wow! it has been an amazing few days for this blog! after being featured blog on typepad, and having my photoshop tutorial linked on scrapscene, and 4 other websites, some of which i had never heard of, and one of which is swedish and i could not understand what they said, i have had huge traffic to this blog. from thursday evening to monday morning, SA time, i have had over 500 visitors to this blog.
amatomu has a 'compare blogs' feature, where you can enter the URL of any of their member blogs, and it shows you how you compare to theirs. i used so close, a blog i read almost daily, written by tertia, a south african girl. and on her worst day she still gets hundreds more hits than i got on friday, my best day ever. a little while ago i exchanged emails with maryam in marrakesh after linking to her on my blog a week or so ago, and she mentioned that she gets 'a few thousand' hits every day.
so, it's all relative, i suppose. but for me, it was a wonderful weekend. i loved all the comments and emails. i loved checking in from time to time, and seeing how the stats had jumped. i loved the response. THANK YOU!
i got a very sweet email from lori. then i visited her blog. she is new to blogging, but she has all the potential to become a good blog. pop in to cottage art studio, and tell her i sent ya.
there are 2 kinds of traffic to this blog. one lot comes here through a link at a photoshop website. those people pop in, read the tutorial, and leave. they don't comment. they don't linger. they don't read anything else. then there are the people who come here to visit me. they read all over. they comment. some are my real-life friends and customers. some become email-buddies. so, which visitors are important? which should i focus on? the one-time visitors provide lots of hits. they link to me in their websites. they add to my technorati authority and increase ratings at places like amatomu, where your rating depends on your traffic, the 'feet' on a daily basis. but the 'regulars' who visit, and stay, and comment, and email, and come again, they make this blog more personal. they make it all worth the extra effort. the answer is that both are important. if only traffic counted, i could have a blog with lots of photoshop tutorials. they seem to draw the crowds. but it would feel faceless, empty. like a big supermarket. traffic, turnover, feet. they add credibility. but, that is not why i started blogging in the first place. i sometime ask myself if no one read this blog, would i still do it? the answer is yes. i have kept diaries before that no one else read. so, although blog hits are fun, it still is about writing, processing, thinking. and about the personal interaction. the intimate conversation. about you and me. you, who comes here often. you who comment. you who care. thanks to you. you make this fun.
love, jacki
jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa
