Happy new year all!
My year in review is going to be chock full of stats rather than my usual blathering. Here it is:
Top pages and posts 2012-01-01 to 2012-12-31
Which makes that first post beneath the homepage seem impressively popular. Its also the post I felt was perhaps the most important I could share with folks, so that was exciting to see. But how did folks wind up there? Here are the top search words:
2012-01-01 to 2012-12-31
| Search | Views |
|---|---|
| pimp | 1,244 |
| michael simon pottery | 378 |
| michael simon ceramics | 88 |
| don reitz | 76 |
| ron meyers pottery | 64 |
| peter voulkos | 61 |
| carter gillies | 57 |
| carter gillies pottery | 56 |
| woman soccer celebrations | 54 |
| gigolo joe | 45 |
| michael simon potter | 35 |
| richard gere american gigolo | 35 |
| michael simon pottery for sale | 32 |
| seth godin education | 31 |
| the rewards of failure | 29 |
| pimp look | 28 |
| peter voulkos artist statement | 26 |
| peter voulkos ceramics | 19 |
| p.i.m.p | 19 |
| peter voulkos pottery | 17 |
| michael simon | 15 |
| help people | 15 |
| art doesn’t help people people help people | 14 |
| need for hobbies | 14 |
| ceramic watering can | 12 |
| pimp pictures | 12 |
| voulkos pottery | 12 |
| us women’s soccer | 12 |
| pottery mug | 11 |
| people help the people | 11 |
| american gigolo richard gere | 11 |
Which seems to suggest that a majority of folks who wind up on my blog do so for reasons not really relating to pottery or even art! (E gads! “Pimp”?) But if they actually read the post that led them there and delve further I suppose it doesn’t matter what led them there. Maybe there’s a larger lesson in that…..
Here is a list of referers to my blog, mostly through search terms, but also through links and through having my blog in the sidebar of other blogs:
2012-01-01 to 2012-12-31
| Referrer | Views | |
|---|---|---|
 Search Engines |
7,733 | |
 wikiclay.com |
468 | |
 Facebook |
413 | |
| sawdustanddirt.com |
363 | |
| fetishghost.blogspot.com |
264 | |
 Google Reader |
252 | |
| baumanstoneware.blogspot.com |
148 | |
 lucyfagellapottery.wordpress.com |
144 | |
| blogger.com |
106 | |
| melissarohrer-acornpottery.blogspot.com |
72 | |
 Google |
66 | |
| ronphilbeckpottery.com |
60 | |
| kylehouser.blogspot.com |
59 | |
| stearthpottery.com |
53 | |
| potterymakinginfo.com |
47 | |
| musingaboutmud.blogspot.com |
46 | |
| blackmtnbarb.blogspot.com |
34 | |
| ceramiczny.blogspot.com |
28 | |
| welcometotheyard.blogspot.com |
26 | |
 WordPress.com |
26 | |
 google.ca/reader/view/ |
25 | |
| potteryblog.com |
23 | |
| fetishghost.blogspot.ca |
23 | |
 cloudsandtherain.wordpress.com |
21 | |
| finemessblog.blogspot.com |
21 | |
| blog.artsusa.org |
19 | |
| willowavenuepottery.blogspot.com |
17 | |
| 36ohk6dgmcd1n-c.c.yom.mail.yahoo.net |
13 | |
| steelewares.com |
11 | |
 bpracticalpottery.wordpress.com |
11 | |
 Twitter |
11 | |
| mail.yahoo.com |
11 | |
| musingaboutmud.blogspot.com.es |
9 | |
 |
Thanks everyone who has helped me spread the word! Thanks for reading! And thanks for leading the creatively driven lives that you do!
Peace all!
Make beauty real!
And have a happy new year!
.
CARTER GILLIES POTTERY 
Only 53 referrals from me? I’ve got to start linking to you more often.
Also, note to self: try to work the words “pimp” and “gigolo” into more post titles!
I’m just flabbergasted that anyone searching those words finds my blog at all, let alone near enough the top page that it results in a click. What the hell! And that they would click on “Carter Gillies POTTERY blog” just sounds bizarre…..
My intention has always been to write this blog as something to share with fellow potters, and tangentially for other artists who can see the connection between what happens in clay and in their own media. More distantly I am also interested in the potential conversation with folks who have some other vested interest in the arts, whether as administrators, amateurs, students, or as concerned parents, or whatever. The fact that so much of my traffic is driven by obviously non- art related issues makes me think that mostly my blog is a failure. At least in terms of reaching a compatible audience. At least, I’m guessing that that is where all my spam traffic is being generated and that most clicks are not actual readers.
But I guess that is true of every blog out there, and that the specialized appropriate audience is only ever a tiny slice. And there are a handful of folks who do read my ramblings consistently. I’m always pleased to know that something I’ve written DOES resonate with one of my fellows. Sometimes it just seems that I’m putting an awful lot of effort into a public display that for my own benefit could as easily have been kept private or narrowed to conversations with specific people. And if that suggests a bit of current ambivalence about the blog, then maybe it is…..
Ah, but its a new year, and perhaps the new year will bring a new attitude. Or maybe the old attitude that was dedicated to generating posts as almost an end in itself…. We’ll see!
It does seem pretty weird that a term like “pimp” results in that many visits. Then again, perhaps we’re vastly underestimating the number of annual Google searches for that term? And I was really stumped by “art doesn’t help people people help people” — 14 times!? — until I searched for it and realized it’s the text in that grafitti art you posted a while back.
In any case, I wouldn’t read that list of search terms as an indication that you’ve been doing something wrong here. If anything, it’s an indictment of the search technology we all use, or of the content that the majority of people browsing online are interested in. It’s not your fault more people want to know about “gigolo joe” — whoever the hell that is — than “seth godin”.
I think that when you reference something with strong pop culture appeal — women’s soccer, american gigolo — it’s going to skew the numbers away from legitimate returns like “michael simon pottery” and “the rewards of failure”. So I wouldn’t let the rankings in that list bother you too much… If anything, it’s a miracle that someone searching on something as esoteric and potentially vague as “the rewards of failure” could actually find one of your posts that addresses that very issue, and probably in a context they’d never have known to go looking for.
Good points! I guess any niche endeavor like ours means that inevitably it DOES take a miracle or two to get over the hump, grease the wheels, or hit the soft landing.
Its just a bit ironic that the post I most wanted to be seen was a post on introversion, but that it needed to speak the language of ostentation and pimps to reach its audience. Oh well……
“…the post I most wanted to be seen was a post on introversion…”
Ha! Nothing sells introversion like extroversion, I guess.