The previous post is the 300th post. (This blog actually contains 665 posts, but 365 posts of them are imported from my old blogs) I just found out when I tried to find this blog’s first post, I need to find that post because it’s been almost a year, well in ~40 days.

Is 300 special? Well, not really, but in Blogger Dashboard, 300 is the maximum of the number of posts in one page. That’s still not the real reason why I wanted to post.

Since 2/11, I started to have very strong feeling about blogging. Actually, it’s way more back than that date, probably last September or even from the beginning. I questioned myself “why?” Why what? I can’t even ask with a complete question. Even I had talked about what I wanted to blog in this blog or in my old blogs, but I now see the doubts in me.

I had been reading and analyzing some numbers.

1   Numbers

When I first looked into Google Analytics report, I was aware that most of visitors came via search engines. I wished more people would come from feed or direct or referral. Then, I realized that of course that majority would come from search engine and it actually is a good thing. The reason is a simple, this is a blog. It means you need to have a new content so subscribers will come via feed. If you don’t post new stuff, eventually the number of visitors via feed will go down close to zero.

Anyway, I started to focus on returning visitors:


Dimensions: year,week,visitorType,medium
Group by : year,week
Metrics : visitors
Filters : visitorType==Returning Visitor
Sort : None Date: 2010-08-29 -> 2011-02-26
Limit : 0 81.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010 36 tttttttRRRReeeee
2010 37 tRRRee
2010 38 tttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2010 39 ttttttttttRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2010 40 ttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeee
2010 41 ttttttttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 42 tttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 43 tttttttttRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 44 ttttttttttttttRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 45 ttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 46 tttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 47 ttttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 48 tttttttttttttuuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 49 ttttttttttttttttttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2010 50 ttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeee
2010 51 ttttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2010 52 tttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeee
2010 53 tttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeee
2011 01 tttRRRRRee
2011 02 tttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2011 03 tttttttttttuuuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeee
2011 04 ttttttttttttttttttuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2011 05 ttttttttttttttttttuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeee
2011 06 tttttttttttuuuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2011 07 ttttttttttttttttuuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeee
2011 08 tttttttttttttttuuuuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2011 09 tttttttttttuRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReeeeeeeeeeee
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 1433.0 81.0
Legend:
R Returning Visitor organic, e Returning Visitor referral,
t Returning Visitor (none), u Returning Visitor feed

And the ratio of New vs. Returning…


Dimensions: year,visitorType
Group by : year
Metrics : visitors
Filters : None
Sort : None Date: 2010-08-29 -> 2011-02-26
Limit : 0 7822.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010 NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNRRRRRR
2011 NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNRRRR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 12642.0 7822.0
Legend:
N New Visitor, R Returning Visitor

Trying to see something from numbers:


Date : 2010-08-29 -> 2011-02-26
Filter: None
Sort : None
Limit : 0

year visitorType medium | visits pageviews visitors
---------------------------------------------------------------
2010 New Visitor (none) | 1386.000 1808.000 1378.000
2010 New Visitor feed | 46.000 77.000 48.000
2010 New Visitor organic | 3669.000 4620.000 3678.000
2010 New Visitor referral | 2077.000 2683.000 2076.000
2010 Returning Visitor (none) | 294.000 487.000 193.000
2010 Returning Visitor feed | 82.000 148.000 18.000
2010 Returning Visitor organic | 488.000 821.000 260.000
2010 Returning Visitor referral | 696.000 1213.000 205.000
2011 New Visitor (none) | 696.000 1016.000 695.000
2011 New Visitor feed | 33.000 73.000 34.000
2011 New Visitor organic | 3024.000 3905.000 3030.000
2011 New Visitor referral | 634.000 941.000 634.000
2011 Returning Visitor (none) | 231.000 383.000 95.000
2011 Returning Visitor feed | 100.000 187.000 20.000
2011 Returning Visitor organic | 528.000 842.000 249.000
2011 Returning Visitor referral | 291.000 751.000 90.000
===============================================================
| 14275.000 19955.000 12703.000

I tried hard to read those numbers and wrote some queries which might shed some light. The problem is I don’t really know what I want to see.

2   No numbers

Personal blog. That’s a keyword. It’s personal and if I try to use some numbers to explain or to do whatsoever action, then it’s very pathetic that I need to go to that step.

While in the process of unknown, I thought maybe I should just stop. It’s either bad or good, it’s a stage. Why should I continue if I don’t really understand why I am doing? Why not stop?

But stop what?

I told myself, wait until February ends. I did and it’s March.

I told myself, don’t post until I have a conclusion. I still posted and I probably posted around 20 posts.

Trying to make a sense out of something, but that is just chaotic.

Midway of what?