re: Anonymous

Last week, I had a post apologizing for missing a day or two of blogging. An anonymous commenter left the following reply:

"That's no excuse. It takes like what? 5 minutes to post something? You say updated daily. So update daily! You have an obligation to your readers. Our time is too precious to be wasted visiting sites that claim regular updates and don't deliver. Of course, your readership is probably not very many. I'm guessing no more than 10 a day, probably less. Get RSS at least, so people know when you've updated. And get rid of that old poll while you're at it! Hope your mother is okay. Peace!"

Aside from someone being anonymously combative, I don't see how any blogger is obligated to provide content of any sort. It's not like readers pay for the privilege of accessing whatever drivel I decide to spout. Sure, if a blogger makes a statement that updates will be on a certain schedule, then that blogger should try to uphold that statement. Real life intervenes quite often, however; sickness, appointments, unforeseen delays in travel, the simple blahs ...

Think of my update schedule as a guideline, a rule of thumb, a suggestion of intent. Not a binding contract of service providement.

No one forces readers to visit their blogs. Sure, I like to see those page hits, I love to see those comments (even good ol' anonymous'). This is more of a hobby, a way to possibly entertain a few friends, maybe make a few new ones. It's no job, though sometimes it feels like one when I'm feeling ill or have no content ready to post about.

I appreciate all my readers ... and, unlike Anonymous' bitter guess above, it is more than 10 a day. According to Google Analytics, I've had 8174 pageviews since I started the blog on January 1, 2007. That averages out to 40 visits per day. (Okay, it's 39.87317 per day ... maybe from those families with 2.5 kids?)

No, it's not a huge number. Substantially more than 10, however. And, that is the average. Some days I have more, some days less. Weekends seem to be a huge drop in readership, but even then it's around 15 or more.

Some other interesting stats:

The average visit time on the site is 00:06:01 (six minutes) and viewing 1.45 pages per visit. Just under 30% of those are returning visitors, which equates out to about 12 people who come everyday. Again, not a lot, but I'm not shooting for a huge audience.

If things keep going the way they are, I should have 10,000 hits sometime in September or early October.

Okay, I'm done ranting. Time to pick up the kids from the airport.

Now there is something I wish I really could put off! ~.^