This blog crossed a traffic threshold in the last month. In fact, every month since I started this has seen an uptick in traffic, but somewhere in the last month the average traffic crossed the 35,000 mark. That means the readership is now averaging just a tick over 35K. I have no idea how that stacks up to other blogs, but it seems like a lot given that I am not famous and I have done nothing to promote myself. You’re here by word of mouth and I am thankful for the interest.
The volume of comments has ticked up as well and I’m seeing more long debates than in the past. That’s to be expected. I ended moderation so that allows for more back and forth, good and bad. In that regard, I’ve thought about adding a discussion forum to the site. It’s a simple thing and it allows for readers to get long winded, if they choose, in response to a topic. There are many free message board systems so I may add one to the site when I have some free time. We can form a Witenaġemot!
On a related note, I’m working on adding a subscription feature. The normal WordPress feature is terrible and gets filled with spammers. I have ten thousand subscribers but my bet is nine thousand are Ukrainian robots. I’ve noticed that when I subscribe to other WordPress blogs, nothing seem to happen so something is broken with the subscription module that comes with the blog software.
As far as who reads this blog, it is mostly Americans according to the stats tracker. The UK and Canada are the next most popular countries. Interestingly, I have a lot of readers in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I have no readers from Mexico. Similarly, the people who link back to me are mostly American sites, with a sprinkling of Canadians and Europeans. I get a lot of links back from car and firearm sites for some reason.
I’m also getting media requests. I started this blog as a hobby and I never thought much about it being more than a hobby. I’ve had some podcasters and radio people contact me about being on their shows. The trouble is I don’t check the e-mail account here that often so I was unable to respond in a timely fashion. I may add something here for media requests, just to see if it is worth my time.
Finally, I’ve been asked about donations and I have no plans at the moment to setup the stuff you need to take donations. Maybe when the readership reaches 50K I’ll do it as it may makes sense at that point. I don’t know enough about how it works to know if it is worth the effort. Steve Sailer and Kathy Shaidle seem to make a living from their blogs this way, but I have no way of knowing this. They could be living on dog food for all I know. But, I’ll jump off that bridge when the readership gets bigger.
Thanks for reading, commenting and tweeting me!
I used to tell people the three writers they should be reading were Steve Sailer, Heartiste, and John Derbyshire. I now give them four.
Your blog has unequivocally been the best online discovery I’ve made in the last year. There is a lot I read because I feel it necessary to do so, but I always eagerly anticipate reading everything you write. You are the perfect combination of lucidity and perspicacity.
Hi Zman. Just so you know: I was directed to you via the webcomic Day By Day of Chris Muir. It was a reference to your Mokita column. I remember reading it and saying to myself “the hell…” From there on I have been hooked to your postings. Thoughtful stuff. And… yeah: I do feel you shine some lights on perspectives I haven’t though about before.
By the way: You might have “statistically zero” people from Mexico reading you, but not an absolute zero. You have at least one Mexican reading you. Best regards sir.
I started coming over here from the links at VanderLeun’s American Digest. Now this is one of my first stops in the morning. I ditched TV, newspapers, and the mainstream press a long time ago so I get all my news and information on-line. You have that sort of easy, conversational style that makes the readers feel like you’re sitting across the table trading comments on the news of the day. I can almost smell coffee and cigarette smoke. (whether you smoke ’em or not) Very few writers can pull that off, and you manage to do it every day. Kudos, and keep up the great work.
JWM
Glad to hear of your success. It’s well deserved.
I’ve told many people about this blog and they’re glad I did. Word of mouth is indeed spreading.
I think you have the right to do whatever you want with this but just don’t change the common sense observations and conversational style of delivering the commentary. You’re the only writer I’ve found who can explain deep understanding easily and enjoyably.
I appreciate your thinking, clear writing and open sharing. Compared to some other sites which tout their “mensa” quals and intellectual masturbation, this site deals with real issues in practical ways that people can understand and discuss. No put downs because you are “obviously not as smart as I am and you can’t join the clique because I say so.”
Thanks and best wishes for much success. I look forward to more good reads and contributing to your site.
I think the first post of yours I read was where you described “mokita”. I thought it was a brilliant summation of the rubber wall that seems to surround every public conversation today. I kept coming back, usually through links on Vanderleun’s “American Digest”, and now I check in here every day. I echo the downvote on a the forum idea, though; somehow those things just don’t really work out. Everyone gets used to the blog, and they don’t like to have to switch to another format. Plus, it’s hard to know where the “action” is anymore, and one or the other ends up being neglected.
Z man PLEASE get rid of the READ MORE feature in the comments section.
Otherwise, just more of the same.
Dan Kurt
I started reading you three weeks ago, linked from xenosystems. I am amazed at your daily high quality output and I hope you keep blogging.
I’ll add my voice to the commenters expressing their appreciation for your insights. Since you are a Howie Carr and Hockey East fan, We are soul brothers in many ways. I also enjoy the comments- good back and forth w/o too much snark.
I read your blog every day, Z. Love it. Don’t change a thing.
Good advice from Vman. Sailer might be nudging $20 an hour after all these years. A brilliant opinion maker does not receive the wage of a goodthinker.
Western Rifle Shooters has regularly linked here.
Now, that’s one big feather in your cap.
“I’ve thought about adding a discussion forum to the site. It’s a simple thing and it allows for readers to get long winded”
Do not do this.
Do not do this.
Do not seek the treasure.
Do not seek the treasure.
Readers will be as long winded as they want in the comments. Most, if not almost all, will not participate in some forum at another URL or with another software. This ain’t Free Republic.
It will be all you can do to just keep the pace you are currently at.
I read your blog every day. I come back several times each day to read the comments, which are generally pretty good. The trolls do not seem to have discovered you.
After being referred to your site a year or so ago I read all of your archived posts. I follow your Unz and Disqus links too. I don’t know how you find the time to do all of this quality writing on top of your job, but I’m glad that you do.
I wonder, though, if blogs are like restaurants; the more successful they get, the bigger they get, and then they open “Zman II” and the quality of the kitchen declines.
That being said, your writing deserves a large readership.
I totally agree! Most of us have been on those sites. One word: Arghhhhhhh.
Your blog is clean, smart and wonderful. Something worthwhile and thought-provoking every single day (how do you do that?). Let them go somewhere else to chat. Or buy a dog. Or a cat. Most on those sites aren’t interested in anything but their own voices.
I would be happy to subscribe (admittedly a small amount, as money for us all is tight these days) but wouldn’t that open you up, Z, to the tax people? Or maybe, in the States, to the more of the tax people… I can’t comment, obviously. But if you don’t want the gub’mint putting their heavy feet in what is a free speech — and intelligent — blog then maybe low level and non-money-gathering is better.
But to echo others here, you keep saying good things and there are many of us who it would seem prefer to hear good things than the trivial, uneducated whining of the left and its attendant brainless media ‘giants.’ Keep on keeping on, sir.
Coming from a highly-intelligent, exceedingly well-read fellow, this is easily the most insightful blog I’ve ever read. It’s now a daily habit, and I’m sure your readership will continue to grow.
Your blog is great; I check it daily. Congrats on the traffic – you deserve it!
Congratulations. The 1st piece I read was Guns, Blacks and Biology and I’ve been back everyday since Oct 4 2015 to read the new pieces and work my way through the archives. Maybe it was a link from AoSHQ that brought me here, I can’t remember.
I’ve been reading pretty much every day since I discovered you through Larwyn’s Links
Your posts have been linked on Politics forum on our Quattroworld but at least two other regulars. When I found your blog through amazing American Digest, there were perhaps 2-4 comments per post. Now, 40 is the norm. Well done Zman.
GVDL has been a big evangelizer of your site.
Your blog is in my Bookmark Favorites Bar so that I click on it every morning. Sometimes more than once a day to read comments. And I’ve spread the ZMan word, posting links to your articles elsewhere. You are an excellent thinker-writer. Three cheers for your success! Will be watching to see what comes next. It’s never dull around here, but very civilized.
The news is like a rock…its big and tells us what happened. Blogs like yours are like a diamond in the rock explaining why it happened. Thank you and please keep up the good work.
I found your site through a couple of others I follow; Victor Davis Hanson and Maggie’s Farm. Having lived in the Bay Area for so many years, it’s interesting to see how California is dealing with all their political drama. While we can get RT, BBC, Fox and CNN here in English on cable, it’s more and more editorial than actual news and the debates are always one sided. I find your blog very interesting and the diversity of your readers makes for some educational, as well as entertaining, discussions.
Keep up the good work! Gruß von Deutschland – Karl
P.S. From where is the artwork at the header of your website?
It’s Alaric in Athens by Ludwig Thiersch.
Excellent choice! 🙂
Having lived much of my life in California, the Bay Area specifically, I left in 2008 just before Obama was elected. Interesting you use the phrase “… dealing with their political drama.” I find they are not dealing with anything except continuing to push the liberal/socialist agenda and the public continues to drink the koolaid. Except for those who vote with their feet and are leaving the once golden state. Naturally it is beautiful, no doubt about that but the stupidity of the people is simply amazing. No one knows anything about history. The same could be said for Deutschland where Merkel has not been run out of the country on a rail, tarred and feathered. Gavin Newsome …. next governor?? No surprise after citizens elected Gov. MOonbeam for another go at looniness. But of course, a generation later. What a picture of the metro-sexual!
The worst thing is that they have infected Oregon and Washington state. I left CA in 1970. I see the same mentality up here and I expect the same outcome soon.
It has nothing to do with California per se. It used to be Republican. For many decades. Moderate if not downright conservative. Then the Dust Bowl migrants came in seeking work or welfare and we were on our way. (The Los Angeles Sheriff even took armed men to the eastern border in an attempt to keep them from flooding in.) The unions that accompanied the WWII defense work have not helped. Once the welfare mentality took over, it was hard to get state politics back on track. But it’s still a beautiful place. And it’s home to us and those we care for.
As for Washington, I lived there in the 1960s. Californians were few and far between because of the weather. But easterners and midwesterners loved it because they still had seasons without the weather extremes. Seattle was and still is the most Liberal city on the planet.
I see a book one of these days, your best posts maybe including some comments. You have 35k people ready to order it, and thousands of potential reviewers. I will be happy to give you a blurb, for what it’s worth.
I have some book ideas. I started working on one off and on, but I need to get a bit more serious about making time for such projects.
NOOOOOOooooooo…..If you begin that silly book business, the blog will suffer, or vice versa.
On The Other Hand, Scott Adams manages to pull it off from time to time!
{yes, there’s a joke in there somewhere)
I’d just like to see Z reaching millions rather than 35K.
Please, no!!! This could be a death knell. One of my favorite sites, Taxicab Depressions was doing great and got on the idea of doing a book and has since “disappeared.” The regular postings have ceased and nothing, no updates, nada. Please. Stay focused. I know people look for sources of income but books are a different animal in another part of the jungle. You are building skills in this part. Don’t leave while you are just getting started. Just my humble observation.
I miss that blogger too. He really had some interesting stories. But it sounded like he was really struggling financially.
Thanks for all you do, Zman.
The most interesting blog model I’ve seen is Rantburg. Fred Pruitt has enlisted a reinforced squad of moderators to reign in the blowhards and run off the weirdos and trolls. It seems to work.
I read your blog every day, I feel it makes me smarter. Thank you for all the knowledge you share.
I’m with you Jon.
Zman you always have something really splendid to say. I too feel enlightened by your wit and insights. Thanks so much for your efforts and thoughtfulness.
Appreciate you.
ps,
don’t know about the car linkage, but the weapons linkage, well you have to be on your mental toes and best civil behavior if you are a responsible gun owner, don’t mean your super intelligent, but you have to have a decent commonsense of reality. And you write with commonsense and deal in truths, so maybe that is why your getting linkage. Just saying.
I read your blog fairly regularly. It makes me feel stupider.
I’m always seeing stuff I either didn’t know, or hadn’t thought about too closely before.
(I’m not a TOTAL simp to begin with , so “they” tell me, for the record)
Don’t get me wrong, my OWN ox ends up gored from time to time,
I call that….engaging