Despite the forced pause that I endured during parts of 2017, 2018, and 2019, Book Chase officially turns thirteen years old today. (I've told the story of the two car accidents before that almost wiped me off the face of the planet, so I won't repeat any of that now.) The good news is that I was able to reconnect with many old friends when I came back to full-time blogging last May, and have even made a few new ones in the process. You guys (and, of course, your blogs) are amazing.
Thirteen years, even interrupted as they have been, have resulted in:
1,227 Book and Short Story Reviews
199 Postings about Bookstores
311 Postings about specific Authors
541 Posts about Book News
317 Posts featuring YouTube videos about books
69 Posts featuring the best of Book Trailer videos
169 Postings about Libraries
105 Posts about avid Readers
In total, there have exactly 3,043 separate posts generating thousands of comments (thank you for that) - but current Blogger software only keeps the last ten thousand comments in its database, so I can't pull that number up.
The Top Ten search terms Leading to Book Chase (remember this goes back to January 2007) :
sarah's key
sarahs key
book rating system
british library
lynndie england
pride and prejudice and zombies
juliet hulme
porno (because I reviewed a book titled Johnny Porno)
ann perry
book chase blog
Looking back on these search terms, I find that I can barely remember who Lynndie England even is these days, that a lot of people are just now learning of the real-life murder conviction of author Ann Perry, and that posting a review of a rather obscure novel called Johnny Porno will generate a whole lot of blog hits from confused people looking for the real thing.
Countries in which Book Chase Is Most Read:
United States
France
Russia
United Kingdom
Germany
Canada
Netherlands
Ukraine
Australia
I started tracking "hits" in mid-2010, and since that date have tallied just over 2.2 million visits to the site. Since coming back to steady blogging, I'm logging almost 1400 hits a day on average, a slight increase to where I was before I was forced to take a break from the blog,
So now with thirteen years on the books, I'm looking forward to an uninterrupted 2020. That's my main goal, really, just to have a year without the kind of surprise that causes me to hide under a rock until I can heal up enough to get back to blogging.
Thanks again to all the bloggers, readers, writers, publishers, bookstores, and libraries that make book blogging so much fun.
Congratulations, Sam! I wish you a a 2020 without those unpleasant surprises that might interrupt your blogging!
ReplyDeleteKeeping my fingers crossed!
DeleteThirteen years. That's awesome! Congrats. I know I'm glad you're still around blogging. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lark. I appreciate you.
DeleteThirteen years, wow. Very glad you're still around. I glance at my stats sometimes, but never really paid attention to which countries my blog is read in- that's interesting to see.
ReplyDeleteSome platforms block the country of origin pretty effectively, but I think the ranking is about right.
DeleteCongratulations, Sam. Thirteen years is impressive (my blog is ten this year), well done. The USA is my main audience too, followed by the UK. Always interesting though to see visits from unusual countries.
ReplyDeleteOf course, having not checked properly, I've now discovered that it's not ten years since I started my book blog on Blogspot but, like you, thirteen! Well almost, June 2007.
DeleteWow, we started in the same year, Cath. And we're both still at it...amazing. Honestly, I never expected to go anywhere near this long, so every year is a bonus year.
DeleteCongratulations, Happy Blogoversary 🌟🎉
ReplyDeleteThanks much appreciated.
DeleteA teenager! Your post read like something I used to see in a magazine- Harper's - a "by the numbers" page. I haven't read that mag in ages. Not literary enough, and too political. I feel the same way about Atlantic Monthly (just Atlantic now?), and the New Yorker. I'm very happy you lived. It must change you going through such horrors. How do you know why people search for you?
ReplyDeleteThe Blogger software does some basic data tallying, Nan, so it's a painless process to pull together the numbers once a year. One of the categories they keep tabs on is Search Terms.
DeleteI know exactly what you mean about those magazines. I used to read seven or eight magazines a month - pretty much cover to cover - but I haven't done that in years. Everything is about politics nowadays, and I feel like I'm wasting my money when I subscribe to any of them. (Some of the history magazines are still pretty good - but someone at the local post office took to writing comments on the cover of my Civil War Illustrated magazines, so I just gave up and started buying them at Barnes & Noble. Politics ruins everything it touches.
They wrote on YOUR magazine?!! That must be against the law! I can't believe it!
DeleteI questioned the woman who delivers our mail, and she claimed it had to be a disgruntled neighbor who wanted to cause trouble. Never could figure out her logic. It's much more likely that someone in the postal system was offended by the occasional Confederate flag that showed up as part of the cover art every so often. I just blew it off as not worth my trouble to fight about it anymore.
DeleteHappy 13th! I'm glad to have enjoyed all these years with you and your blog :) Here's to many more - and no more car accidents!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being here all those years, Susan. That's kind of amazing, really.
ReplyDelete