in this far, "Sitemeter" is a toy that bloggers can use to see if anyone is coming to visit them. (Statcounter is another version).

Did you notice Crabby was gone for a few seconds just then? Well, she was. She went off to see if any new readers arrived while she was composing the first three paragraphs.

Yes, it's that addictive. At least it is to Crabby. She has a serious problem with Sitemeter.

Do other more seasoned bloggers have any advice? Does this disease go away on its own?

Readers, do not be alarmed, because Sitemeter does not know who you are. But depending on your computer and ISP and such, Sitemeter might know what country or city you live in. (When it guesses at a city, however, it's often wrong. It doesn't care so much where you live, as much as where your Internet Service Provider lives. (Or at least that's Crabby's guess). However, countries are good too. For an introverted blogger, the fact that folks in Singapore or Italy or Brazil are popping in for a visit is thrilling enough.

Sometimes Sitemeter knows how you got to the blog, other times not. Sometimes it can tell if you left right away; other times, depending on how you leave, it has no idea how long you were there.

(Hint: we bloggers like it when you hang out for long periods of time and go through the archives! Do remember that many of us are narcissists and need to feel as though someone is paying attention to us. Pathetic? You betcha).

On days when the Sitemeter is popping along at a good clip, Crabby is happy! On days when it pokes and sputters, Crabby is sad. Crabby needs, she fears, some sort of intervention.

It's easy to anticipate that in a few months, Crabby will find herself very embarrassed by this post. The affliction will have passed, the numbers (she hopes) will have grown enough so that the need to track the coming and going of virtually every visitor will seem laughable.

However that day has not yet arrived. Oops, excuse Crabby for a moment... she'll be right back.

25 comments:

  1. Oh, Crabby! I know exactly what you mean! Experienced bloggers must get such a hoot out of our preoccupation with these widgets. I think much of it comes down to the fact that, for me at least, when I started my blog, I didn't really think that anyone much would read it. So there is fascination with the fact that someone in Japan or Brazil is actually reading my words. (Or quickly exiting the site because they landed there by accident!)

    I'd like to think that one day I no longer need this crutch to justify my worth. In the meantime what was my password again?

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  2. Totally get it, Crabby. One day back in February or so the Chinese found me. I had nearly 100 hits (or something outrageous like that)that day from China. Nothing similar has happened since. Sigh.
    I don't think there's a need to be embarrassed. Sitemeter is good, clean, harmless, fun.
    And I'm confident that checking Sitemeter is an appropriate homeopathic treatment for blogitis.

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  3. OOoo, care to share were I can see this "Sitemeter" for my own blog? :)

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  4. Blogger ate my comment, I am not happy.

    I was writing that IMHO, every blogger does that at a moment or another. After all, if we start a blog, it means that part of us at least wants other people to read our entries... and how to make sure they do, except through the comments they might leave? Stats, of course. :)

    Now, maybe I should indeed put SiteMeter on my own blog. I'm feeling a little obsessed by stats and links as well, these days. ;)

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  5. I'm completely infatuated too.

    This is a little emarrassing to admit but I realized a couple of days ago it's actually made me a bit grumpy the past few weekends. (Come Back! Don't leave your house!) Now that I GET that weekends are usually slower I try to prep myself for it. Really. Pathetic.

    I also agree with Dawn. When we started our blog, we never thought anyone but our mom and maybe some of our neighbors we read it. The fact the sitemeter tells me otherwise is kind of shocking actually.

    It occurs to me too, Crabby, that you see that I come here all the time! I love your posts but also your comment page. Always entertaining. (And I'm curious, when you get so humungous that your getting 40 or 50 comments a day, will you still come back and re-comment on everyone's thoughts? You're feeding the narcissist!)

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  6. I'm partial to Google Analytics. Yes, it's addictive, and like Leah says, it's especially weird and wonderful when you find a bunch of hits from China or some such place.

    Off to check who's visiting! :-)

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  7. Hi Dawn,
    I knew you'd understand! We started blogging about the same time and seem to be going through all the baby blogger developmental steps together. Soon we may be able to sleep through the night without a 2am feeding and sit up all by ourselves! (Oops, wrong developmental stages, but you get the idea).

    Hi leah,
    Wonder what set off the Chinese? "Good clean harmless fun," I like that, especially from someone who blogs about beer halls and sex shows! And I love your homeopathic remedies.

    Sera, well don't say we didn't warn you! Just go to sitemeter.com and set up an account... if you dare.

    Kery,
    I hate when that happens and I have to start over! I also hate when I forget to hit "publish," which i've done a few times. And like with Sera, if you don't have a sitemeter already, I'd hate to be responsible for spreading sitemeteritis!

    Hi Katieo,
    You have it too, I'm so glad! I hate the weekend slowdown too, though I should take it as a cue to get my ass out the door and away from the damn computer.

    I used to disable cookies to keep other sites from tracking me, but there are so many accounts and passwords you need to blog and comment elsewhere that I let everyone leave cookies and I'm entirely trackable too. I just figure anyone whose looking at their sitemeter often enough to notice how frequently I turn up has no life either, so won't make judgments about it.

    And yeah, at some point I may have to either get a bit more succinct down here, or give up on the idea of always responding to every comment. Some days I barely have time to write a post, what with blog visits and commenting and trying to scare up new visitors. But at least for now, I love coming down here to chat. (Perhaps because I have such pleasant amusing commenters!)

    And hi, Bunnygirl!
    I'd forgetten about google analytics. I think I signed up with them too but sort of forgot about them. Hmmm, wonder what they have to say...

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  8. Hi, my name is Chicken Girl and I'm addicted to my domain's traffic stats. And I've been blogging for a whole year!

    I wish I got more visitors, but I know some of it is my own fault for locking out IE users (IE chokes on my site) and for posting a bit infrequently sometimes. And for not really having a particular "theme".

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  9. Oh Chicken Girl, please tell me it's not true!

    I could still be totally addicted a year from now?

    This is not good news.

    (And if you ever get too fed up with the IE conspiracy, just come hang out at my blog instead. No need for a theme or to scare up visitors--you could be Chief Executive Wiseass. Which of course would look really slick on a resume).

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  10. Crabby -

    r0xz0r! Your blog is always a fun place to hang out.

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  11. Oh I do have a sitemeter, on another blog. I don't know why I've never put one for Color Me Fit, though. Maybe because I had a tracking plugin (that has stopped working since and caused havoc in my DB, so I've been a little wary!).

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  12. Now you've done it... You've joined the big league bloggers. Darren (aka blog GOD) wrote about this not two days ago. You're in sync. It's creepy. Yet cool for you. Click here for the full post by Darren
    By the way, I like my stat reader but am not addicted. I use mine to market. Like if I see someone always visiting a blog of mine I visit their blog and comment. It makes them happy and thus they return. It's a great tool if you blog for money. But I do know folks who are too wrapped up in it.

    That said I am not the "Jennifer" in the post that Darren wrote -- just an odd, odd coincidence.

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  13. Hi Kery,
    I keep forgetting about you industrious multiple blog people!

    Hi Jennifer,
    Actually, I was really bummed to see that post, which I discovered last night, after I'd already posted mine. Rather than make me look "big league" it makes me look like a fool.

    Problogger is a big site which I should visit more often. Since he wrote his first, it of course looks like I used his idea. (Not that it's exactly an original one; we all write about stuff like that). I didn't though; it was my own goofy enthusiasm that led me to post it.

    And often other health sites are covering the same studies I am at the same time, and some of them beat me too it and write them up better. So I know it's going to happen a lot and I should just get used to it.

    I hate looking like I'm copying someone when I had no idea they were writing about the same thing.

    Guess its part of the game.

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  14. Crabby, no one has the "original" idea anymore -- Like Jenna Glatzer says in her book "If I had to sit around all day and think of new ideas my head would explode."

    And for the record. I could tell it was an honest merging of the blogging minds. I just read everything so I knew Darren had a post as well. Your post read totally different. It was a fresh take on on obvious blog issue. It's hard to have the same post as blog God -- so hats off!

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  15. PS And real bloggers can tell when someone's just copying an idea verbatim. We all know you're not that someone.

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  16. Thanks Jennifer!

    I felt like such a dope when I saw his post; thanks for making me feel a little less like a dunce.

    And hi chickengirl, sorry I missed you last time! I have to confess I'm a little behind on they acronyms and may need some help on "r0xz0r!"

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  17. Crabby:

    "roxzor" isn't an acronym, it's just leet-speak for "that rocks!" as in, "roxzor my soxzors!!"

    (You know you've been on the interweb too long when you wonder whether spelling "leet" words with real letters instead of l1k3 th1s constitutes misspelling. And when you start calling it "the interweb".)

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  18. LOL! I had the SiteMeter addiction for quite a while, and it's only been recently -- last couple of months or so -- that I don't check it a squillion times a day (and I've been blogging for a year). Now, I only check a half squillion times a day... ;-D

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  19. Hi Crabby! I am new to your site (came from Diet Blog). Check out your Alexa rating for something else to be obsessed with (http://www.alexa.com/). It gives you your daily percentage of people that come to your website!

    I experience a similar obsession with my page view counter on myspace.

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  20. Hi Chicken Girl!
    Okay, I've been delaying answering this comment because I've been to embarrassed to admit it, but I'll have to come clean: I'm not even sure what "leet" is! Does it have something to do with text messaging? (Crabby hangs her crotchety old head in shame).

    Hi Thomma Lyn,
    I'm glad to hear some relief might be in sight. By the way, I love a "squillion" and may have to steal that!

    Welcome Corinna and thanks for stopping by!

    Unfortunately, Cranky Fitness is probably too small and too new for Alexa, but I look forward to the day when I can waste my time that way too! However, so far I've not done the MySpace thing--tempting, but I already spend too much time in front of the computer as it is.

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  21. laffin, here. laffin. I have an involved site on Webshots, GloriDays, which includes not only photos, but tons of rhetoric (no other word for it). So I get ya. I love your blog ... love this particular entry. I've just 'favorited' you ... and will be coming back to read more. Your writing style is very refreshing ... the whole third person perspective thing is a hoot. Oh by the way, just an fyi, I ran across your link from a small post you wrote about curly / frizzy hair. And don't burn out your sitemeter ... I'll tell you straight out ... I'm in Maryland, sort of midway between Washington DC and Baltimore. Ya wanna talk about frizzy hair? YIPE! Good luck with your blog ... you're clearly enjoying writing it and, in the end, that's the most important part! Regards

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  22. Hi Glori!
    Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the encouraging words. And great pictures on your webshots thingy!

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  23. Thanks Crabby ... I neglected to mention the whole connection regarding the sitemeter ... Webshots sends out a weekly count of visitors and numbers of comments only Once A Week!! GAK!! And, boy, lemme tell ya ... I GULP those statistics when they roll in! If I had the ability to track visitors daily or hourly ... as you do with your sitemeter, well, suffice it to say, I underSTAND YER PAINful addiction!! By the way, I noted that you're writing a novel?? HOOOO RAY!!! Remember my name ... when it comes out I want to be first in line for a copy hot off the presses! Your writing style is SO engaging!! Having gone down the road myself (yes, I'm writing the Great American Novel too) ... I offer you all my encouragment and best wishes!! You're bright and humorous take on life (and fitness) is just what the world needs! Best of Luck!

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  24. Crabby:

    leet (or l33t) (short for "elite") is that stuff that those annoying World of Warcraft-playing whippersnappers speak. :p It tends to include words like "pwn" and "n00b" and suffixes like "-xor" and "-age" and liberal replacement of letters for nvmb3r5 4nd 0th3r 5ym8015. Further Reading (because wikipedia has everything)

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  25. Thanks again, Glori!
    And I appreciate the reminder that I am indeed supposed to be working on my novel--the blog has sort of taken over of late. I'm even contemplating some sort Crabby McSlacker self-help book or something, since I'm having so much fun with this. Stay tuned! And good luck with your novel too.

    Chicken Girl--
    Thank you so much for explaining that! I keep seeing the "pwned" thing all over the place and was feel all ancient and left out!

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