Although this post is not about the the 1980 hit by the Romantics or the sitcom that ran on The WB over 10 years ago, it is about you.
Earlier this year I changed the way I keep statistics for this blog. I had to make this change because the old way of keeping statistics did not tell me what you were reading and because I felt some of those third-parties services did not have a privacy policy or a track record of privacy I was comfortable with. While they could tell me that my posts were being read, unless I turned on some of the more obtrusive tracking option, I could not keep track of older posts that were being discovered, bookmarked, or re-read.
Websites keep these records for various reasons, especially if they are monetizing the views. Since I am not doing this to make money, I want to know what people are interested in reading or searching for. The statistics allow me to see how many people read the blog when I post or come from another link, like the results of a search. These statistics are not perfect because I refuse to add the extra taking items that would tell me if you were reading these posts from an online news aggregator or were sent the information via email. But they are better than other services while not exposing you to potential privacy issues.
Looking at the statistics kept by the new software has been interesting. Let me tell you what I have learned:
- You do read! And I really THANK YOU for being a reader. Based on the statistics 85-percent of the regular readers will read a new post within 3-days of its posting or by Monday if posted on a weekend. I am going to keep posting when I can and not try to target a date or time.
- The most popular day is Wednesday. For some reason, more people read on Wednesday than any other day.
- Although the vast majority of you are from the United States, the Top Five other countries (in descending order) are Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, India, and Spain. Readers have been identified from being from all over the world in many places. There are too many to mention but I find the list fascinating.
- After the Home Page the most popular page is U.S. Coins by Type, a page that provides a list of every legal tender coin produced by the U.S. Mint including planned future issues.
- The most popular post is “No, it wasn’t a double-strike” when quickly looking at my pocket change, I thought the 2013 Mount Rushmore quarter was a double strike. Since I have not beeb paying attention to the striking process, I was not aware of the coins’s design. I thought it was funny but one commenter did not see it that way!
- The second most popular post and the most popular over the last six weeks is “How easy is it to pass counterfeit currency.” The post is about a lesson in using iodine pens versus the security features that Bureau of Engraving and Printing adds to every note it produces. Embedded in the post is a story from the television show Dateline showing the basics but leaving out some critical details.
- Readers come here from Google, Yahoo, and Bing searches. However, after Google, the most people come from Twitter to read the posts. Although it is difficult to identify the search terms that has lead readers to the blog, the top three terms are “us mint news,” “coin blog,” and “2013 mount rushmore quarter error.” The most interesting search term identified had to be “the “a” was key to identifying the mint city. in principle coins of the greeks (1932), h.” I am not sure what it means! If you know, add it as a comment below.
- Finally, you seem to like my pictures as opposed to pictures I embed from other websites. Most of these pictures are the images that I have taken of coins, events, or anything else that may come up. I will try to see if I can find more unique images to write about.
After nearly 11 years and over 1,300 posts, not only am I happy to have you as a reader, but I want to keep going. I appreciate the support over the years and welcome new readers. If there is a topic you would like to see covered, please add it as a comment or send a note.
Just for fun, here are the Romantics and “What I like about you:”
Congrats on going strong after 11 years! That’s hard to do with anything, no less a blog. Shows just how much you love the hobby (and we love you for it!).