Looking strictly at the numbers, this blog is either a raging success or a dismal failure.
83,214 visitor "sessions" were reported at Blogography for the month of February (which is 9,795 less than January... maybe because it was a short month?). According to the documentation, "A session is initiated when a visitor arrives at your site, and it ends when their browser window is closed or there is a period of inactivity." On daily average, 624 people are accessing my webfeed, so I'm guessing around 17,500 of those monthly "sessions" are from regular readers, though not everybody uses a feedreader, so that number is probably a bit higher.
And the bulk of my remaining traffic? Search results. The majority of which are visitors from Google hoping to find something here. That's what happens when you've been blogging daily about random crap for nearly a decade.
So, from a numbers standpoint, I don't know if "83,214 sessions" last month is good or bad. Probably good for a relatively unknown blogger like me. But a terrible failure if you're a popular blogger like The Pioneer Woman (who undoubtedly gets millions of visits each month).
But I don't sell ads or make any money off Blogography, so the numbers don't really matter. I write here so my friends & family can know what I'm up to... and to keep track of what's going on in my life (five years ago today I was flying back from a TequilaCon Planning meeting in Portland!). From that perspective, Blogography is incredibly successful.
All the great people I've met and the wonderful friends I've made from blogging is just the icing on the cake.
Which is a fact I clung to this morning as I discovered yet another one of the blogs I read has closed up shop. This comes right on the heels of another blog folding earlier in the week (didn't see that coming).
We're dropping like flies.
I'm coming up on my ten-year blogiversary this April. I have no plans on stopping.
Which makes me either a raging success or a dismal failure.
It's getting harder and harder to tell.
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My biggest source of traffic is search results, and StumbleUpon (for my entry on the Lego Star Destroyer, which is my most visited blog entry ever). I have no intention of stopping either, even though only a small number of people read it regularly.
I don’t about success or failure, but I can say that you and your blog are an inspiration to, at least, me. That’s worth something.
I love your blog. I look forward to reading it everyday. Thank you for soldiering on with your blogging efforts. You’re right, we are becoming a rare species in the world of 140-characters or less, but I’m happy to see that you have no intention of ending what you do here.
I figure if I post a blog post as often as I feel like it, I am successfully blogging. I am wad that using a feed does make me far less likely to randomly comment…
While I do have ads on my main blog, it doesn’t pay the hosting bills, that’s for sure. But for Banal Leakage, I don’t blog there to make money. My blogging intent is very much like yours… to develop friendships, share my life and provide some type of minor entertainment to the masses that visit my site each month (which is a far cry from how many visitors you get).
10 years?? that’s awesome. I’ll be halfway there on April 1st and I have no plans to stop.
Raging success.
The only thing that would make its’ success rage even harder is more SALTALAMACCHIA!!!
I think success should be measured on how the activity affects you, not others. It appears your life has been enhanced by blogging, so you have been successful. I am a daily reader of your blog and my only regret is that you don’t write even more.
While I don’t comment frequently, I thoroughly enjoy reading your daily entries. It’s always a treat to follow your adventures, read your reviews and hear your thoughts on current events. It may sound odd, but I’ve considered you a friend from the day discovered your blog almost 8 years ago. Thank you for the time and effort, it’s greatly appreciated. I consider you a phenomenal success.
Let’s see… your visitor sessions total for February is significantly higher than than the hits for the entire life of my blog (coming up on 8 years), so I think it’s clear who’s the dismal failure here.
You’re joking when you pose this question, right?
Hi Dave –
I’ve read your blog (nearly) every day for 7 years. By nearly, I mean I may have missed 5-10 days per year.
And I access you by typing “blog” into my url line, and blogography.com comes up.
It started in 2006 while searching for pictures of jin mao tower in Shanghai.
I’ve been hooked ever since.
Matt
I know I’m a raging failure. I don’t need to look at my stats to know it. But I’m still going too. So let’s fail together. Of course mine is a much more epic fail.
I use an iPad for keeping up with my favorite sites – your blog is one of them, and the easiest way to get there is thru the google search – lots of people use google (or other search portals) this way. Don’t discount search results as non-regular readers, I bet a lot of us come to you this way.
I don’t always leave a comment but do know that I always read your posts and enjoy them. Might be a day or two behind, but I always get around to reading them all eventually 😉
Glad you write every day, dude! Sad others are quitting.
I’m glad you still write. It’s nice to peak into other people’s lives and see how they live life.