First of all, thank you to everyone that has voted for my Southwest Airlines Blog-o-spondent audition video – I really appreciate your help. Contest rules states something to the effect that the top ten vote getters will get an interview, and from that ten, three will be selected to go to Vegas. At the time of this posting, I’m in fifth.
Regarding this contest, I’m frustrated with who is in first place. I’m not bothered that she has a popular blog and asked her readers to vote, I’m bothered that her video is first and lacks any effort or creativity. She’s received over a thousand votes in less than 48 hours and leads second place by over 400 votes at the time of this post. I feel like Frank Grimes. Actually, I feel like I did in the 7th grade when I ran for a student council office that I put a lot of work into and lost to pretty blond girl who did nothing but look good. I want those on top to have ‘earned’ their place.
Speaking of popular blogs, I thought I had a somewhat popular blog until this contest. The main tool I use to track visitors is StatCounter, and from that I gather I get around 1600-1900 unique visitors a day. Here’s a look at last week’s traffic: (Click to enlarge)
So I thought with those kind of numbers, I could pull around 600 to 800 votes. But I’m guessing now that I may have only about 100 dedicated readers and I get a lot of passer-by-traffic from the Google. What gives me the idea that I only get about 100 dedicated readers? Well, on Wednesday I posted a simple little poll about bath towel usage. It doesn’t take any effort to participate in the poll other than clicking on a selection, so who wouldn’t participate, right? At the time of this posting, there were less than 90 votes.
With all that said, I might take blogging and this little website too seriously. I really enjoy blogging and finding all these tidbits on the Intertubes and sharing, but if this is all it is for, then I have to re-evaluate my commitment to BON. My hosting contract ends in middle November.
Here’s a nice little update on your favorite Saved By The Bell cast members.
The NFL season starts next Thursday. I noticed right after the game McCain will be accepting his party’s nomination. I bet he’ll like that ratings booster.
It seems weird that Major League Baseball is allowing the use of instant reply this season. I would think it’s something they would have wanted to start at the beginning of a season.
I have eaten at a lot of Tex-Mex places with lots of different friends in my almost 33 years of life and I have never seen anyone dip tortilla chips into butter and eat them until the last two months where I have now witnessed performed by two different people.
If your life involves project management as mine does you might enjoy this video, especially if you are a developer.
It would have been cool to have been in Denver.
As much as I like and admire Ted Koppel, I really like the new Nightline.
Very smart, strategic, classy move Senator McCain made last night with this commercial.
Website poll numbers aren’t an accurate indicator of number of visitors. You probably have somewhere between 100 and 1600 repeating visitors.
I thought McCain’s ad was a little weird/disingenuous. I guess I just can’t imagine that it was altruistic… It had to have some kind of selfish motive. Perhaps he read Obama’s speech and saw how it railed the GOP so much, and wanted to appear to be on the high road?
I guess after the rigged FL count in 2000, and the Swift Boating in 2004, I just can’t believe the RNC has a kind or fair bone in its body.
Have you ever seen anyone cover the top of the salsa (in the bowl) w/ butter? A practice I don’t understand, but see when I treat my children to dinner!
If you enjoy bloging then keep doing it. The longer you do it the more readers you will get. I have been reading your blog for only a little over a month. I didnt vote in the poll. I must have missed it. (with the kids starting school again life has been crazy) I enjoy your blog! If you decide you do not want to pay for hosting you can do a free blog from google. It is pretty easy to use.
Your chips and butter thing made me think of my childhood. My cousin used to tell me to get some butter and dip it in sugar. We did and we got into trouble. I returned her the favor last month at the family reunion when I had her children do it.
1) I didn’t see the poll to vote on it the other day, but then again, I’m kind of slow to catch on to some things sometimes…
2) I used to always dip my chips in butter or sometimes I’d lick the salt off of them and replace it with sugar, when I was a kid. From time to time if I find that a salsa has a good flavor but is too hot for me to handle a lot of, I’ll mix it with butter. That’s how I got “brave” enough to finally try salsa to begin with – and that was so that I could mild down the “mild” pace… Funny thing is, I am originally from TX and I am the “black sheep” of my family when it comes to eating spicy things – mainly because of my immense amount of food allergies. When I crave tomatoes, I eat pace – so I still get the mild, because I can then eat a lot of it without burning my mouth up! When I am stuck with only the choice of medium or hot, I typically mix them with butter/margarine, and can eat a little bit of them at a time.
3) Being in Denver myself, I avoided going ANYWHERE near downtown all week. Last night, during the speech, I went out to Golden (which could have ended up being the capital of Colorado, but there was a conspiracy (much like the Florida voting debacle) that winded up with Denver being the capital) and went for a 2 mile hike in the dark. It was much more entertaining and healthier for me. 🙂
Don’t be so down on yourself. You provide a huge amount of relief from very stressful days with the things you post. I too, must have missed the poll, becasue I try to visit at least once a day. Thank you for the comic and other relief you provide!
Every day at work (at my desk) I anxiously click on your blog for my lunchtime chuckles. And I regularly share your posts with many friends. I hope you hang in there. (And yes, I went to the trouble of voting for your SWA video.)
My blog isn’t nearly as popular or active as BON, but I do know that I have lots of lurkers who never comment on my posts or vote in my polls. A few people might not know how. Some just want to enjoy my site without taking the time to interact with it. Some check the site often but only give back on occasion. You can’t fully measure the success or impact of a site by votes, comments, or any other numerical method that requires the visitor to do something. I check BON several times a week but only rarely comment because I rarely have any comment to make. I did vote for your video, though. I’d say keep BON going as long as it makes you happy.
Keith, I concur with Andy Box’s comments. I don’t remember how I stumbled on your blog but I’ve been checking it daily ever since. Your stories are usually days to weeks ahead of main stream media…very cutting edge. I probably should comment more often but so many of the stories are self-explanatory and don’t seem to require comments. There are a few other blogs out there I view which are news blogs and I’ve observed they receive an embarrassingly few comments, even on their most controversial editorial and opinion pieces. On some of the blogs that do get comments, the comments are either meaningless little “LOL†remarks or nasty attacks on previous posters. We don’t live in an era of writing and many people may feel intimidated about expressing their thoughts in a public and written format. I voted for your video but skipped over the bath towel “experiment†several times because it didn’t mean anything to me. It’s probable some readers skimmed through and did not recognize exactly who was requesting help on the video vote. Hopefully as the selection process moves forward the judges will recognize the same fairness issues you’ve identified. Stay with it, Keith, there are a whole lot of people out here who enjoy reading and laughing at postings they can’t get anywhere else but at BON!
I would say you vastly underestimate your exposure. I really do enjoy this site. I have no idea who you are, but I love the sight. I go to it 2nd every morning. I can tell lately that you’ve started wondering if people (us) are actually out here… we are.
It’s funny. I feel like I can tell when you’ve had a bad day or a good day, just by your blog postings. I’ve noticed your grammar “peculiarities” . Kinda creepy.
Stick with it. Your site is not about interactivity–your readers are not accustomed to giving you feedback so it’s going to feel like you’re screaming into the void. On the other hand, you’re not a public service — don’t be shy about marketing yourself more aggressively. If you need more votes on SWA, make that your first post every day. We’ll understand, even if it gets a bit annoying, because your site is remarkably entertaining and even educational from time to time 🙂
Keith,
I’ve been a loyal BON reader now for about a year and a half. I don’t check the site every day, but I check it at least a couple of times a week (which is a lot more than I can say for other sites on my “favorites” list). I don’t usually vote in the polls because I don’t usually vote on ANY online polls- it’s just a personal preference of mine, so please don’t take that personally :(. I DID, however, vote for you to be the SWA blogger because I think you’d be awesome!
Please keep BON going and continue giving us fun things to read!
Keith-a-roo, if you were to hang up The Bag, I would miss you, and it, terribly.
You have a far wider readership than I do, but I always thought you and I did this bit for similar reasons: Personally, I don’t care if about the numbers. I know there are a few people I know (or virtually know) who stop by now and again and get a giggle or a new thought from reading my stuff. That’s good enough.
That said, I can only imagine how much time you put into BON. If you’re at a point where you don’t see the return, drop it, man. And don’t look back.
(Click to enlarge)
Website poll numbers aren’t an accurate indicator of number of visitors. You probably have somewhere between 100 and 1600 repeating visitors.
I thought McCain’s ad was a little weird/disingenuous. I guess I just can’t imagine that it was altruistic… It had to have some kind of selfish motive. Perhaps he read Obama’s speech and saw how it railed the GOP so much, and wanted to appear to be on the high road?
I guess after the rigged FL count in 2000, and the Swift Boating in 2004, I just can’t believe the RNC has a kind or fair bone in its body.
Have you ever seen anyone cover the top of the salsa (in the bowl) w/ butter? A practice I don’t understand, but see when I treat my children to dinner!
If you enjoy bloging then keep doing it. The longer you do it the more readers you will get. I have been reading your blog for only a little over a month. I didnt vote in the poll. I must have missed it. (with the kids starting school again life has been crazy) I enjoy your blog! If you decide you do not want to pay for hosting you can do a free blog from google. It is pretty easy to use.
Your chips and butter thing made me think of my childhood. My cousin used to tell me to get some butter and dip it in sugar. We did and we got into trouble. I returned her the favor last month at the family reunion when I had her children do it.
1) I didn’t see the poll to vote on it the other day, but then again, I’m kind of slow to catch on to some things sometimes…
2) I used to always dip my chips in butter or sometimes I’d lick the salt off of them and replace it with sugar, when I was a kid. From time to time if I find that a salsa has a good flavor but is too hot for me to handle a lot of, I’ll mix it with butter. That’s how I got “brave” enough to finally try salsa to begin with – and that was so that I could mild down the “mild” pace… Funny thing is, I am originally from TX and I am the “black sheep” of my family when it comes to eating spicy things – mainly because of my immense amount of food allergies. When I crave tomatoes, I eat pace – so I still get the mild, because I can then eat a lot of it without burning my mouth up! When I am stuck with only the choice of medium or hot, I typically mix them with butter/margarine, and can eat a little bit of them at a time.
3) Being in Denver myself, I avoided going ANYWHERE near downtown all week. Last night, during the speech, I went out to Golden (which could have ended up being the capital of Colorado, but there was a conspiracy (much like the Florida voting debacle) that winded up with Denver being the capital) and went for a 2 mile hike in the dark. It was much more entertaining and healthier for me. 🙂
Keith,
Don’t be so down on yourself. You provide a huge amount of relief from very stressful days with the things you post. I too, must have missed the poll, becasue I try to visit at least once a day. Thank you for the comic and other relief you provide!
Every day at work (at my desk) I anxiously click on your blog for my lunchtime chuckles. And I regularly share your posts with many friends. I hope you hang in there. (And yes, I went to the trouble of voting for your SWA video.)
My blog isn’t nearly as popular or active as BON, but I do know that I have lots of lurkers who never comment on my posts or vote in my polls. A few people might not know how. Some just want to enjoy my site without taking the time to interact with it. Some check the site often but only give back on occasion. You can’t fully measure the success or impact of a site by votes, comments, or any other numerical method that requires the visitor to do something. I check BON several times a week but only rarely comment because I rarely have any comment to make. I did vote for your video, though. I’d say keep BON going as long as it makes you happy.
Keith, I concur with Andy Box’s comments. I don’t remember how I stumbled on your blog but I’ve been checking it daily ever since. Your stories are usually days to weeks ahead of main stream media…very cutting edge. I probably should comment more often but so many of the stories are self-explanatory and don’t seem to require comments. There are a few other blogs out there I view which are news blogs and I’ve observed they receive an embarrassingly few comments, even on their most controversial editorial and opinion pieces. On some of the blogs that do get comments, the comments are either meaningless little “LOL†remarks or nasty attacks on previous posters. We don’t live in an era of writing and many people may feel intimidated about expressing their thoughts in a public and written format. I voted for your video but skipped over the bath towel “experiment†several times because it didn’t mean anything to me. It’s probable some readers skimmed through and did not recognize exactly who was requesting help on the video vote. Hopefully as the selection process moves forward the judges will recognize the same fairness issues you’ve identified. Stay with it, Keith, there are a whole lot of people out here who enjoy reading and laughing at postings they can’t get anywhere else but at BON!
I would say you vastly underestimate your exposure. I really do enjoy this site. I have no idea who you are, but I love the sight. I go to it 2nd every morning. I can tell lately that you’ve started wondering if people (us) are actually out here… we are.
It’s funny. I feel like I can tell when you’ve had a bad day or a good day, just by your blog postings. I’ve noticed your grammar “peculiarities” . Kinda creepy.
Keep it up. What would I do w/out BON?
Stick with it. Your site is not about interactivity–your readers are not accustomed to giving you feedback so it’s going to feel like you’re screaming into the void. On the other hand, you’re not a public service — don’t be shy about marketing yourself more aggressively. If you need more votes on SWA, make that your first post every day. We’ll understand, even if it gets a bit annoying, because your site is remarkably entertaining and even educational from time to time 🙂
Keith,
I’ve been a loyal BON reader now for about a year and a half. I don’t check the site every day, but I check it at least a couple of times a week (which is a lot more than I can say for other sites on my “favorites” list). I don’t usually vote in the polls because I don’t usually vote on ANY online polls- it’s just a personal preference of mine, so please don’t take that personally :(. I DID, however, vote for you to be the SWA blogger because I think you’d be awesome!
Please keep BON going and continue giving us fun things to read!
Keith-a-roo, if you were to hang up The Bag, I would miss you, and it, terribly.
You have a far wider readership than I do, but I always thought you and I did this bit for similar reasons: Personally, I don’t care if about the numbers. I know there are a few people I know (or virtually know) who stop by now and again and get a giggle or a new thought from reading my stuff. That’s good enough.
That said, I can only imagine how much time you put into BON. If you’re at a point where you don’t see the return, drop it, man. And don’t look back.
BTW, I voted for you.
Your little Jewish buddy,
Peter