Sunday, April 15, 2012

Genea-Musings is 6 Today!!

Today is the 6th Blogiversary of Genea-Musings.



It seems like just yesterday that I started my Randy's Musings blog - here is the first post on 15 April 2006. I explained the name change to Genea-Musings in my first anniversary post on 15 April 2007. In my two-year anniversary post, I showed a screen shot of the early blog page and showed a graph of my traffic in the past year. In my three-year anniversary post, I wrote about the past and the future of Genea-Musings.  For my fourth year post, and my fifth year post, I noted that not much had changed from the year before.

There have been some changes in the past year - readership is up significantly, and the number of posts went up slightly. The content has not changed much - in the last three years I have posted more  personal family history research and used the daily blogging memes more (except for this month when the 1940 U.S. Census was released!). 

My genealogy time budget has changed a bit too - with more time devoted to blogging and speaking/teaching rather than research (e.g., I have not been to the Family History Center so far this year, but did have a day at the Family History Library).  I've done much more work in my genealogy database this past year trying to add more dates, places and sources to persons already in my database

After six years of Randy's Musings and Genea-Musings, this is post number 5,804. Over 2,192 days, that averages out to be 2.65 posts per day. In the past year, I've written 1063 posts, or 2.90 posts per day (those are slightly higher than the fifth year). I think that the most over the six years was 8 posts in one day and I've had days with zero posts (usually when on vacation).

My readership has increased each year. Since I started this blog, I have had over 815,640 unique visitors (these include multiple visits per day by the same reader) and over 1,325,500 page views over six years, and over 439,000 page views and over 263,000 unique visitors in the past year. Those numbers are significantly higher than last year, which (I hope) reflects the increasing use of blog readers and RSS feeds.

My StatCounter statistics indicate that this blog currently has about 920 unique visitors a day, with an average of about 1,560 page views.  I also use Google Stats to look at statistics, and the page view numbers are a bit higher for some reason (about 2,040).  


In addition, about 990 subscribe via email using Feedburner, and about 1280 via Google Reader.  I don't have a count for other feeds, blog readers and Facebook readers. If I had to guess, I would say that about 3,000 persons read Genea-Musings on an average day. A significant number of the readers (probably over 50%) on the actual website come via a search engine - you wouldn't believe what some of the search parameters are!

This StatCounter traffic chart for the last year (15 April 2011 to 14 April 2012) shows Page Loads (green), Unique Visitors (blue), and Returning Visitors (orange). 



The blank spot in early February was when I changed my template and temporarily lost the StatCounter widget.  The big day in early April was the day the 1940 Census was released - my SiteMeter count was 1918 visits and 3114 page views. 


This is a traffic chart for the last six years (since July 2006 when I subscribed to StatCounter) in terms of Page Loads (green), Unique Visitors (blue), and Returning Visitors (orange).


Please permit me to genea-muse for a bit here:

I really appreciate the Genea-bloggers community and all of my Genea-Musings readers. Without all of you, we would not have as much genealogy information (news, research experiences, family history, photographs, etc.) online. Blogging and then social networking, has brought democratization to the world of genealogy writing - anybody can do it (and many do it very well) and the genealogy community has more information faster than it ever has had before.

The genea-blogger community is overwhelmingly friendly and supportive of each other and their readers.  There is very little overt competition, back-biting or flame wars.  This reflects the genealogy community as a whole, I believe - almost everyone believes in and works at collaborating with, educating and helping others - from the most famous (e.g., the genea-rock stars like Elizabeth Mills, Tom Jones, Megan Smolenyak, etc.) to the beginners (new society members, blog readers, etc.).  

The genea-bloggers community as a whole has also garnered the respect of the genealogy industry - the database companies, the software companies, website owners, and genealogical societies.  They understand that genealogy blogs are a significant way to announce and publicize their products or services, and to create genea-buzz at conferences.  This could not happen without the commitment of genea-bloggers to objectivity and collaboration.  Not to mention time and energy and lifelong learning.

I'm really proud to be a member of the genea-blogger community and to enjoy the camaraderie online and in person.  At a genealogy conference or seminar, genea-bloggers tend to flock together - it's an instant brother/sisterhood - many of us read each other's blogs and "know" each other's life and blogging experiences.  

Last year, I saluted four individuals that really started this genea-blogging explosion and have been doing it longer than almost everyone else - Dick Eastman, Pat Richley-Erickson, Leland Meitzler and Kimberly Powell.  They continue to provide excellent examples of professional genealogical blogging and I am ecstatic to know them and appreciate them.

This year, I want to salute four genea-bloggers who have contributed so much to bring geneablogging into the limelight over the past years:



*  Thomas MacEntee (Geneabloggers, other blogs), who has organized the genealogy blogging community, and has become the face of genealogy blogging and has created a genealogy business by promoting and using social media.


*  James Tanner (Genealogy's Star blog, FamilySearch TechTips contributor) who is the most prolific of the geneabloggers in terms of original and thoughtful content.


*  Lorine McGinnis Shulze (Olive Tree Genealogy Blog), who has been blogging daily about her genealogy research and family life daily for years, and has a tremendous website to boot!


*  The Ancestry Insider (The Ancestry Insider blog), who offers insightful commentary and news from both FamilySearch and Ancestry.com.


I greatly appreciate the efforts of these people, and they are on my must-read list every day.  There are many, many more geneabloggers on my must-read list every day - I'll try to mention more of them next year.


So - what to blog about today? It's Sunday, so time for Best of the Genea-Blogs!  Life is good in the genea-cave, and it's even better when family history is made with the grandchildren or when we are on vacation (we're going cruising in three weeks!). 


Lastly, thank you to my faithful readers.  I do this to help the genealogy community pursue their hobb obsession, and to document my own family history.  I appreciate your feedback to my posts and learn a lot from the collected wisdom and experience of my readers.  


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

30 comments:

Diana Ritchie said...

Happy Blogaversary Randy! Here's wishing you many more ~ and a huge THANK YOU for all that YOU add to the genea-community. You were one of the first blogs I followed and I remember how scared I was to friend you on Facebook :-) And now I know you in real life!!

Michelle Goodrum said...

Wahoo! Happy Blogiversary and thanks for all you do for genealogy.

Jasia said...

Happy blogiversary, Randy! And congratulations on six terrific years of genealogy blogging. I look forward to the next six as you are on my must-read list!

Cherie Cayemberg said...

Happy Blogiversary, Randy! Thank you for always being an inspiration to us all!

Kathy Reed said...

As a regular reader, you have my congratulations! Also, can you tell me how I could access the stat counter you use? I'd be particularly interested in applying it to our genealogical society's blog.

Kathy Reed said...

Rereading your post, I see that you reference google stats. I must not be using the right thing.

Unknown said...

Happy Blogiversary Randy, I have enjoyed reading and learning so much from your wonderful blog.I look forward to many many more years.

Tracing Ancestors, an a3Genealogy Partner said...

Happy blogiversary!

Éire Historian said...

Happy Blogiversary Randy! May you enjoy many many more.

Cheers to you,
Jennifer

Unknown said...

Happy Blogaversary!
I enjoy reading your posts, and I've learned quite a bit.

May there be more to come!

geneabloggers said...

Happy blogiversary Randy and many happy returns! You contribute so much to the genealogy community and you should be proud of your hard work!

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

Happy Blogaversary Randy! YOU are at the top of my MUST READ list! ;-)

Celia Lewis said...

Always an entertaining educational read, Randy! Six is such a great number - Happy Blogiversary, and many many more (so take goooood care of yourself)!! You're definitely one of my must reads in my GoogleReader list. Cheers.

Gerry said...

Happy Blogiversary Randy. I've learned a great deal from your posts, and I appreciate the work you do.

Wonderland Girl said...

Way to go! Kudos for sticking in there for all these years. I started my blog in 2007, but when one only posts a handful of times a year, that hardly counts.

my Heritage Happens said...

Happy 6th blogiversay! You have given and shared so much! Thank you. We all love Genea-Musings and look forward to the next 6 years!

Dawn Watson said...

Happy Blogiversary, Randy, and many more to come!

Becky Wiseman said...

Congratulations, Randy. Yours was one of the first blogs I started reading (way back in 2006!) and part of my inspiration for starting my own blog... You are definitely on my "Must Read" list. Thanks for doing such a great job of keeping us all informed (and entertained)!

Peter said...

Congratulations Randy! You are an example for many and certainly for me. I RSS yr blog now for a year and hope to continue to do so for another 6 years. To start with, that is.

Donna Hansen Peterson said...

Happy Blogiversary Randy! See you on the cruise.

Nancy said...

Congratulations on 6 wonderful years, Randy. You just keep getting better and better!

Debbie Blanton McCoy said...

Happy Blogiversary! I have enjoyed the past 6 years and look forward to the next 6. Thank you for all you do!

Greta Koehl said...

Happy Blogoversary, Randy! Hope we meet in person some day. Here's to many more years!

Shelley Bishop said...

Congrats and happy blogiversary, Randy! I know what you mean about the camaraderie among gene-bloggers, and I think it's largely due to people like you who are so welcoming and supportive of all. Thank you for everything you do, and keep up the great work! Your dedication is amazing!

Kathryn Lake Hogan said...

Happy Blogiversary Greetings, Randy! Congratulations on 6 years of great blogging.

Elizabeth Shown Mills said...

Happy Blogaversary, Randy--and thank you for all the times you have approached the challenges of our field with humor and common sense. May you celebrate 60 more. :)

Helen V Smith said...

Happy Blogiversary, Randy! May there be many more to come! Your blog is on my must read list and I look forward to your posts so please keep on blogging!

gophergenealogy said...

Very impressive, happy six-year blogiversary. Thank you for showcasing the best in blogging and for setting a fine example for the genealogy community.

J. Paul Hawthorne said...

Happy Blogiversary! I think you and Dick Eastman were my first blogs I started following. You ARE one of those gen. rock stars.

Julie said...

Congrats on 6 years!!