Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Underthinking - 50th Post, A look back

That's right folks my statistics department got out the old abacus tonight and realised that 22 posts last year and 27 posts this year means, I have written 49 posts. So this makes today's post the 50th.

Underthinking it's resident Statistician
 I thought I might take this opportunity to look back and reflect on what has gone on in these past 8 months. We have laughed and cried together, at the underthinking from around the globe.

"It's just so sad, how did Kelly Pickler think Europe was a country?"

So let's look at some of the questions people are asking.

Who is reading underthinking it?

There have been over 891 unique visitors so far , with many of these returning for more, you know what they say "once you have underthought you have to abort"

Okay, so no one says that, but given there is over 4400 visits when you include the repeats, thats means a lot of you are coming back, and there have even been 64 vistors that have visited between 51 and 100 times, given this the 50th post that means they are rereading old posts. Which either means they really enjoyed at least one of my posts, or they just couldn't understand it, and had to reread it several times, to get past my spelling and grammatical errors.

"What the hell is he on about?"

But where do these people come from? Below is a world map indicating exactly where people are reading my blog from.
Note I have readers on every permanently inhabitable continent on this earth.
 Incidentally remember the map of the Commonwealth countries I showed you here.

I am more global than the Commonwealth games. YES!

 Obviously my number 1 readership is in NZ, and this stands to reason, as at this stage most of my advertising is word-of-mouth, or word-of-facebook to be more accurate, and most of my friends live in NZ. If you read my blog regularly please post a comment below about where you are reading from?
The top 10 countries are as follows:
  1. New Zealand
  2. USA
  3. Canada
  4. Australia
  5. UK
  6. Iceland
  7. Germany
  8. Brazil
  9. Ireland
  10. Switzerland
Interesting list there, particularly the second place of the Americans, I would have thought I have more friends in Canada, but obviously I have annoyed them.

"F*** you Azzy"
 If the above photo/reference confuses you, then google "Trailer Park boys"

The other point of interest is the large number of readers in Eastern Europe, a place I have never been, but obviously my popularity is starting to spread.

"Did you read the latest post Maria?, it is about Tampons"

Also my post has been read in 15 different languages, since I haven't written this in 15 languages it means that the test is being translated, can anybody that reads this blog please tell me whether or not my humour translates? Since most of the languages have been read multiple times I suspect it does, either that or I am a well respected political commentator in Norway? (Thats right my blog is being read in Norwegian)

"Did you read the "Underthinking Knockers" post, he was discussing the pros and cons of running a welfare state"
Or maybe a cooking blogger in Greece? (being read in Greek as well)

"Did you read Underthinking Winter X, it features a delightful recipie for banana bread"
What do Underthinking readers like?

Since I don't know everyone who reads my blog pesonally, I would like too, so don't hesitate to say hello, but all I can do is summize from their favourite posts, since I have only written 50, its reasonably hard to gauge, but here are the top 5 subjects based on page views.
  1. Tampons
  2. Facebook profile pictures
  3. Commonwealth games
  4. Kelly Pickler
  5. Passive aggresive notes
What a list, firstly I am not sure what that says about me, that the topic people are most interested in reading my thoughts on is a feminine hygiene product. Although I imagine the high viewership was a lot of people who afraid of what I had written, but morbid curiosity got the better of you.
"What did he say about Tampons?"
But for the most part the topics on that list are pretty different, and that seems to be the case with my writing and why I don't fit in a niche category. I do talk to some readers and they tell me what their favourites are, and it is interesting that some people can absolutely love one post, and others loathe the exact same post. I guess that means that I am good at maintaining diversity in my writing.

Diversity - An old old wooden ship used in the civil war era
But please let me know in the comments what your favourites are?

How do strangers find Underthinking?

So whilst most of my readers come from facebook, there is the odd visitor from a google search, and they the google analytics gives me a list of keywords searched that reach my site, here are a my 3 favourties

  1. Leopold Beard Bag - I don't know what a Leopold beard bag is, and frankly I don't want to know but searching this will lead you to my post on Belgium
  2. How to draw an Overaptor? - I don't know what an overaptor is, but apparently I have written about one in my blog on lessons on technology for older people
  3. randompizzaeater (no spaces) - I don't know why some one was looking for this but I talked about the random pizza eater that turn up to many a pub quiz team.
"Who ate the rest of my pizza? you know what I am going to google it, google knows all"

What's my favourite Underthinking?

The list above is based on the popularity of the posts, determined by my readers. But there are certain blogs I have a soft spot for, ones that make me laugh, or I found particularly easy to write, or just spark good memories of my past.

I am ashamed to admit this but...
...just in case you are wondering I do laugh at my own jokes, but most of the time it takes 2 months  before I can read a post and laugh, this is about enough time for me to forget them so the jokes come as a surprise.

So what are the posts that I like the best? I will give you my top 3

  1. Video Store for the Overthinker - My favourite video store in Argentina
  2. Pub quiz teams - Common composition of pub quiz teams, I am sure most people recognize some of the character (I also like the Will Ferrell sequence)
  3. Hitchhiking - I liked this one because there were so many good memories about the crazy people I have met.
So there you have it, my favourite posts from my first 50, maybe I will do this again at the 100th post and we will see if any of these statistics have changed.
But please if you are a regular reader (Actually even if you are a new reader), post below, with where you are from? Gender/Age (I would like to know my demographic)?, your favourite post?, and maybe what you would like to hear me underthink in the future.


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