Whereas my list of regular readers has grown from the original six to upwards of 100 people per day (go figure), Friday marked the height of crazy over here at Figs. According to my site meter I finished the day at 345 visits from people in areas as crazy sounding as Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Brussels; Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria; Eugene, Oregon; and Menlo Park, California.
What gives? Has my blog suddenly become that interesting? Of course not. Here's what happened:
I was tagged for a meme, tagged other bloggers, was thanked for lemons, and was agreed with concerning a particular disturbing image of John McCain groping George Bush. All good fun because most people who came my way are probably authors of similar (ok, better) blogs. And I enjoyed discovering some new blogs from the comments people left.
BUT THEN in the middle of the day, the lid nearly blew off my site meter. Seems someone included a link to what I thought was one of my lamest and most insubstantial posts, Fun with scissors: A little art hoax. I thought it was kind of fun, posted it, and them immediately forgot about it. But that someone included a link to it on a seemingly megasite, sort of like a public blog where anyone can post about anything. And floods of people clicked on the link and came over to Figs for a visit. And it's got me a little worried. How do I know all these people are nice??? They haven't left any mean comments . . . yet. I know some bloggers regularly get this kind of traffic. But not little old me.
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8 comments:
Hmmm. Wish I could help. Pretty sure my stats are still in the double digits for most posts. Sigh.
You should have seen what happened to my stats on the day that a Yahoo.com link directly from their main page resulted in a search result that, through cold internet algorithms and fantastical magic, had my site as the 8th hit.
Wow.
That paper art about which you posted is so much fun and delightfully ingenious.
Hey, Eugene's not that weird! Well, ok, it is weird, but not in a bad way. :) (I assume it was my visit that brought up the Eugene flag) I came here by way of Jen Yu's meme. She said your blog was hilarious, and I have to agree. Thanks for inviting me into your "home!"
Girlfriend, that stuff will happen. I had a bunch of folks "stumbleupon" my site and it brought my server to its knees - no one could access anything. Had to boot the old server (circa 1996 crapola PC) and install a less old server (circa 2005 PC server) and upgrade the OS and other software. While a private blog is nice and manageable, a public blog that becomes linked and popular will usher in the era of many well-meaning or harmless readers, some assholes, and then you will get some blog stalkers. Blogging is very much a one-way street. I was just emailing Peabody about this... They read about you, feel that they know you, and you know jack about them (unless they have a blog that actually shares interesting things about them and you read it). Hopefully you won't have to deal with assholes and blog stalkers :)
People always tell me they read something or saw something on my blog but I don't inspire comments. I write it mostly for myself anyway. Your blog is enjoyable and you should be proud.
Cindy, question for you (unrelated to post)...I notice you also enjoy the book History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I was thinking of giving this as a gift to my readers at the wedding (see the connection). It's one of my faves. What are your thoughts on that?
Hi:
I'm new to reading your blog, and I thorougly your style of writing and humor. No need to add me to the stats of "hmmmm-who is this person?" Your outlook on everyday stuff is enjoyable to read.
Hi Jackie! Thanks for the kind words. Blogging is one of the last things I ever thought I would do, but I'm continually amazed at how much fun it is. But it is kind of a funny feeling when you're blogging away, your site meter is popping, but no one is leaving comments. I guess that means people just think we've said it all!
I did love The History of Love. I'm trying to remember the specific, but I recall that in spite of the name, it's a lot about heartbreak and loss as well as love. But it is such a good book that I think it would make a good gift to anyone who likes to read.
purpleflowers: Welcome to the land of figs! I'm glad you've enjoyed your trip.
I know what you're saying. How do you know these visitors are safe? Well . . . you don't. In the meantime, just be careful not to make yourself too identifiable on your blog. And here's a bit of advice from a power blogger friend of mine: do not engage the crazies. If you get a crazy person posting on your blog, just ignore it. This jives with what I know from teaching anti-stalking classes to professional cheerleaders: never engage your stalker except to take his/her photograph for the police.
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