Monday 10 December 2012

Stats

5 foot 7, 13.5 stone, gingery-blonde hair, green eyes..........


No, not my stats! My blogs stats. Yesterday I had 1250 page views, an absolute record! It just shows where peoples interests mainly lie, when it is a baking/cooking/crafting day I seem to get more page views and comments than at any other times. The least come when I am having a rant about something - well I can't blame you for that, hahaha.

It got me thinking about you, my readers.  I am thrilled that so many of you enjoy what I write and I wonder what you are all like, what drives you to blog or read blogs. I have begun to form a mental picture of many of you, the ones that comment regularly anyway and sometimes when I write, I know that something might appeal to a particular reader, even just a particular sentence. I can't claim to know you, but I feel like I know an aspect of you based on your reactions to things I say - and of course reading your blogs, which I keep up with regularly (even if I don't always comment, blogger is SO difficult with me leaving comments, sometimes it takes me ages and in the end I give up).

The interesting thing I notice is that by far the largest percentage of you are women, both my followers, those that leave comments and those that blog themselves. We men are definitely in a minority in blogland (certainly on the subject matter that interests me at least). Maybe if I was following blogs on car maintenance or Samantha Fox (there's a blast from the past) there might be more fellow men bloggers. Is it perhaps because women are naturally better with money, or at least more inclined to show an interest in the household finances? More interested in sharing cooking and recipes (this is very likely) or just more interested in blogging. Women, I am told, are much more inclined to share feelings and all our blog territories dip into feeling sharing now and again.

Oh well, this humble man is thrilled by all of you who read, share and take time to enjoy this blog: men and women, students, nurses, bio chemists, dry cleaners, school teachers, retired, grumpy, happy, ex-lorry drivers, Brits, Aussies, Texans, Irish and everyone else. Leave me a comment, it thrills me every time.

49 comments:

  1. I was once told by another blogger "Do not look at stats - therein lies madness". That came from me wondering what on earth people in certain far flung tropical countries could find of interest in my ramblings. I don't look as often as I used to, but every now and again find it interesting to see who, when and where from are reading. One sad statistic I noticed was the sudden drop of visitors from Japan after the tsunami. Strange to think that such a devastating event can even have an impact on a tiny insignificant thing such as a blog.

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    1. Blue shed's right
      blogger is playing up at the moment. especially with stats Dan!
      my stats are over a 1000 a day and I dont believe a word of it) I used to have a counter which calculated that traffic was indeed a lot less ( though it only calculated individual visitors)
      perhaps you have a stalker!
      best
      john!
      ps are you ONLY 5'7?
      you look taller!

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    2. Yep, a short arse of 5'7 is me! Oh blogger is an absolute pain in the arse right now so can well believe it. I found an interesting compatibility table in the help section that showed that the only web browser actually compatible with blogger was Safari, which is about as useless as a summer snowman for anyone that doesn't use apple. Explains a lot though.

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    3. I use Firefox and have no problems with that. Being a woman, I blog primarily for my family but am pleased to have others looking. Mind you anonymous comments from rogue commercial sites are certainly increasing!

      Maybe people follow you because you are interesting, maybe it brings out motherly feelings, who knows.

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    4. I have had trouble with firefox in the past and moved onto chrome, but maybe it is time to re-try firefox. Have noticed the same with commercial comments! They get immediate deletion.

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  2. Wow I dream of having that many page views I'm ecstatic if I reach 100 lol my blog is obviously very dull and so I will have to up my game a bit. I only recently started looking at the stats bit and I discovered that I seem to have a lot of page views from Russia which I find quite intriguing.

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    1. Well, the page views is probably not accurate, but I had a slow start with no followers and 0 page views for months. haha.

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  3. I don't comment here often but I discovered your blog a couple of weeks ago and now pop in everyday. I live in Egypt (my husband is Egyptian) and we live the simple life. We worked and saved for a number of years with the aim to buy a plot of land and build a home in Egypt. I'm from the South East of England where the average house price was £180k and we just didn't want to live a life saddled with a huge mortgage.
    So we starting saving in 2002 at the age of 25 and purchased in cash a plot of land by the Nile in 2004 and build the house as and when we had the funds available. We moved in to our home in Jan 2010 rent and mortgage free with our now two children only now I'm 36!!! It was tough at the time as the UK was truly riding on the crest of a wave whilst we were saving. People maxing out the credit cards etc so I sometimes used to feel a bit "odd" with my frugal lifestyle and felt at the time I was the only one doing it.

    We've got a 100 plus fruit trees, I do a bit of work for a Uk company from home and my husband looks after our land, trees and our two Mudbrick little eco houses that we rent out to tourists. We're in Luxor which isn't suffering from the turmoil that you see on the news but it has a knock on effect in that it puts people off travelling as they think it is a war zone (it isn't). This area relies on Agriculture and mainly tourism. Its funny the path that life takes you on but despite everything I'm glad we came here and that we escaped the rat race. No doubt Egypt is not everyones cup of tea but it works for I wake up everyday happy and looking forward to the day and that to me is priceless. We've also managed to create our own little Oasis of calm here. We don't have much spare cash but that's just fine, we live simply and frugally.

    My blog http://orangesbythenile.blogspot.com is about my simple life here in Egypt although we live frugally because many of the people here have an extreme frugal lifestyle forced on them through no fault of their own, I make a point of not talking too much about my frugal life as they would probably consider it affluent. But we are able to live here because we ARE frugal and try to make our cash stretch as far as possible.

    I love reading your blog about the things you've been eating and baking I'm not driven by money , I just needed more "life". I'm getting that now. I love your blog and you christmas pudding icecream looked delicious :-)

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    1. How very nice to hear from you Ruby Tuesday! I am going to check out your blog in a minute. A brave decision moving countries, much braver than what I did! It sounds beautiful and exotic and a lovely way to have a frugal life.. I love your description of a little oasis of calm.
      Looking forward to reading about you.

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  4. I discover your blog a while back and I enjoy reading what you have been up too. I check daily and see what is new. right now I live lawton, OK and getting ready to move cross country to Virginia!I enjoy reading about your frugal lifestyle and the things you been up too and to be honest I enjoy reading about the UK. So I blog hop reading some Uk blogs :) Also I google somethings to learn english, smile. Like what a car boot sale was! A trunk sale lol

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    1. Nice to have you hear. Glad you enjoy the English blogs! I follow a few American blogs and love all the differences.

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  5. I have visited the UK and Ireland several times now and have completely fallen in love with the country and the people. I don't have a blog myself as I don't feel that I'm a very interesting person. I love to quilt, to make and bake and to save money where I can. I love the feelings of non-materialism I find in the blogs I follow. I adore seeing the photos and hearing the daily stories. It all makes my world seem much bigger! So a big thank you to you!

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    1. What a lovely comment, thank you. You should give writing a blog a go, you may surprise yourself. Think of it as an online diary!

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  6. I think of blogging as a virtual coffee morning with friends popping by for chat.
    Jane x

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  7. Couldn't agree with Jane more. Nothing nicer than waking up in the morning, and having a browse of my favourite blogs - sets the day up right :)

    Now - can you work on sending me some of you snow for Christmas...? I'm hankering for a White Christmas LOL

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    1. Just what I do too, my morning routine with a cup of coffee. All my snow is gone!

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  8. Texans! That's ME! :-)

    I don't remember how I found you, but I know I did and I'm grateful for it. Dani said it beautifully, it's just nice to visit out favorite blogs around the world and catch up with the goings on. The internet has truly connected us in ways we may never have been connected before. Think about it, just a few years ago, none of us "knew" each other. We just lived in our part of the world doing our thing, now we are all having a conversation together.

    Like you said, I just started my blog to keep up with what was going on, and somewhere along the way, people found it and commented and they keep finding it. It's an odd thing while at the same time fascinating.

    For all the 'bad things' people say about the internet, I'm grateful for all the people it has let me meet, you, John, Dani, Tonya, Granny and a bunch more.

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    1. I agree, it is one of the lovely ways of connecting with people whose lives would probably never cross over with yours under any other circumstances. And it isn't really random because we all share a common interest and is great to know you all.

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  9. Steady now, you don't want too many thrills today! I read your blog every time you post as your interests are similar to mine. I must try your ice - cream recipe - sounds delish.
    Love from Mum
    xx - (I did worry right at the beginning of reading your blog whether it was the correct thing to put 2 kisses on - hope you're not offended - it's a woman thing!)

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    1. hahahaha, I enjoyed the kisses, I assure you.

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  10. I started blogging for my own pleasure, then found that people do read all my ramblings, so the conversations started, and now we all have blog friends, visit each others blogs, find interest in each others topics. I find it far more entertaining then watching TV, as it brings all types of folk from all over the globe to interact with each other.
    I`m hooked, and I find your blog very interesting at times. I blog hop backwards and forwards. There is no constent addiction to a particular blog or subject. I brows and enjoy most of them. The tremendeous variety of things that gets blogged about is amazing and it`s just like reading a good book or newspaper. You often learn something whilst you read. That`s what I like the most about blogging.
    I forgot who meantioned the snow. Please send us all some for Christmas.

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    1. You were one of my very first followers Sarina! I always feel like you were with me from the beginning, before I even found my house. Like I just said to someone, all the snow is gone now!

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    2. Shame about the snow disapearing. I really wanted some. Now I have to send a letter to Santa to wish for some, lol.

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  11. I'm 5'7" too, but both my girls are taller - one is a smidge under 6' tall! I've enjoyed following you on your journey back up here to Lancashire. I started blogging to record our renovations and was amazed that anyone wanted to read about us living and renovating on a shoestring.The new blog is an escape from what can, at times, be a tough life. I read all kinds of blogs and even met up twice with a fellow blogger when I was on holiday this year - that was a fabulous experience and we talked for hours as if we were old friends.

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    1. You too were one of my first followers and it has always been lovely to have you along for the ride.

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  12. I like your blog because you come across as a really decent sort. You are polite and friendly, and I love the fact that you have two lives, the singing one and the home loving one. I think you know about me, I give a lot away in my blog so I won't go on. I am also 5ft 7ins.

    I've just been wracking my brains for today's post, help I haven't done much today to write about. An idea came to me in a flash, so now I'm off to get it down.

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    1. Thanks Ilona, I read yours every day and always enjoy the quirkiness of it :-)

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  14. I discovered your blog a few weeks ago and check everyday to see if you have written anything new! It's always interesting.

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    1. Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy it. Sorry I don't actually write every day!

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  15. For your blogs stats: I'm from the north west corner of Europe, between 1-2 meters above sea level.
    It is not just the subject, it's also the way you write about it. I really enjoy reading your blog, thank you. You've created a warm coffee table environment in the blog world, although for me it is definitely too late for coffee now, so I'll see you in the morning.

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    1. Very nice to hear from you. I am so glad you enjoy it and I'm having my first coffee of the day now which I catch up.

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  16. Finding I was out of step with the values of many of those around me (much of my working wardrobe comes from charity shops, I don't count shopping amongst my hobbies!), I stumbled across your blog and others just over a year ago. It's great to know there are other people out there who think like me and I've learned a lot from their experiences of simple living. I've especially enjoyed reading about your garden this year.

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    1. That's what I love, the coming together of ideas from people with similar views and lifestyles and the learning from each other.

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  17. Well, I live in Scotland, near Edinburgh, and I discovered your blog recently. I'm retired--used to be a teacher--and I enjoy reading your blog because there is a real sense of the genuine person coming across. You sound friendly and I love the fact that you sing! And other people's domestic lives have a fascination, don't you think? It's the same sort of fascination of looking into other people's shopping trolleys and trying to imagine how they live!! Good on you--keep writing please......m

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    1. Haha, I love looking into other peoples shopping trolleys. Mind you, don't we all have an interest in seeing inside someones house? or learning something about them. I guess blogs are just a virtual version of 'Through the Keyhole'.

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  18. I discovered your blog via Ilona's (meanqueen) and I read it everyday. I especially like to get your male perspective on frugal living as the other blogs I read all are written by women (lovely interesting ones of course). The exception (at least here in the US) seems to be blogs relating to finances (mostly male) versus those relating to frugal living (mostly female authors). Would it be fair to generalize that many male bloggers focus on the blog as a business and many more of the female bloggers I read focus simply on the blogging aspect? (Though not all, some have their blogs plastered with ads but I don't enjoy those as much)

    I especially enjoy reading about your singing adventures as I am one of those volunteer choral singers (not a professional like you) and one of the most exciting singing experiences of my life was singing Bach's St.John's Passion in the Canterbury Cathedral.

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    1. Oh I do love the John Passion, it is years since I did it!
      Nice to have you here, I am glad you enjoy it. It probably is very fair to say that male blogs often focus on finances and the female on frugal living, it must just be what we are predestined to concentrate on (not sure where I fit in then, haha)

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  19. I also really enjoy your blog. It is really interesting to me as you have chosen to move into this lovely part of the world where I also live. I love the fact that you are an opera singer, this is a recently discovered love for me, my daughter and daughter-in-law, we go at least once a year to the Lowry and will be going to see Lesley Garret next March for daughter-in-law's birthday treat. It is so special for us all!

    Keep on blogging and letting us know how you are getting on with your garden, house and frugality... and do have a lovely Christmas and a Happy (and frugal) New Year!

    Janet

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    1. I will, I enjoy it, even though I sometimes have times when I can't think of anything to write about for a few days - inevitable I am sure. I am in awe of those bloggers that manage to write an interesting post every single day.

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  20. Hi Dan, Judy from Oz here. Love your blog, been reading for a while now but not commenting often as previous computer did not let me (on some blogs) for some reason. However have new computer now so all good!
    I don't blog personally (I would like to, more as an online journal for me as I'm sure it would be most boring blog in world haha!) but I do read quite a few, specially those with frugal leanings. I think I found you from one of them. I read Ilona, Sarina, SFT, Froogs, yours of course, and others too. Our motto is 'we love free and we love cheap', but we also enjoy living simply and enjoying our lives. We live in a beautiful town called Goolwa in South Australia, it can get a bit touristy over the summer as it is nestled in the area where the River Murray meets the sea so we have river and beach, plenty for water lovers! We moved here almost exactly 3 years ago, to our almost 1 acre block which we bought back in 2001 (we couldn't afford it now!). We love it so much, it's just such a laid back lifestyle. Keep blogging, I am really enjoying reading your story and hearing about your adventures along the way.
    Cheers Judy xx

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    1. Hi Judy, good to see someone from Oz. You should give blogging a go, it will surprise you how therapeutic it is. I have learnt loads from doing it. Goolwa sounds and looks beautiful (I just looked at some pictures of it). It must be lovely to live there.

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  21. A frugal blogging man??? I look forward to following you!

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  22. Wowzers! Amazing! The most I ever had was 900, but I usually get about 250 which is pretty cool I think. :)

    I think you are the only man whose blog I follow. I do read Get Rich Slowly and Mr. Money Mustache sometimes, which are written by men, but on blogger there are very few men I've seen!

    Well, you know me, student, biologist, blogger, haha.

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  23. Love your blog! I have followed it with such interest since just before you moved out of London, and I have really enjoyed seeing the transformation of the house and beautiful garden. It's always interesting to see what you've cooked up, made, improved or generally had thoughts on.

    Long may it continue.

    x

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  24. I am also a 5 ft 7inch tall bloke. I also blog, but my blog is a bit more ranty. I am living up in Shetland and trying to live a bit lower carbon and have found your blog really helpful in terms of ideas and techniques for pickling, christmas mincemeat etc. It is always good to read a new post. Thank you

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  25. Hello, I found your blog through the blog roll on nomorespending.net. I have been reading end enjoying your adventures for many months but I have never been able to get a comment to post, so here's hoping this will be the lucky one! I live on the east coast of Canada and aspire to garden as you do. Maybe some year! My favourite of your posts was the one from February that quoted Enid Blyton :)

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