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Friday, April 15, 2011

5th Birthday for Genea-Musings!!!

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Today is the 5th 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. Last year, in my three-year anniversary post, I wrote about the past and the future of Genea-Musings.  For my fourth year post, I noted that not much had changed from the year before.

Not much has changed in the past year - readership is up slightly, and the number of posts is down slightly. The content has not changed much - in the last two years I posted more  personal family history research and the daily blogging memes.

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 been to the Family History Center once so far this year), although I've done much more work in my genealogy database this past year standardizing place names and genea-ESMing my source citations.

After five years of Randy's Musings and Genea-Musings, this is post number 4,741. Over 1,461 days, that averages out to be 2.60 posts per day. In the past year, I've written 967 posts, or 2.65 posts per day (those are slightly higher than the fourth year). I think that the most over the five years was 7 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 605,000 unique visitors (these include multiple visits per day by the same reader) and over 866,000 page views over five years, and over 258,000 page views and 183,000 unique visitors in the past year. Those numbers are slightly lower 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 502 unique visitors a day, with an average of about 708 page views.  I also use Google Analytics to look at statistics, and the numbers are a bit lower for some reason (430 and 659). 


In addition, about 670 subscribe via email using Feedburner, and about 910 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 2,100 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 2010 to 14 April 2011) shows Page Loads (green), Unique Visitors (blue), and Returning Visitors (orange).




This is a traffic chart for the last five 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, Tom, Megan, etc.) to the beginners (readers and bloggers). 

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. 

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. 

Lastly, I want to salute four individuals that really started this genea-blogging explosion and have been doing it longer than almost everyone else:

*  Dick Eastman who writes Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

*  Pat Richley-Erickson who writes the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog.

*  Leland Meitzler who writes the GenealogyBlog.

*  Kimberly Powell who writes the About.com Genealogy blog. 

They continue to provide excellent examples of professional genealogical blogging and I am ecstatic to know them and appreciate them.

So - what to blog about today?  I have no idea!  I may just work on my latest research project or add sources to my database.  Life is good in the genea-cave, and it's even better when family history is made with the grandchildren (in two weeks!). 

19 comments:

  1. Happy 5th Anniversary! Wow, that is a long time in geneablogging terms! Like 100 years in dog years! Half a census! LOL!

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  2. Randy Love - Congratulations to the man and the blog I start my day with, well, just as soon as my husband leaves for work.

    If you're not writing about it, it isn't worth knowing. I look to you for all the latest.

    May you have many more celebrations!

    -fM

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  3. Happy 5th, Randy! So in awe and full of gratitude you do what you do. Here's to many more.

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  4. Happy Anniversary Randy! My only wish is to grow up to be just like you!

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  5. Happy 5th blogiversary to you, Randy! What would we do without you? Thanks for all you do for the genealogy community.

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  6. Happy Blogiversary, Randy. It was you and your blog that got me started on my genealogy blogging journey...you are the best! Looking forward to many many more.

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  7. Happy 5th Blogiversary Randy! The GeneaBlogging community is very fortunate to have you among them! Congratulations, we all look forward to the next five years, and thank you for sharing so much information with us! A toast to you!

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  8. Happy 5th Randy. You sure put your heart and soul into it, and we all appreciate it. Thanks, and here's to 5 more years!

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  9. Happy Blogiversary Randy! Of all of the "old timers" I have to say you are the one that has remained the most consistent. May your next years be just as rewarding for you!

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  10. Happy Fifth Blogoversary, Randy! Thank you for all the contributions you make to the genea-blogging community.

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  11. Congratulations Randy! You are truly one of the "old timers" of genea-blogging! I salute you and thank you.

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  12. Congratulations, Randy! What a milestone!

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  13. HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY TO YOU, HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY TO YOU, HAPPY 5TH BLOGAVERSARY DEAR RAAAAANDYYYY, HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY TO YOUUU!

    OOOXXX

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  14. Happy anniversary--you're definitely in the Old Settler's Club of the genealogy blogging frontier!

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  15. Happy blogiversary, Randy! I've been and will continue to be a loyal fan. Write on!

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  16. Congrats, Randy! Keep up the great work!

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