As writers and bloggers, we are interested in knowing where are followers hail from. You will see on my blog there is a flag counter on the side bar. This enables me to see where my blog is read. There are also several other options on the site, that allow me to know the number of visits per country, and how many visitors from each.
For example, in 2022 – 206 different countries have visited my site
Why should we track our blog readers?
1. Understand Your Visitors Better
Tracking blog traffic sources can help you figure out where your visitors are coming from and which platforms, they use so you can learn more about them and send them targeted messages.
2. You Can Measure Your Market Campaigns
If the goal of a campaign is to generate traffic, you can track the different traffic sources to see how effective it is.
3. For Best Results, Concentrate on Channels
You can improve your results by concentrating more on the channel that brought the most traffic to your blog.
4. Topics for New Content
People from various channels may be interested in different topics, so reviewing your traffic sources for each blog will help you come up with new content ideas.
5. Identify Traffic Gap
You can look for channels that aren’t performing well and can optimize them.
As we come to the close of the year – 2022 – I would like to know what you would like to see on this blog in 2023. I can keep the same regularly themed twice weekly posts, or do something completely different. I am always looking to engage readers and writers alike in my blog community.
Shall I continue with Bibliophile Collective Tuesday’s and Wordsmith Collective Thursday’s or change it up?
What do you want to see, read, interact about?
Is there something I have not covered or included you wish I did?
It is always surprising when you get a notification from WordPress as to your blog anniversary. This is quite the milestone. There is effort in maintaining my blog schedule and coming up with new content, but the most enjoyable part is the connection I have with my followers. So a huge thank you for accompanying me on this journey.
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 12 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.
I have a good friend, Karen who has a book swap with several friends and family and I am lucky to be part of it. I collected my next batch for my ‘to be read’ pile last week. It is, as ever, an eclectic mix of genres and authors. Something I enjoy, as reading outside our ‘comfort’ zone gives us pleasant surprises and a new venture into stories otherwise unread. Some are successful, some not, but without the opportunity to read, we would never know. This is the current stack I will be making my way though.
What do you have on your TBR pile? Is it as varied? Which authors do you gravitate towards?
And remember today is National Book Lovers Day! So another celebration.
If you are like me you have a movie running in your head when you read a book. You can ‘see’ the characters, their surroundings and what is happening. As a writer this is a wonderful tool for my stories. I see everything as I write, getting those images onto the paper is the trick.
So when we watch a movie, sometimes an adaptation of a book or a play we have read or watched, we compare what our vision is or was of the story. Sometimes the director and screen writer get it ‘right’, other times they do not. As you all know I am a Stephen King fan and have watched some of the movies made from his novels. The interpretations can be cringe worthy, such as Shelly Duvall in The Shining. I got angry at her scenes, she did not represent the character at all, she ruined that movie for me. Jack Nicholson, of course, was stupendous in his role, as only Jack can. One movie I watched, and re-watched was The Green Mile, it was expertly portrayed. This is most likely due to Mr. King being on set!
This brings me to several movies I re-watch due to their intriguing plot, my emotional response or the actors characterization. I have a basket of DVD’s that contain many movies, I enjoyed a lot. (This is not all of them though, it would be a very long post!)
The Lake House, which was adapted from Il Mare, a 2006 American fantasy romance drama film written by David Auburn. The movie has a time slip element with the two main characters living years apart but communicating through a mailbox.
Educating Rita, an adaptation of a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. I love the two opposing characters in this movie, chalk and cheese as they say. However, as their relationship grows there is a metamorphosis.
Shirley Valentine, this is another Willy Russell screenplay adaptations based on his 1986 one-character play. For many women this is the ultimate ‘escape’ movie. Who hasn’t dreamed of living on the ocean?
Ladies in Lavender, another screen play adaptation, this time based on a 1908 short story by William J. Locke. Superb acting by Dame’s Judi Dench and Maggie Smith bring this delightful story to life. There is heart ache, lost love, new passions and secrets. And, for me, the coastline is memories of home.
Julie & Julia, the film is the first major motion picture based on a blog. Giving yourself a deadline or a ‘monumental’ task can have its ups and downs as is plainly obvious in this movie.
Calendar Girls, based on a true story of eleven members of a women’s institute group raising money for a cancer charity with a nude calendar.
Which movies do you enjoy over and over? Are they adaptations?
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 