Wednesday, April 15, 2015

And Now We Are 9

                      It's Genea-Musings 9th Blogiversary!!!!!!!



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. 

I like to spout some numbers on my blogiversary, so please bear with me:

1)  After nine years of Randy's Musings and Genea-Musings, this is post number 8,632. Over 3,287 days, that averages out to be 2.63 posts per day. In the past year, I've written 965 posts, or 2.64 posts per day (that is a little higher than last year, 2.60). I think that the most over the nine years was 8 posts in one day and I've had days with zero posts (usually when on vacation).

2)  My known readership has increased each year until recently. Since I started this blog, I have had over 1,699,000 unique visitors (these include multiple visits per day by the same reader) and over 2,274,000 page views over seven years, and over 430,000 page views and over 285,000 unique visitors in the past year. Those numbers (from SiteMeter) are somewhat lower than last year.  

3)  My SiteMeter statistics indicate that in April 2015 this blog had about 849 unique visitors a day, with an average of about 1,304 page views a day.  I also use Google Statistics to look at statistics, and the page view numbers are a lot higher for some reason (about 3,530 per day over the past month).  I still don't know if those numbers include RSS reader visits and views - I do think the Google Statistics numbers include RSS reader views.

4)  In addition, about 1,685 persons subscribe via email using Feedburner, and about 1,200 persons subscribe via Feedly.  I don't have a count for other feeds, blog readers and Facebook readers. If I had to guess, I would say that about 4,200 persons read Genea-Musings on an average day. A significant number of the readers (probably over 40%) on the actual website come via a search engine - you wouldn't believe what some of the search parameters are!


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

1)  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, provided faster and more up-to-date, than it ever has had before.

2)  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, new blog readers, etc.).

3)  The genea-bloggers community as a whole has garnered the respect of the genealogy industry - the database companies, the software companies, website owners, and genealogical societies.  We have been treated and recognized as legitimate media outlets for the genealogy community.  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, energy and lifelong learning.

4)  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.  Facebook and other social media sites have enabled us to "know" and rejoice, or commiserate, with the life and research experiences of our colleagues.


5) Life is good in the genea-cave, and it's even better when family history is made with our daughters and the five grandchildren (we added grandson Charlie last September), or when we travel to a genealogy seminar, conference or society talk 
(we were on the Heritage Books cruise last December, at RootsTech in February, in Palm Springs 3 months ago, and we're going to Genealogy Jamboree in seven weeks in Burbank). 

6)  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.  


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/04/and-now-we-are-9.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


17 comments:

Colleen G. Brown Pasquale said...

Randy, Happy Blog Anniversary! I enjoy reading your blog. It is entertaining & educational. I hope you have many more happy blog posts ahead.

Chris said...

Happy Blogiversary. I get your entries via Feedly and that is checked immediately after I take care of email.

Miriam Robbins said...

Happy Blogiversary, Randy! I look forward to many more years of reading!

Jacqi Stevens said...

Randy, you are a genea-blogging marvel! Congratulations on nine years! Looking forward to gathering with you and many of the genea-blogging community you speak so highly of, come this June.

AnneO said...

Congratulations on your anniversary, Randy

Diane Gould Hall said...

Randy,
Happy Blogiversary to you! Quite a feat to have reached 9 years. You too are one of the rock stars in our genealogy world. You teach us, entertain us and keep us up to date. For that I thank you. I look forward to you posts every day and hope to for many years to come.
Rock on!
Diane

Linda Stufflebean said...

Hi Randy, congratulations on your ninth blogiversary. You have set the standard for all of us newbies! Linda

Andrea Kelleher said...

Happy Blogiversary! 9 years is an amazing milestone. Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Congratulations Randy!! Job well done ;-)

Jana Iverson Last said...

Congratulations and Happy 9th Blogiversary Randy!

Greta Koehl said...

Happy Blogoversary, Randy! You are such a great genealogy education resource, and I wish you many more years of blogging.

Louis Kessler said...

Randy,

Well said about the GeneaBlogger community, and I can't agree more.

Louis

Unknown said...

Randy, BIG, BIG Happy Blogiversary wishes to you. You are an inspiration to so many. And I agree with what you and Louis say about the geneablogger community. I have been made to feel so welcome, it's truly amazing. Here's to many, many more happy years of blogging.
Alona Tester (Lonetester HQ)

dritchhart said...

Congratulations Randy; that is quite an accomplishment. Lots of dedicated hours of work in maintaining a quality blog over that period of time!

Amanda said...

Happy, happy Blogiversary!

Seeds to Tree said...

Happy Blogiversary! Your blog is so helpful to so many. Keep up the good work.

Jo Henn said...

Happy Blogiversary, Randy!! I'm glad you're blogging. I've learned so much from you.