Given the self-referential nature of the blogosphere, it seems obligatory for me to put up a blog post about a blog post milestone – namely, TypePad having informed me that today HinesSight passed the one million page view milestone.
Congratulations to me, from me.
However, the question to me, from me, is "so what?" A embarrassingly high proportion of those 1,000,114 page views came from people looking for photos of Paris Hilton.
So whoop-de-do, I'm serving humanity by including some photos from other web sites that got ranked high on a Google Images search for "Paris Hilton," thereby generating thousands of page views a day for a while.
Even though I called my all-time most popular post "The Tao of Paris Hilton," I have a suspicion that visitors to my blog were more interested in her physical attributes than the deep philosophical implications of her seeming vacuousness.
Still, a million page views for any reason is cool. And many of my posts lie higher on the social value scale that my Paris Hilton musings.
For example, "Corporation Compliance Recorder scam."
Since I dashed off this expose of a mailing that tries to con corporations (non-profits included) into forking over $95 to $125 for submitting annual meeting minutes that don't need submitting, I've gotten almost three hundred comments from people who are thankful that a Google search turned up my post and saved them the money.
I figure that I helped these folks alone save over $30,000. And this doesn't include all the others who learned about the scam and didn't leave a comment.
In the end, blogging isn't about numbers. It's saying what you want to say, whether or not anybody pays attention.
Three years ago, this guy estimated that of five million or so active bloggers, 100 averaged 150,000 hits daily per blog; 2,000 averaged 1,500 daily hits; and 18,000 averaged 500 daily hits.
The rest were virtually hitless. But the way I see it, how many people does it take to have a great conversation with? Answer: one.
And that person could be me. So I'm pleased to consistently get over 600 page views a day on this blog – now without much help from the Paris Hilton post.
The most satisfying emails and comments I get, though, come one at a time. Whether it's a "thank you" or "you're an idiot," I know that I've made contact with someone.
That's what blogging is all about.
My biggest hit post concerns an old cher picture.
I hear ya sister, I hear ya.
Posted by: Bpaul | February 05, 2008 at 12:33 AM
I avoid using certain names in my blog-- even if I write a subject using those people-- just to avoid getting those kind of hits. Now I am wondering if I have been making a mistake :)
Posted by: Rain | February 05, 2008 at 06:52 AM
I know how hard it is to blog at the frequency you do on two blogs. So you deserve the recognition and readership. My biggest hits ever were two posts about the sex lives of Gangaji's hubby and that right wing evangelist in Colorado. People do read about their sex. Anyway, 600 consistent hits a day might have kept me in the game. (Not related, but I think you would enjoy a novel called Shantaram).
Posted by: R Blog | February 06, 2008 at 11:02 AM