This Blog – August 2016

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I like to read about who reads the things I read and how many people read the things I read. Like all human beings, I’m curious about where I fit in with my fellow meat sticks. It is what defines us as social animals. There’s also the fact that if everyone like me is into something, there’s a good chance I’ll enjoy it. Alternatively, if the people into the same things I like happen to be weirdos, then maybe it is time for some soul searching. When it comes to websites and TV shows, I’m mostly interested in how many. Media wields a great deal of influence so the high traffic sites will have more influence than niche sites.

Anyway, this post on Vox Day reminded me that I have not done a post on this blog’s traffic for a while. I’m probably not alone in being curious about traffic stats so I want to post a regular update on site stats. Steve Sailer does this as part of his fund raisers. I’m always a little surprised that Sailer does not have more traffic. He’s been doing the blog thing for a couple of decades. Assuming VD is not bullshitting us with his stats, his site gets twice the traffic of Sailer. I see loads of references on social media to Sailer, but never Vox Day, but that could just mean I hang with the bad crowd.

I have installed a plugin for WordPress that lets me harvest all sorts of data. The big thing it does is filter out robots and trackers from the site traffic. I tested this on another domain and it does seem to work. I compared the stats to my server stats and there is a massive gap between the blogs numbers and the raw server logs, suggesting the robot filtering is working as they claim. According to the numbers, I have had 9,180,000 visits in the last year. Of those, 953,876 were unique visitors. The regular readership is just over 45,000. That’s defined as unique regular visitors.

I thank everyone for visiting and reading.

Now, compared to what Vox reports, my page views are half what he reports. I suspect there’s a difference in how page views are counted. His posts net three times the number of comments so maybe it is not that far off. If I were to guess, I’d say his readership is three or four times the size of this site, judging from the number of comments. Then again, some sites lend themselves to comments, while others do not. Ace gets a ton of comments, but most of them are gibberish. You see this on Breitbart where the comments often suggest the readership is missing a chromosome.

Digging through the stats, I see that the most popular post ever was this one. The most common keyword search that leads people here is “Cloud People.” The funny thing about that is someone used the term in conversation the other day and then explained to me what it meant. I know that person does not read this site so I guess the term is working its way into the language. The second most popular post is this one, so I may even get credit for the term when some TV big shot uses it. A man can dream.

I have received e-mails wondering how to donate money to me, but I have no way of doing that. I appreciate the thought, but I have not thought too much about setting up the mechanics for taking donations. In fact, I’ve never looked into how it works. I have a day job and I do this for fun. I think if the monthly readership cracks the 100K mark, I may consider it. To be perfectly candid, I’d feel weird holding beg-a-thons. Given that hitting the 100K mark is long off, I don’t have to think about it.

Again, I thank everyone for reading, linking, commenting and tweeting.

41 thoughts on “This Blog – August 2016”

  1. I recently fou d this blog. I read many but this one stands out … I love it and appreciate Your wonderful inside and attitude.

  2. Here via Sad Puppies. Nearly a year ago, I set out to discover the “truth” behind Sad Puppies, which led to Vox, and has since led me to a wide variety of interesting and thoughtful blogs.

  4. <–49 yr old mother/grandmother/business owner/ex pol operative

    Discovered this blog thru Sailer's site about 8 mos ago, & I consider it essential reading . "Cloud People," and "Dirt People," have become permanent parts of my lexicon, thanks to you guys, thank you. Thoughtfully written, high quality posts & intelligent commenter interaction, what a rarity in blogging world! I direct folks to your site often, Zman, hoping they will become blog devotees, as well.

  5. If I had to guess, I’d wager that your most popular post got so many hits because you mentioned John Rivers and Ricky Vaughn it it, and they linked to it via their Twitter accounts.

    • That’s a good point. The two of them send a lot of traffic to me. That one was also picked up by Instapundit.

  6. I have very much enjoyed your blog and the various “discussions” with some of your readers. Being one of the few ‘auslanders’ on here, it is always a pleasure to argue points from a German, if not European point of view.

    Only one recommendation for improvement – please…if possible, can you look into an edit feature. I believe many would “thumbs up” on this request.

    Otherwise, well done as always. Keep up the good work.

  8. If you ever do take donations, spend them on wine, women and song. Please don’t use them to gussy up the blog. That would ruin it.

  9. Thanks for putting into words the nebulous ideas that bounce around my head. You are one of my first stops, every morning.
    And thanks for the opportunity to thank you without seeming to fawn 🙂

  10. I’ve been reading this site for quite a while. I remember when 7 or 8 comments was the norm. Word is getting out as quality will always out. Thank you for not money grubbing and “keeping it real”.

    • Readers wanting to make a contribution is a different thang. We know people have expenses and it takes time and money to put up a site, so what’s the problem with wanting to give back a small amount that is not under compulsion? It’s not money grubbing if you can choose to donate or not. Of course, if someone is independently wealthy, they could simply not address the issue.

    • I have a thing about paid opinion writers, even the independent ones that I like. I’d rather read the real, unbidden thoughts of a man under no obligation to do so. It has the air of authenticity that few can manage. You and The Woodpile Report are two such.

  13. Could you add a “Greatest Hits” section to the top, where you link to a few more popular posts?

    Like: Home Contact Mokita My Theory of Everything Greatest Hits

    And speaking of, that Ludwig Thiersch Alaric Athènes picture is a bit tall, on my 720p laptop, the picture itself takes up a third of the screen! That’s bad screen space feng shui… i have to scroll down just to see the first post.

  15. Congrats Z-man.

    A parable:

    There was a man who grew tired of a group of kids playing in his front yard every day. In spite of him asking them to leave, they would always return the next day. He tried everything from signs to yelling at them to no avail. He bought a dog to chase the kids away but the kids taught the dog to play fetch instead. Finally, one morning the man had an idea. When the kids came back to play in his yard he went out to them and offered them a deal: He told them from now on he would pay them to play in his yard. The first day he paid them fifty cents each. The next day he paid them seventy-five cents each. The next day, a dollar, and so forth. Eventually, to the kids, playing in the man’s yard became like work. And, gradually, less and less kids showed up until one day, the man looked out upon his front yard and all the kids were gone.

    Moral of the story: To play is eternal. To work is external. The money is neutral. Whatever we do, we must keep it real and when in doubt, stay pure.

  17. Like Quick’s joint ana specific number of others, Da Z is a daily stop. The similarites are hardly stunning- you, like the others I read, simply cut through the crap and tell it like it is.

    That is a rare commodity online these days. Thank you – jb

      • Thanks much, Zman. I installed it, and now I’m waiting for it to get enough data (I presume) to provide accurate reports. Out of the box, it showed I had two unique visitors on a daily average for the past month. Now, while this would thrill some of my detractors, it’s a bit hard to reconcile with the blog itself, unless those two unique readers have posted hundreds of comments under hundreds of different names and verified accounts.

        Once it’s firing on all cylinders, it looks like it will be quite useful, though.

        • I recall experiencing the same thing. I’ve had it installed for a about a year, but I have just started looking at the numbers so I suspect it will take a while to get meaningful data.

    • Check out WP SlimStats too, Bill. Just sent you an e-mail about it. I used to use it way back when, it’s quite good.

  19. You are valuable and unique. Stay that way. And be careful how you compare yourself. E.g. Vox Day mixes issues with his penchant for gaming and sci-fi stuff. I don’t like having to parse through all that crap (not important to me).

  20. I found you when you did some brilliant work about Donald Sterling and the forced sale of the L.A. Clippers. I never saw your take printed anywhere else in the media, and it was the only explanation that actually made sense. I frequently use your work to help me sort out the crazy things I see out there in the world these days, and I consider you one of the most valuable reads on the net. Thank you!

  21. Well, I don’t think that comments are a good indication of readership. I have tried to comment at Breitbart using my cell phone and it almost never works. I’ve commented at Ace (which I seldom read these days) and Vox Day. The commenting system at Ace is also very strange. I don’t make any effort to promote my two blogs as they are basically vanity blogs.

    I enjoy blogs where the comments are intelligent. I seem to find more of that here.

    • I seldom add a comment here as I think this should only be done if one can actually move the dialog forward.”Attaboy” or “amen” just takes up space.

      But you have raised the subject with this post which allows me to thank you wholeheartedly for the site. The filters at work recently decided that you were a blog and accordingly your site is blocked, although scores of other blogs are not blocked. This pisses me off exceedingly as I liked to check throughout the workday to read comments and catch your new posts “hot off the presses”.

      Forty five thousand regulars is good, but I think that your writing deserves a much wider readership. If you do not accept funding please accept kudos.

  24. No, Zman, thank you for giving us a thought-provoking blog that has some of the most intelligent commenters around. It’s a daily treat for me. We appreciate you.

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