Sunday, March 18, 2007

And You Came Here For That?

I had this blog for MONTHS before I realized there was such a thing as a statistics counter you could add to your blog to find out things like how many people visited, why they came here, how long they stayed.

I tell this story to say, I blogged without realizing just how big (or small) my audience was; I blogged then, like I do now, because I love to write. And to talk about what I love.

Anyhow, the main reason I added a stats counter is that some blogs would mention the funny searches that brought people to their site; and that, to know the searches, was what I wanted. Because it was funny.

So here it goes:

map of the 12 labors of hercules Nope, I don't have a map, but I'm sure you found the graphic novel I reviewed which did have a map.

i am the messenger by marcus zusak-read first chapter Are you looking for an ebook? Or for someone to do your homework?

attolia Since Gen is my book boyfriend, I respect the Attolia obsession. Want traffic? Post about the books The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia. I swear, every day I get these searches.

jaclyn moriarty interview I love her, too! Wow, an interview would be great!

annie between the states movie Loved the book, yes it would work as a movie. Let me note here, that while I review sometimes from ARCS I also review older titles. Rarely have I seen a search for a new book; the searches are all for books already in print.

slayers night snake adult galleries clueless on this one.

paper tiger emily dickinson quote Again with the no clues.

jimmy liao rabbit separate ways For some reason, this one is very unsettling.

the book thief See what I mean by books in print? Tho I'm sure that this was a Printz Honor adds to why people are looking for info on it.

free download mary downing hahn witch catcher Good luck with that, but here's the thing: Mary Downing Hahn has to make a living. Pay the bills. Why should her book be available as a free download? Want it for free? Borrow it from the library.

fireplace As you can imagine, I get this a lot.

reaction paper of my girl movie by macaulay culkin Ah, the old "i want someone to do my homework for me" search. Let me say -- if this is how you're searching, you deserve the D.

octavian's mother The HBO series rocks, doesn't it?

about kiki strike inside the shadow city Love this book! And let me point out to those who may be wondering about the books they review -- again, a book already in print. Not an ARC.

george crum's potato chips Yep, I reviewed this book, but interestingly enough I just did a program at the library about this -- it was fab. Put out 7 different types of potato chips (jalapeno, classic, sour cream & onion) and have people vote. As they come in for the chips, tell them about George Crum.

veronica mars We love her, don't we?

the king of attolia See above.

octavian's mother's death You know the Rome show is heavily fictionalized, right?

julie larios poet probably a Poetry Friday poet

chair fireplace I also get this a lot.

abridged childrens classic books I support adult classics that are told in various formats in order to introduce kids to classics; but I have a bit of a harder time understanding why a book for children needs to be abridged.

rat snake You want one? Or to get rid of one?

who are the main characters in lowry's the giver Again, you deserve the D just for poor search skills. This is how I know that however many times teachers, parents and librarians say that kids and teens have great computer search skills, I say -- nope. Not really.

rob thomas, nyc policeman Good luck with that! Is he cute?

tea cozy, english, cat Very specific. Want to know a secret? I don't own a tea cozy. I wish I did!

boarding scholls for teenagers with autism Some searches break your heart. Good luck with that!

For what it's worth, I like statcounter.com and mybloglog.com. If you're not sure how to put it into your template...and that's a bit harder, and depends on your blogging software. I can tell you how to do it for Blogger.

Edited to add:

The Shady Glade shares her searches. Looks like we could put together a list of "review this and people will find your blog" books -- let's add Shabanu & Dramacon to the list. I also get hits for my Dramacon review; and while it's not in this list, a few times a week I get people looking for info on I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You.

Edited to add:

You Attolia fans are the best!

Blame it on my love of Everwood, but for some reason I always picture Gregory Smith as Gen.

My reviews of:
The Thief; in which I first state that Gen is my book boyfriend
The Queen of Attolia; where I doodle my name & Gen's proving he is still by boyfriend
The King of Attolia; which is brilliant.

I lurk over at Sounis (my LJ name is lizzb) and you're right: I was too quick to diss the Giver search for searching skills, but I still think the best and fastest way to do homework is read the book (or at least the bookjacket.) Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for going for the cheap snark.

15 comments:

Michele said...

Liz I've got a couple of friends who are big on knitting and crafts, and I'll ask for a tailor-made one just for you... Don't expect it immediately, but I'll get you one !

Miriam said...

Far and away, the search that brings folks to my blog is "Bindy Mackenzie". I don't get all that many for Kiki or for "I'd Tell You I'd Love You But...".

Anonymous said...

i get a lot of people looking for book report type stuff. my favorite? the one who wanted footnotes to darren shan's _slawter_!!!

Liz B said...

Michele, Sweet!

RF, I think I'll repost my Bindy review here (it was at The Edge of the Forest.)

Book Faerie...love it!! And if you have a URL let me know, blogger isn't sharing your info.

Anonymous said...

so, if we want to use stat counters and the like in Blogger, how do we go about it?

(confession: I am here generating traffic because you mentioned Attolia, but then you offered instruction, and so I left a comment.)

Jade

Anonymous said...

I have to join the club of people here because of the Attolia references. Or at least, I'm here because Sounis posted a link to your review.

By the way, did you ever get around to reading "The Thief" and "Queen of Attolia"?

Just curious. If you ever post a review to them I would love to read it. I just finished your "King of Attolia" post, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Liz B said...

Jade, I'll comment more in a post tonight. Basically, it's going to the statcounter.com site and signing up for the free service; it'll walk you thru the steps (don't change the defaults, no reason to); and then give you the code. Here's the tricky part. Copy the entire code, then post it into your template. If you use the new Blogger: go to TEMPLATE tab, to Page Elements. Go to Add a page element. Go to HTML/ Java Script (on my screen, on the left, 3rd from top.) click on add to blog: ignore the title, and paste the code where it says content.

Hmm...give me a few days and I'll create some screen caps

Becky said...

I just wanted to say thanks for this great post. I had been looking for sites that offered these kinds of tools--but they either seemed too complicated or wanted my $$$.

Anonymous said...

had another one today, looking for footnotes to _small steps_. tee hee hee...

you've got my link already on your sidebar--nosestuckinabook. actually, that's how i found you--someone went to my site from yours :)

Gina Ruiz said...

I get some interesting searches too. The ones that really make me crazy though are the ones that say completed or free book report of (insert title here).
Do your own homework!!!
No cheating and no using my blog to cheat. Read the darned book!

The really weird ones came on the day I posted my review of X-Rated Bloodsuckers. I'll leave the search strings to your imaginations.

Unknown said...

Did I hear the word 'Attolia'????

=0

Liz B said...

becky, both statcounter & mybloglog have an "upgraded" service for money, but unless you're getting hits in the thousands you really don't need the upgrade. and even tho statcounter only saves the last 100 searches, they hold onto the overall stats.

book fairie, good, I'm glad I've got you on the sidebar

you Attolia fans rock! Let me update the post with proper links

web said...

The biggest hitter on my blog seems to be Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed.

Gina Ruiz said...

Liz,

You got me hooked on the search thingee and I posted my searches on AmoxCalli. It was so fun that I think I will do it every six months just for the heck of it.

G.

Bibliovore said...

Just checked out Gregory Smith at IMDb and . . . yeah, he could so be Gen. :) Love that series.

I don't get a lot of kooky searches on my blog, but I do get a lot of requests for "[book title] summary."

To which I just roll my eyes. So annoying! Read the book, that's why I put up the review!