Last week, a Muser, Parakeva, asked about which entries are the most popular here at The Bookshelf Muse. I don’t know about you, but I am always interested in what brings visitors here to the blog and what they find the most useful, so of course I couldn’t wait to post about this!
About hmm, October of last year, I signed up for Google Analytics, which is an excellent way to find out more about who visits your site, what they are looking for and how long they hang out. (There’s probably a bazillion other things it does too, but my technical skillz are right above ‘neanderthal’ so if you are interested in finding out more of it’s higher functions I suggest you go and check out their home page.)
Now, where were we? Ah yes…which entries are the most popular. 🙂
For the Setting thesaurus:
Forests
Deserts
For the Emotion Thesaurus:
Shock/surprise
Anger
For the Color Thesaurus:
Brown
Purple
For the Shape Thesaurus:
Oval
Square
For the Texture Thesaurus:
Gritty
Slimy
The top visited posts outside of these are:
Introduction to the Emotion Thesaurus
Manuscripts Editors Don’t Want to See
The strangest things people searched for that lead them here:
Baloney smell (Uh, what?)
Row boat book shelf (we get lots of people looking for bookshelves!)
Wanting to please thesaurus (Hey, we’re not that kind of blog!)
8 months splotchy skin crying when eating (I never cry when I eat, honest.)
Are pine trees edible, smokable (What can I say? Wow!)
Aunt Edna’s dry ribs (Ummm, sounds good!)
Boardwalk stuffed snakes (My kids love these!)
Can an oxygen mask cause purple and dry cracked lips and tongue? (I have no idea!)
Mildew newspapers (recycle, recycle, recycle!)
Lung wort mulching (who names these plants, anyways?)
Lifeguard bathing suits for dogs (How humiliating!)
And finally…*drum roll*
I fantasize about my critique group partner (Is this the guy wanting to smoke pine trees, I wonder?)
Anyway, thank you Parakeva for asking the question. One more interesting tidbit–since October 2008, visitors from 57 different countries have stopped by! How neat is that?
I think stats can be fun! What about you?
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Those are really funny! I get the occasional funny ones. Some to worry about too, like: “pictures of pupils getting the tawse.”
Um… not on my blog, sorry.
Hahahahahahahaha 🙂
That’s priceless, Angela.
Oh, I love the list of what brings them to your blog. I’m always suprised with that myself when looking at mine!
Kelly you have beautiful poetry. And you’re a rocker girl to boot!
Hazardgal, I agree–it is so neat to see visitors from far-away lands. I love it!
Brown-eyed, yes…yes they can.
CR, isn’t that neat about the pic! I’ll have to check it out and see what the fuss is about–when did you post it?
That’s a good point Big Plain V…hmmm, I wonder which it is? Maybe if someone does know, they’ll post.
Spamwarrior, that’s just freakin’ hillarious!
Mary, your blog is awesome, so I hope they went beyond the slugs!
(It’s what I get for writing about whatever pops into my head. One day it was slugs, and I’ve never looked back.)
oh my gosh! I just went to check, and i got this hilarious search: “what did victorian ladies bathe in to encourage their breasts to grow ?”
LOL!
I think that’s really funny! I sometimes check my blog to see what lead them there. So far nothing really interesting like what you’ve got. Wanting to please thesaurus? (do they think that thesaurus is some kind of dino?) The last one was the best! Too funny!
Whenever people are discussing Google analytics, I always wonder if these were actual page hits, or if your page just showed up in somebody’s weird search.
Shows you how much I know. I did the thing one time, but I didn’t get nearly as far as you did.
very interesting. I find looking at the stats on my blog very interesting too.
The majority of the hits to my blog are to read about my notes from editors.
The second biggest hit that I get is for a picture that I posted of a sword. I think people use it for fantasy game playing or something. I’m amazed at how many people come to my blog for that.
Ah yes. Stats can be fun. They can also be a little disgusting as we discussed that time.
Still, they are mostly fun. *wink*
I loved the school posts. Having taught for two decades, it was like popping back in. You are like Michelangelo with a keyboard! Yes, I check my stats too. When I see folks from Russia or Iran, I am breathless. Amazing what each bloggers have!
PJ, that’s good tho, because you know most are coming there fr the right reason. I would say the bulk of searches for us are ’emotion thesaurus’, so it tells me that’s still the most popular draw.
Parakeva, thanks for asking the question–this was a fun post to do.
Bish & Lunatic, It is funny, hey?
Yuna, you’ll like GA. I really had to play around to see what all it does (I’m not technical at all, so I’m probably not the person to help you). I do know that I asked about it at Verla’s and Absolute Write and got some answers there.
Mary, Slugs? SLUGS? *scratches head*
Those are funny!!
I’ve had some doozies too. I may have to make a blog entry about it, too. Luckily most people come to my site because of poems!
Interesting. 🙂
Slugs. That’s what people come to me for. My stats often come up with the following: Slugs, edible? How to cook slugs. Nutritional value of slugs. Can I eat slugs? How can I eat slugs? (Let me know if you find out) and finally, Slug chowder. Those collocations have brought more people to me than just about any other.
I also get a lot of bald men wondering if they need to wear a swimming cap in the pool (yes if you’re in Japan), a lot of people from India who want to know the Bengali word for ‘oats’, and people who want to know who the most boring and/or henpecked man in the world is.
Well, it’s nice to be useful for something…
As for this blog, I’ve had occasion to check out shock and surprise myself!
Well..up until now I didn’t know this feature of google. I’ve just signed up (whoohoo) although i haven’t got a clue how it works. I’d been intrigued about this for a few days.
If anyone is able to explain it in simple language that I can understand, I’d appreciate an explanation.
I can’t wait to see what people find interesting on my blog!
LMAO! Yeah, I fantasize about everyone over on CC, Exceot my fantasies have them mowing the lawn and washing the windows.
Fred
ROFL! Too funny!
Wahey! Thank you! And I used to have a blog, and stats were definitely way too addictive to be good for me. 😀 I love weird search terms.
I get lots of hits from people searching “emerald tablet” from alchemy or “navel of the world” which actually can identify a few places around the world.
Baloney smell. Funny!