When it comes to Blogography (which is this blog, in case you hadn't noticed), I am only peripherally aware that quite a lot of people read it. Granted "quite a lot" is all relative because, compared to the number of hits Google gets, I might as well not even exist. But considering I initially started this up for an audience of 4 people, it's nothing less than amazing that thousands - tens of thousands - people drop by every week.
Of course, not all of these "unique visitor counts" can truly be counted as "readers," but the end result is still scary. Once I strip out all the robots, spammers, search hits, and people looking for nude photos of Jennifer Garner, a mind-boggling 1600 people a day visit Blogography's entry page. It may be more than that because I don't know how to count RSS readers, blog aggregators, and direct links, but that's still a lot of people. And y'all keep coming...
I've long ago given up trying to figure out why my life is interesting enough to merit such attention. Other than an occasional trip to interesting (and not-so interesting) locations, I lead an exceedingly boring life that consists of work, watching television, riding my motorcycle, surfing the web, and complaining a lot. But what do I know, I am addicted to blogs for far less reasons than that.
Anyway, this morning I received an odd email congratulating me for having a high Google Rank, and then went on to tell me of an "opportunity too good to pass up" (but aren't they all?). This came as quite a surprise to me because last time I checked I was at Google Rank 4, which I didn't think was anything special. Since the Google Toolbar isn't available for Macintosh, Rank is something I don't know how to monitor.
Apparently, this spammer gentleman wanted to sell me an "insider's guide" to making money with blogs, and provided a sneak peek at some of the "profit driven tips" that would make me a gazillionaire. Most of them were exceedingly stupid, but one of these money-making essentials caught my eye... the one which advised me to eliminate my RSS feed, or release only my entry headers to an RSS feed. The idea being that people would then be forced to visit the site (thus the advertising I'm supposed to put there) if they wanted to read my blog. I found this amusing because, without RSS, I would probably read only a third of the blogs I do now.
And there's the whole enchilada... I provide full content of my posts to my RSS feed so that people using Bloglines or some kind of RSS reading app have an easy way to keep reading Blogography (only rarely do I make an extended entry, and even then it has to be a topic that I feel most people won't be interested in). Sure it's not as pretty as my site, but the importance should be the content over the design anyway, shouldn't it? I dunno. It's not that I am opposed to making money, but that's not why I blog. Besides, is anybody out there making big money with Google AdSense anyway? Maybe it's something I should look into, because a lot of people do it and I can only assume they wouldn't bother unless they got paid.
Back to Google Rank: through some cursory research I've found a little bit more about it. First of all, I only have a Rank of 5 which, while respectable (bloggers like James, Tonya, and Richard are at 5 also), is not considered to be a high Rank. Second of all, Rank is exponential... meaning that it's always more and more difficult to reach that next highest level. Going from 4 to 5 is much easier than going from 5 to 6 for example. So to reach a Rank of 6 (like more relevant bloggers than I, such as Neil and Mark) would require drastically more links pointing to me by some sites with heavy Rank themselves and, let's face it, Blogography is just not that kind of blog.
Besides, my findings show me that Google Rank is in no way indicative of how good a blog actually is. Such finds as Down With Pants and My So-Called Strife have a Rank of 3 (criminal!), but easily hold their own with blogs that are at 7 (sorry but I just don't "get" blogs like Scobleizer and Pirillo, but an awfully lot of people must with a Google Rank of 7!).
Everything else aside, this is entry #771, meaning I've got 229 to go before I've fulfilled the promise I made to myself when I started this, my 3rd blog. If I keep at my average of 1.2 entries per day, that means #1000 will happen sometime in August. I always thought that I would give it up at that point and move on to something different, but blogging sure has been good to me over the years, and I don't know that I can let it go so easily. I guess I'll know in 6 short months.
And, if I haven't said it lately, thanks for stopping by.
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Well, I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say we just visit to see what you might do with your beard next. The earlier pictures have you clean-shaven, the later ones show you with a full beard. We’re all just waiting to see what you look like with a goatee….
*g* Does that help make it a little more plain?
Well if that’s the case, I might as well just stop blogging right now! Here’s me in a goatee (thanks to Meagan)…
https://blogography.com/archives/2004/03/meagan_wins.html
And here’s where it all began…
https://blogography.com/archives/2004/07/mirror.html
All because I was drunk while singing karaoke, and had to fall down and bust open my chin. Yes, I can see now how that moment sealed my blog’s popularity.
I guess the only place I can go from here is to shave my head.
This page: http://www.tapouillo.com/firefox_extension/ has an extension for Firefox which shows you what the Google PageRank score for the page you’re currently viewing is. I assume it’ll work on Firefox Mac.
It works fine for Firefox Mac, so thanks! The way I finally figured it out was to use a Konfabulator widget, which puts the rank for the current page (culled from Safari) on your desktop. For any other Mac Safari users who have Konfabulator that are interested, I should have provided a link:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/pagerank-mac/
So tell us Neil… what’s it like to be an sixer? Do you drop by your site every day just to marvel at the magical “PR: 6” that appears? Do you revel in the joy that you are above us mere mortal bloggers? Do you laugh maniacally when visiting a site that has a lower rank? Those of us in the trenches are dying to know! 🙂
I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it
The quote is from SUPERMAN!!
That’s only partially correct sir!
Superman
Superman II
Superman III
Superman IV
I could not tell you which one (I think II) but it’s the one where the baddies come from space and there is a bomb in Paris
One of the things that makes your site interesting is that you are a talented digital illustrator and are able to combine that with high degree of creativity.
I think that other bloggers like Gaping Void also have creative art that is a magnet for people to come to their sites.
Given your high quality images, have you had any traffic from Google Image Search? Recently I’ve been getting significant traffic from Google Images (about 1000 hits a day from them). My images from my photo blog seem to rank really really high.
I found that if you search for “Rain” in Google Images that I’m on the first page of over 757,000 images for rain. I have no friggin’ idea why my photo is on the first page but many of my photos seem to rank very high in Google Image Search.
Do any of your illustrations show up in Google Image Search?
Superman II it is! I was going to use “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!” but that was too much of a give-away.
Indeed I do get thousands of hits from Google Image Search. Mostly for images I have up of Jennifer Garner, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, and the like. Some of my personal images do generate quite a lot of inbound traffic, but I don’t think many of the people who find me that way stick around and become a regular reader. My crappy cartoons also seem to draw visitors… more than I ever thought they would… but not enough to make a big difference in traffic.
The interesting thing is that loyal readers tend to be avid readers. Many people have sent me emails telling me that they haven’t just been keeping up with current entries, but have gone back and read all the hundreds that came before. As a blogger, I can’t think of anything more flattering than that (even if I don’t understand it).
I guess that, in comparison to everybody else (us), your boring life of work, bike-riding, tv-watching and ranting is a whole lot more interesting – and very fun to follow.
And the fact that you are a very good observer of ordinary things, together with the personal cartoons makes me recommend you to everyone who’s new to blogging.
Well, I read you because you write well, and you speak from the heart. And you seem to be a nice, friendly guy, a good person to hang out with, have a beer, watch Wonderfalls. So, that makes me come back.
Blogging has built a sense of community. There are a number of houses that I like to visit, and a number of friends I like to keep up on. I hope you’ll be blogging for a while, yet.
And your cartoons are really good.
You’re welcome! 😀
I read because I’m a noesy parker! 😛 Your life is interesting, I’m waiting to see if you accomplish your goal of visiting ALL the Hard Rock cafe’s, and you review TV shows I like so I can be opinionated!
And yeah, the cartoons are REALLY good.
I didn’t even know that there was anything called Google rank. Pretty interesting. I’m kind of happy being at a 3. But then again I always set my goals low so they can easily be reached.
Thank you for the great compliment though. I’m extremely flattered. Thanks again and keep up the good work!