Thursday, May 19, 2011

Forsaking My Fame with Strangers

About a month ago I left my  laptop behind and went to spent a few weeks in a city on the other side of the planet - leaving the blog untended. Yet to my surprise, "hits" skyrocketed, especially from Europe and Asia.

This was not due to my benign neglect. It was because Google picked up my blog as the source of a public-domain picture I'd probably discovered on someone else's blog. If you searched Google images on "book" or "books," Telling Secrets was now one of your destinations. Well, you could do worse. I am a bookish person after all... maybe some of the folks that got here through such means would want to stick around?

I finally decided to remove the image that was bringing so many visitors. More than I wanted traffic, I wanted clues to who, of the people I know and readers I've had some contact with, is actually stopping by. So: so long, strangers. At least some of you. I expect my traffic reports will go from 80 hits a day back down to 20-30.

>> Bloggers, have you ever had this happen? Did any of you make the choice I did and take steps to turn the new traffic away?

1 comment:

Justin Long said...

Interesting post, Marti. I've never taken a step to turn away traffic, largely because I figure I never know who, among those anonymous page views, is someone who happened across the site, will be convicted, and will decide to go as a missionary! :) (Never heard a story yet that it happened, but ya never know.) Nevertheless I admire the "I am willing to decrease and avoid fame" position. One choice I *have* made is not to write any article specifically focused on a current "faddish" event *in order to* attract more page-views. (Although I do write analysis pieces on current events--but I strive for something that will stand the test of time, not engineered specifically for the page views.)