At the end of September in Resuming posting I accepted that this had been a sadly neglected blog. I also said that I would be bringing up back posts; I have been doing that slowly with more to go. I haven't publicised them. They are a bit of a rag bag lot. That will improve!
I am about to pass a milestone on this blog, 100,000 visitors. Expect a small celebration when I do.After 1,198 posts I think that I deserve champagne!
Visitor 70,000 has just visited the site. The visitor came from Finland via a Google search on bush erotica!
I fear that there must have been some disappointment. Certainly the time spent was 00:00!
End of months stats and reader interests time.
The graph on the left shows visits (yellow) plus page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the last twelve months.
In terms of reader interests, the most popular posts over November were:
I am sorry for the continued lag in posting here. Hopefully full transmission will resume shortly!
The graphic shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) on this blog to end August 11.
The most popular posts on this blog in August were:
The popularity of South of My Days reflects the school curriculum!
Visitor 60,000 has arrived on this site. He/she searched on Armidale and ended up on this post from June 29, 2009, Gordon Smith's St Peter's Cathedral Armidale.
Looking at the post, my blogging colleague Gordon Smith was just back from an outback tour. As I write, Gordon is running photos from his most recent outback tour. They are very good: you will find them here.
Nice coincidence, don't you think?
Monthly stats time again. 
The graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog to end July. The decline over the last three months has been repeated on all three of my main blogs and appears to reflect changes in search engine algorithms.
The most popular posts in this blog in July were:
I am still bogged down on issues associated with New England's universities. I want to report on this in detail.
This graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the period to end May 2011. You can see how the decline in traffic over the last part of 2010 has been reversed.
The most popular posts on this blog in May were:
The posts are an interesting mix of current such as NBN & Armidale and recurrent favourites, the Judith Wright posts.
The graph on the right shows visits (yellow) plus page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the period to end April.
During April, the most popular individual posts were:
I am struggling at the moment to post and respond to emails and comments. I would like to see more comments with other people responding. Can you help me?
The attached graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over March.
The most popular posts in March were:
Excluding search engines, the main referrals to the site came from:
Visitor 50,000 arrived on this site last night, arriving via a google search on Moree flood evacuation centre. Welcome.
50,000. That's quite a lot!
The most popular posts in February were:
Excluding search engines, the main referrals to the site came from:
The attached graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over January. After the earlier upward trend, you can see how traffic went down and then stagnated!
The most popular posts in January were:
Excluding search engines, the main referrals to the site came from:
I have been slow in posting, although I have a number of posts to go up. Just pressure.
In a comment on on Leaving on a jet plane, Andrew wrote:
Hi Jim,
Congratulations on a fantastic blog.
I'm a fourth generation New Englander; my direct family line having settled in the region in the 1850's particularly around the Tamworth and Armidale areas.
Much of my family and extended family are still in the region and although sadly I no longer call New England home I am however a frequent visitor to the area.
Keep up the good work, you've earned a regular reader here.
Regards,
Andrew
I write about our diaspora a lot. Just at present, I live in Sydney for family reasons. This drives me in part in trying to keep people in touch with their country. Andrew's comment therefore gave me great pleasure.
Not everybody from the diaspora thinks of themselves as a New Englander. I use the term because, to my mind, it best captures the area I am talking about. Others think of themselves as from the North, the Hunter or the Northern Rivers. I don't mind.
People's views vary. Andrew is a republican, I am a monarchist. Some support the continuation of NSW control, while I want self-government for New England. However, there is no censorship on this blog beyond things such as libel laws. I try to report fairly and never censor comments unless there is a very specific legal reason for so doing.
When the blog began, it had little traction. Slowly, this has changed. Now, I think, it is time to broaden.
If you live in New England, the Tablelands and all the surrounding river valleys, then this is your blog. It is even more your blog if you are a fellow member of the diaspora.
I can only write what I can write. I need your help.
You can contribute through comments or story ideas. More, you can become an actual contributor. You can do this by sending me stuff that can be published. But, if you have a regular stream of ideas, then you can become a member of the blog team. I can add you to the list so that you can write and publish direct.
You don't need to write a post every day or even every week, just when you have something to say. What you say will not be edited, nor are there any limitations as to topic or approach. If I disagree, I will do so in comments on the post to further discussion.
So, what about it? Is it time to broaden?
I hadn't intended to take quite such a long break from posting. As a result, I now have something of a backlog.
The attached graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the last twelve months. You can see the clear upward trend to August and then something of a decline since.
This is a little misleading. I will provide a another graph later that shows this. First, however, an update on the most visited posts.
I do not have proper stats here for the full year. The Google stats I use only started in mid June. Accepting this qualification, the most popular posts were:
The next graph shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) over the period May 09 to April 10. You can see how traffic took off at the start of 2010. The first graph shows that, so far at least, I have held much of the extra traffic.
I am reasonably clear in my own mind where I want to take the blog over the next twelve months.
I want to maintain the blog's role as something of a window into my New England. However, I also want to build the interactivity, making the blog a better forum for discussion on New England issues.
Obviously, I have my own views and will continue to promote them. However, I also want to encourage other views even where I may disagree.
We shall see how we go!
Visitor 45,000 arrived on this blog today.
The visitor came in via Yahoo search but did not stay. Despite that, welcome!
The decline in traffic after the big spike in August did stop in November. That was a relief.
December traffic is always down, so it will be interesting to compare this year against twelve months before.
The ten most popular posts over November were:
Interesting that the Wednesday Forums are scoring in the top group. These are always a bit of a hit and miss affair in terms of responses.
Excluding search engine traffic, the most referrals came from:
I was a bit surprised this time at the absence of Twitter feeds.
The most popular key words were:
In my last post on September traffic, I noted that after the big traffic increase in August, September numbers were down, in part I thought because I was away and could not post.
The decline continued in October. Hopefully, November will be better.
The ten most popular posts over September were:
Excluding search engine traffic, the most referrals came from:
The graphic shows blog traffic over the year ending September 2010.
The ten most popular posts over September were:
I will bring up the next Wednesday forum later today. For the moment, I just want to look at the blog stats for August.
The graphic shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to end August. Both have been on an upward trend since the start of the year. However, the jump in August was quite remarkable!
Turning now to the most popular posts, the top ten over August were:
The post numbers actually measure those who came in via search engines or links. In addition, there are regular visitors who come direct to the blog. My stats here do not allow proper tracking, but average daily returns appear to be about twelve.
