One Year in the Blogosphere!

Despite the gray skies and freezing rain pummeling the windows, it's a festive day here in the posh yet understated home office of That's What I Was Going To Say. One year ago today, I set up shop here in my little corner of the Internet. On December 13, 2008, my inaugural post, The Maddening Crowds - 10 Rules for Crowded Aisle Etiquette, was greeted with appreciation and supportive comments from the few who read it. The rest of the blogosphere barely flinched at my arrival.

As they say, from tiny acorns grow mighty oaks. That's What I Was Going To Say may not yet be a mighty oak, but I am proud to say the blog has come quite a way in the past 365 days. Almost 4000 unique visitors have dropped by since that first post, and many of you have become regular readers. I thank you! I hope I can continue to keep you entertained and informed here, and that you will continue to suggest the blog to your friends. Word-of-mouth is, after all, the greatest advertising!

I use a couple different services to keep up with my blog's stats: Feedjit is outstanding for real-time traffic info, and Google Analytics and BlogTracker/IceRocket combined give me an easily understandable picture of how the blog is performing overall, as well as what content garners the most attention. These tools, as well as the feedback I receive from you who read the blog regularly, help me continue to refine and improve what I'm doing. They also allow me to look back over the first year of That's What I Was Going To Say. And so, here is the past year around these parts, by the numbers:

► Blog Ranking
According to BlogTracker, That's What I Was Going To Say currently ranks #3123 out of 23,420 registered blogs. That puts us in the top 15% - not too shabby!

► The Top 10 Most-Read Posts
1. RIP Sam Lugar (450 hits)
2. Boston Radio Great Steve LeVeille Taken Off the Air (424 hits)
3. My Own "Special Comment" (170 hits)
4. The Revolution Will Be Downloaded (140 hits)
5. Favorite Five Comedy Routines (136 hits)
6. Lancaster Then and Now: Water & Orange (131 hits)
7. Favorite Five Places to Find Great New Music for FREE! (93 hits)
8. Perkasie! (79 hits)
9. That'll Do, Keyboard Cat. That'll Do. (66 hits)
10. RIP Jim Carroll (8/1/50 - 9/11/09)/New Wave for the New Week #27 (65 hits)

► The Top Five "New Wave for the New Week" Entries
1. Jim Carroll (65 hits)
2. Virgin Prunes (52 hits)
3. Abba/Air Supply (28 hits - no, I'm not kidding!)
4. Klark Kent (26 hits)
5. The Quick (25 hits)

You know, out of the 148 posts I've written in the past year, those 14 listed above (the Jim Carroll post made both lists) make a pretty good retrospective of what this blog is all about: mostly the music I love, but a smattering of commentary about other things as well. I'm pleased that two posts about local Lancaster, PA bands, The French Revolution and Perkasie, were among the most popular pieces I've written. I strongly believe in supporting your local music scene wherever you happen to be!

But enough about me...what about you?

► Where in the World ARE My Readers?
1. USA (85.52%)
2. UK (2.33%)
3. Canada (2.29%)
4. Belgium (1.26%)
5. France (1.19%)

► How Did You Find Me?
1. Direct link (27.65%)
2. Google search (21.95%)
3. Facebook (12.46%)
4. StumbleUpon (7.94%)
5. Twitter (4.49%)

The overwhelming majority of you are using Firefox as your browser (47.70%). 75.47% are Windows users (sorry, Macheads - only 16.59% of you are here), and over half (52.73%) are using cable Internet connections. Surprisingly, there is still a small segment out there (1.05%) who get here using dial-up! How long does it take you to make the trip?!?

Finally, the most telling (and most unsettling!) stats about my readership:

► The Oddest Search Terms That Brought You Here (in no particular order)
- "that's not what I was going to say" (Someone searching for my evil alter-identity blog, perhaps?)
- "was going to" (Perhaps the most vague search ever attempted)
- "imaginary friend social networking" (Who is searching for a way to meet imaginary friends online?)
- "zappityzap" (Um, what?)
- "Cole Hamels naked" (OK, that's really going a bit too far, don't you think?)

And my favorite:
- "piss" (Yep. Someone searched online for "piss". And, somehow, that brought them here.)

Well, you may be a strange group, but I am thankful for your readership, and hope that the coming year will be a great one for us all. If you've enjoyed the blog, would you consider leaving a few words in the comments section below? I don't hear from you as much as I'd like, you know! But for now, let the 1st Anniversary celebrations commence!