The Statistical Yield of This Blog

Some graph or other

If you are new to blogging, you may well wonder what the world of your 'numbers' may look like after a while. 

My modus-operandi is simple:

• Christian in flavour
• Spontaneous posting
• Breadth of topic within the scope of the previous two points
• Written as a priest with a due sense of responsibility to that ministry
• Of me, in my style, and authentic (and with a little humour where appropriate)

That is what I do when I blog. This is not a derivative blog, and it either lives or dies by that sword. So, if you want to know how life will be in a year and a half after starting (making some wild assumptions about frequency, audience and other stuff), I offer my own experience as a sort of digital plimsoll-line. 

• This blog has been read in 79 languages
• This blog has been accessed in 117 countries
• Average page-views per visit has remained constant since the beginning
• Two thirds of my traffic, on average, is constituted by returning visitors
• Increases in traffic and page-views has increased steadily over time and not in line with periods of increased or decreased posting (barring peaks and troughs on a day to day basis)
• New visitors as a percentage  of the overall visitor count has steadily increased 
• This blog has been linked on c300 other websites (by volume the BBC has generated most visitors, followed by Facebook with Twitter high in that list)
• The blog has been found and accessed from 755 unique internet searches ('the vernacular curate', 'vernacular curate' and 'humuhumunukunukuapua'a' being the top three searches)

In themselves, these are just numbers and mean little. The reason why I have produced them is to underwrite my own view that bloggers have an affect that they may never predict at the start. I have opted not to play the 'volume of visitors' game because I know who the bigger blogs are and so do you, but I find interest in some of the underlying numbers. I am humbled by all of this, if I am honest - and the statistic that is never available through Analytics is that of readers who have valued the words on this page. 

If you are starting out, or in the first throes, take comfort from this information. This blog really is small-pototoes compared to some, but as cottage-industry gospel-infections go, wider than your typical pandemic! It also shows you how the silliest or most abstract posts may actually be the ones read most around this world of ours.

Blessed be the Trigger Reef Fish!