I decided a couple of weeks ago to see how many people read my blog. My feeling was that it was read by just a few people, mostly from the community or Ultralab North or South. So I decided to put an invisible stat counter on my blog. This counter gives more than just page loads, it gives details of where people came from, what country they are in, how long they stay, what system and browser they use. Interesting stuff.
The initial result was a bit of a shock. The first week most people came from google searches for all sorts of things. A few people in New Zealand came from the Ultralab feed and a couple must have bookmarked the blog as they have no referring link. A couple of people in France - ditto. They may come from a group who are looking at blogs as learning journals about whom I've heard a little. Some people from the USA are regular visitors. Most of the UK ones that didn't come from Google I knew who they must be. These were the people I'd expected to be readers. It only took 5 days to reach the 100 visitors mark.
My first reaction was to feel quite uncomfortable. I took my photo off the blog (a recent addition that I wasn't sure I was going to keep anyway) and generally de-personalised it. The readers that confused me were the ones who'd come from random google searches once but then came again from a bookmark. So my blog isn't quite the cosy space I had imagined. It's better to know this and to understand who it is that reads what I write. Obviously though this must have an effect on my content.
So this link comes with a warning - use it if you like but be aware it might change how you see your blog.Stat Counter