Tagged: statistics
The Best and Worst of February 2014
February just flew by in a cold haze for me. Temperatures here in Saskatchewan have been even colder than usual, which hasn’t made walking to work any more pleasant. Hopefully spring will come soon.
On the plus side, however, my stats were quite respectable in this shortened month. I received a total of 5,688 views, which includes 3,593 unique views. In addition to that, I’ve also welcomed 33 new followers. It’s just a little more than half of the followers I welcomed in January but I’m still quite happy with my statistics, especially because of the severe lack of book reviews I’ve published this month.
So which posts were the most popular?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
4. An Apology to Self-Published Writers
5. WordPress, Stop the Arbitrary Suspensions
These are all articles this time around but as usual, none of them are surprising. The only new one on my best 5 list is my rant to WordPress about their arbitrary suspension policy. I was honestly touched by the concern many of my readers showed at my suspension and I’m glad there was no loss of followers and no significant decrease in statistics in the long-term. Still, it was a pretty disturbing experience considering how much faith I’ve always put into this blogging platform.
Enough of my whining. What were the five worst posts?
1. The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge Has Begun
2. My Interview with Katie Hamstead
3. The Best and Worst of September
4. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
5. My Interview with Michelle A. Hansen
Oddly enough, this time around 2 of my worst posts were interviews. My interviews have never been popular for whatever reason but I don’t recall them being on my worst list before. Other than that, I’m really not all that surprised. Two of the articles were at least a year old and the book review is definitely one of my older, not as well-written ones. Looking back at some of the reviews I wrote in my first year I have to cringe. They were pretty rough.
So how was your February? Read anything interesting?
The Best and Worst of January 2014
January was a record-breaking month for me. Not only did I welcome 64 new followers (about two per day) my total views for one month record was shattered. My previous record was 6,927 views in September 2012. Now January 2014 is the record to beat with 8,228 views, including 5,133 unique views. It may be a while before I break my record again but I’m very happy that my traffic has been consistently high this month. So which articles brought people to my blog?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. An Apology to Self-Published Writers
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. The Mad Reviewer Reading and Reviewing Challenge 2014 Sign Up
5. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
We have a new article on the top 5! Thanks to more than a little bit of help with Twitter promotion from Mark Lee of The Masquerade Crew my article ‘An Apology to Self-Published Writers’ went from getting two views in the entire month of December to climbing to the #2 slot this month with 834 views. That, my friends, is the power of promotion. Even with help it couldn’t beat out my Game of Thrones article but I was very pleased with the results of the Twitter promotion. It also helped that people like you, my readers, spread the word about my reading challenge so I got 45 people to sign up this year. That’s double the number that signed up last year.
So which articles were my worst this month?
1. Discussion: Posting Schedules
3. Cleopatra Confesses by Carolyn Meyer
4. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
5. Your Shameless Blogging Self-Promotion Thread
I’m not really too worried or annoyed at any of these appearing on my list of least popular articles. They’re either outdated articles like the self-promotion thread and the discussion or they’re older books that aren’t really popular much anymore. It’s not the end of the world because none of these have appeared on the bottom 5 list before and likely won’t for a while yet.
In January I had record-breaking stats, read some great new books and re-read several of my old favourites. All in all, it was a pretty good month. How was your January?
I Finished The Mad Reviewer Reading & Reviewing Challenge
I started my own challenge way back in 2013 so it’d be a darn shame not to finish it. I actually read and reviewed 191 books in 2013 but I counted the longer novels toward my challenge. Anyone who doubts whether I actually reviewed these books can go verify them on the ‘My Reviews‘ page. Right now I’m just going to talk about my statistics from the reading challenge (in which I read 104 books).
Total pages read: 43,985
Average pages per book: 422.9
Time spent reading (assuming an average of 100 pages/hour): 436.85 hours
Time spent reviewing (assuming 45 minutes/review): 78 hours
Um, wow? I had no idea I spent that much time reading, but I guess I really do spend a lot of my time with my nose in a book. More than most people, I’m thinking. Even with blogging, I had no idea I spent that much time actually writing reviews! But by the time I find cover pictures, blurbs and actually write the darn things an average of 45 minutes has gone by. That means that since I reviewed 191 books this year I spent 143 hours and 15 minutes writing reviews. I earned my blog name, that’s for sure.
The Best and Worst of December 2013
I know that I usually save these posts for the beginning of the next month, but I have my 2013 analysis scheduled for that day. So I’ll just analyze December in December, just like last year.
December has been an awesome month for me. At the time of writing I have 6,149 total views, which includes 3,878 unique views. That means that I’m up from November and seeing as I’ve had 5 consecutive months of higher-than-average stats I think I can safely call it as it is: my blog is growing. This is in part thanks to the 41 new followers I’ve welcomed to my blog this month for a total of 633 followers! Follower stats have always been more important to me than views so I’m very happy about this record-breaking month.
So what were my best posts this December?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
The usual suspects are the top two posts but I’m so happy that my speed-reading tutorial has finally taken off. ‘Calling all Authors!’ is a big success in part because I had a lot of help with promoting it on Twitter and The Masquerade Crew. It also helps that many authors told their friends about the opportunity, which is why I now have so many submissions for prizes for my reading challenge.
So what were my worst posts this month?
1. Arlo and Jake Enlist by Gary Alan Henson
2. Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden
3. Discussion: Favourite Book Covers
4. The 3 Best Books to Read in the Bathroom
5. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
As usual, none of these really surprise me. The book reviews are for older books/indie books and the one article in there was admittedly pretty dumb. This is the first time a discussion post has appeared in the 5 worst articles of a month, but that’s understandable seeing as it is an older one and it was never all that popular when it was first posted.
Well, that pretty much sums up my December: awesome. My stats are up, I’ve been averaging a little over a follower a day for the whole year and life is good. And the funniest thing? In 2012 December was a horrible month; my stats took a huge dive. So now, of course, in 2013 they’re going strong.
How has your December been?
The Best and Worst of November 2013
I can’t believe it’s December already. Where did November go? Obviously it was in a sick, flu-filled haze for me but it still seemed irregularly short. Now I have to start thinking about holiday shopping. Ugh.
On a slightly more cheerful note, the good news is that yesterday (November 30th) The Mad Reviewer got its 100,000th view since January 13, 2012. I almost did a happy dance at that news because it hasn’t even been two years of blogging yet! In addition to that, in November I received 5,827 views, which includes 3,865 unique views. That’s significantly up from September, the last month where my stats weren’t inflated by a controversial post.
So what were the best articles this month?
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
4. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
Meh, none of these are a surprise. With the popularity of The Hunger Games as a novel study book as well as the popularity of Game of Thrones, it’s not that shocking that these two were vying for the #1 spot all month. I mean, the Game of Thrones article only beat The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome by 10 hits. That’s pretty good.
So what were my worst posts this month?
3. The King’s Man by Pauline Gedge
4. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
5. The Scourge by A. G. Henley
All of these listed here as the worst posts are all about pretty darn good books, especially Black Ships and The Scourge. It’s not that surprising how such good books get ignored in favour of novel study books or popular TV shows (since the GoT hits come mostly from show-related search terms). That’s just how the internet is, but it doesn’t make me any less proud of these reviews.
Other than being miserable for two weeks, November was a pretty good month for me. How was it for you? Are you excited about the upcoming holidays in December?