Traffic Analysis from Blogathon Weekend

I’ve looked at the basic reports that Google Analytics can give. My web site traffic for last weekend, the weekend of Blogathon, increased a little bit. Here are some snappy charts.

This chart shows all pages on my site. I have no idea what the huge bump is at the beginning of July, I definitely need to look more closely at that. July 28th I had 3,917 page views, which is almost exactly the same as the previous day (3,965). But Sunday the 29th (the sharp peak on the right) had 6,614 page views. I’m guessing this is from the popularity of my “Guess the Number of Marbles contest.”

This chart shows how much time people spend on my site. Time is the newest metric to report on how popular (how sticky) a site is. Through Wednesday, July 25th, the time stayed under 5 minutes per visit. Then it started shooting up, to 13:06 on Saturday the 28th, and 15:20 on Sunday the 29th, the two days of Blogathon.

I’ll update my normal traffic charts soon.

What Blogathon 2007 Has Taught Me

I had a great time over the past 24 hours. And I’ve learned a lot:

  1. Upgrade all of your software on your server and computer several days before the event
  2. Allow two to three times as much time as you think you’ll need for any “large” projects”
  3. Don’t plan on doing any “large” projects while you are doing Blogathon.
  4. Make it easy for people to comment on your blog. Generally that means to disable a lot of your anti-spam stuff.
  5. Be flexible.
  6. Be creative.
  7. Comment on other blogathoners’ sites. Hopefully they followed rule #4 above.
  8. I am a smart guy with good ideas
  9. Marketing is key. Start asking earlier than the week of Blogathon for donations.
  10. Don’t be shocked, insulted, or hurt by what you see on other Blogathoner web sites.
  11. Not loading up on caffeine, sugary snacks and heavy meals will help get you through.
  12. Have a good timer to remind you of your posting deadlines. Minuteur was a huge help.

Many thanks to the people who visited, sponsored, commented, and/or tried to guess how many marbles I stuck in a jar. See you next year!

Design Changes for Blogathon

Over the last week I’ve tweaked the design for Planetmike. I added the “Most Popular Posts” in the top right; I moved the “Ten Most Recent Posts” to the Left Center from the Top Right; and added a dynamic blogroll to the Lower Right. I like most of the changes, and will probably keep them. The blogrooll will be gone early in the week. If anyone has any feedback on my site, I’m very interested in hearing what you think. The site hasn’t been re-designed in years, so there is likely some stuff that should be tweaked.

WebCam Gone Away

I got my webcam set up for Blogathon. I’m happy I figured out how to get it working. But it looks like only two people viewed the page. That’s ok now, I can set up to watch the cats when we’re not here. I’ve turned off the webcam now.

Use OpenDNS for “Better” Domain Name Resolution

I’ve been using OpenDNS for my domain name servers (DNS) for the past 6 months or so. DNS is the magic that happens on the internet to connect your computer to wherever you are going. So if you wanted to go to Google.com, your computer asks your DNS for the address of google.com. If it doesn’t know it asks it’s DNS for the address of Google.com. OpenDNS has a massive distributed network which helps speed up its lookups. It also has some options like domain blocking, which could be used for blocking pornography, but I use it for blocking the largest advertising companies. Check out OpenDNS.com for details and instructions on how to set this up. I’ve been very pleased with OpenDNS.

How Many Marbles? 1,752

There are 1,752 marbles in the jar.

a jar full of marbles

“Aurora” guessed 1,752, which was exactly right.

And I think an honorable mention goes to Sally, who over five hours ago guessed correctly, but unfortunately wasn’t the entrant that time. Her entry said: “Nancy, you are way off, it’s 1752! I’m sure of it!”

I’ve got another smaller marble puzzle I’ve been counting out the past few hours to help me stay awake. Should we try it out? It’s 1 to 1000. We’d probably have to have 15 minute updates.

How Many Marbles? 1,751 to 1,755

I wonder how many marbles are in this jar?

a jar full of marbles

“bad_goth” guessed 1,755, which was too high. Here’s the hint: More than 1,751, less than 1,755. I’m getting nervous. What if we never find it?

Entries are now closed. Entries are only from the comments to this post. Past entries no longer count. Entries will close around quarter after the hour! Feel free to duplicate someone else’s guesses. Your chances are now one in 3. Good luck! 🙂

Bonus hint: The correct entry was chosen several hours by someone. I almost fell on out of my chair when I saw it.

On a side note, you can still sponsor me.

The final answer is: at this article. 🙂

History of the Marble Game

I did a similar contest last December on my Christmas Music web site. There were 169 marbles in the jar that time. Here’s the history of the “How Many Marbles?” game on PlanetMike.

Maybe next year, I’ll do grains of sand. j/k