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LylibelluleOne Year and 100k! (almost ^^;)
Posted by meronpan on June 17, 2009
click for danbooru
A big thank you to everyone! WAWAWA忘れ物 is now… well, I guess technically WAWAWA忘れ物 was born late January so it’s only 5 months old :P *ahem* Let’s overlook the name change… one year of blogging, yay! As you’ve no doubt figured out, I’m just gonna talk a bit about some stats, milestones, site trivia and the like. If that’s not your cup of tea, just let me say thanks again for stopping by and see ya next time m(_ _)m
My first post here at wordpress was June 17, 2008, though I actually had a brief stint at blogspot. That only lasted 4 posts though (of which 1 was a no content “hello world” and another, the moving announcement ^^;;). So while it was earlier (June 5), it felt more official to use the start date here (plus gave me some extra time to write up a post :P).
During those brief blogger days, sonic_ver2 was the first person to comment, and the first blog in my blogroll. Happy to see he’s still reading and I’ve been following his blog ever since too. Here at wordpress it was optic, another comrade I’ve been following ever since.
My first figure review was of Shall Rhousemann. Here’s a sample pic from that post:
Really want to go back and take some new photos someday ^^;
My figure review post count is now up to 53 or roughly 1 a week. (some review posts covered more than 1 figure so number of figures reviewed is probably 55 or slightly more…)
This is the 174th post and over 3,400 comments have been posted. Since I reply to pretty much every comment that means somewhere over 1700 comments are from readers.
Average views per day have been steadily increasing month by month. Started out at 69 in June, grew to 88 in September, had exploded to 193 in December and I still can’t believe it but I’m currently looking at somewhere between 600 and 800 for this month. Graph below.
Monthly Average Hits per Day
And of course with average views per day increasing, that corresponds to total views per month also increasing – started off at about 2,500 per month and peaked last month at over 18,000.
Hits per Month
Actual visitors is a more humbling number and unfortunately I didn’t add another counter to track that until earlier this year. According to statcounter my unique visitors were at around 5,000 in Feb and were approaching 13,000 in May (with corresponding page views of ~8k and 18k).
Participating in various link exchange programs has undoubtedly contributed to a lot of traffic… Danny Choo / otaku.fm and Sankaku Complex both feature a system in which your blog will be randomly featured in a rotating list on the site. Animenano is another aggregator community I joined. Shadonia has been gracious enough to take some of my reviews and translate them to french for some exposure to fellow figure collectors overseas. And finally tsukiboard, while less about traffic sharing and blog promotion (well, actually, now they have an aggregator too ^^;), has been a great site for managing my collection and getting to know more about others’.
click for danbooru
Getting back to some stats, as far as my top referrers go otaku.fm unsurprisingly sits at #1, being the first community I joined. Combine that with hits from various dc news items and hijacked articles puts dc in general even higher. Animenano follows with over 750 referrals but somehow foo-bar-baz (having picked this humble site to add to his blogroll recently), has already accumulated over half that amount. From the not-getting-50-gazillion-hits-a-day community, Figured‘s FigureLog still leads for referrals! She recently had a baby and has shifted to a more personal blog. Following her it’s Daybreak’s Bell, Exelica Meteor, and AnimaticFigmation. Detailed list below:
All Time Top Referrers
For posts… kaguya is the runaway popularity queen. Over three thousand views for her figure review, though I’m pretty sure most people weren’t looking for that :P Have no regrets all ye “kaguya nanbu hentai” searchers. I’m here to support you. In second place is my list of figures (and links to their reviews), followed by Kanu (daiki kougyou) and the Lineage II Dark Elf (wish I had better pics of both orz). More below:
All Time Top Pages and Posts
Top searches show the true nature of the internet:
All Time Top Searches
If you’ve been reading for a while you probably know I don’t shy away from visual novels nor eroge. And my sankaku complex feed should alert you to my attitude towards ero stuff. Have no shame my friends :P Speaking of underboob… there’s this post on sankaku complex you’ll probably want to check out, and particularly this:
Pic from sankaku complex. Link to post is above.
I actually first saw this pic on dc but it’s been captivating. Who the heck is this?!
Alright, hopefully I haven’t scared off those of purer intentions ^^;; Last set of stat pr0n included in the wordpress report is clicks. Mostly dominated by my room pics, (largely due to danny linking my site when I participated in the room contest ^^;). A mio pic also got its way up pretty quick, and of course kaguya pics are high too.
Unfortunately you can’t click the links in that pic to see what the heck those urls are pointing too. You’ll have to take my word for it ^^; As far as blogs go, looks like people most often head over to How a Girl Figures, Flying Pussyfoot and Exelica Meteor.
My biggest day was actually very recent – June 10, 2009 saw 1256 page views. Largely thanks to foo-bar-baz and danny choo I believe.
And finally, all told, I’m still a bit shy of 100,000 page views, clocking in at ~97,000. If you’ve been wondering, yes the little blurb in the left column labeled 情報 is the wordpress hit counter. 情報 just means info/news and “＃＃＃＃＃メロンパンを食べました。” means “#### melonpan have been eaten.” Well, actually given that conjugation I suppose it’s more like, “I have eaten #### melonpan.” ^^;
click for danbooru
Oh, and before I wrap up. Many thanks to James, super rats and foo-bar-baz for their wonderful sites. I’ve always looked up to you guys for your photos and it’s been my inspiration for improving my own. Not to say there aren’t many other reviewers with beautiful pics, but those were the first I stumbled upon ^^;
Starting out most of my stuff looked like this:
Hand held with the built in flash (not that my camera accepts an external :P), I tried to make up for it with interesting angles, group shots, or whatever else I could think of.
Slowly over the course of the year I added a tripod, backgrounds, lamps, homemade diffuser, and finally some umbrella lamps:
Still not perfect by any means, but comparing to my first shots I can’t believe the results ^^;; It’s all with the same camera, so it definitely is true what they say about proper lighting. (pic from my sakura review… I think my favorite set of pics to date)
We’ll see just how much some better glass will help out… perhaps in the near future ^__^
Sorry for the insanely long post but I guess I’m a sucker for anything nostalgic… and stats ^^; And hopefully this didn’t come off as too self indulgent or arrogant or whatever. I try to know my place in the blogosphere food chain :P (what was it, like 1,000,000 page views for sankaku in the first four months?)
Thanks again for reading! Never expected to achieve more than just a fraction of the traffic I’m getting today. It’s been a pleasure getting back to my otaku roots and sharing the experience with everyone.
これからも宜しくお願いします。
kore kara mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu
Here’s to another year! kanpai!
/乾杯
以上！
Shiddo said
Congrats on upcoming milestone ^^
Nice overview ^^ Actualy this is very interesting to read as well ^^ Little blog evolution along with all the networks you joined ^^
Btw, are you using some plguin to get all those stats? I saw these counters implemented on wordpress.com blogs… but once you get standalone version for your own domain there is none. Any suggestions which to get?
meronpan said
Thanks ^^ looks like 100k should come around in the next few days ^^;;
for the stats i’m still on wordpress.com ^^;; i’m using the free version of statcounter for some additional information, but since i’m on wordpress.com I don’t get to use the fully featured widget and hence miss out on a lot of information.
so yeah, sorry but no real recommendations because i’m mostly on built in stuff ^^;
Shiddo said
Oh! ^^; I thought you have own installation of WP now, since you have own domain. Oh well ^^
Shiddo said
Ah I see now… even if you have standalone you can still register your standalone blog on wp.com (or atleast with WP stats plugin) and you will get same stats like having blog directly at wp network ^^
meronpan said
ah nice. good to know!
super rats said
Congratulations on the milestone!^^ Plus, it’s sounds like you’re having a good time so far, which is great. I think blogging this hobby is a lot of fun and I just like it when other people seem to enjoy it.
meronpan said
doumo ^^ indeed, it’s been a blast, albeit pretty cruel on the finances (well, the collecting, not the blogging ^^;;)
anonymousobject said
Congrats on your success :) Looking forward to another year of figure news and reviews :D
meronpan said
thanks! i hope to keep churning them out ^^
0rion said
Congrats!
I don’t know why you would consider 5000~ish people reading what you write every month a particularly “humbling” number. Certainly it may not be up there with what a lot of other anime blogs can boast numerically, but that’s still an awful lot of people who obviously enjoy and appreciate the work you put into this site. In the big scheme of things, that’s something to be quite proud of. =D
meronpan said
doumo ^^
ah, what i meant about the humbling part was basically just that unique visitors is always less than page views. as in, for example, “yay! 10k views!… oh wait, only 7k visitors.” though actually now that i think about it the bigger the difference, the more people that are actually browsing your site, which is (to me at least) even better ^^;;
at any rate, i didn’t mean to imply that my numbers were insignificant or what not ^^; as you say, it’s not a small number of people who are stopping by.
Smithy said
Congrats meronpan! Those are some impressive numbers, now to 100k! がんばるぞ！
meronpan said
thanks! almost there ^^;
gundamjehutykai said
oh wow, I’ve been blogging for double your time and you hit the milestone before me! orz
Having said that, not only do you do more posts in general, but you don’t have the long gaps between completed products like I do. On a more serious note, how the heck do you afford all that stuff?
Reading this made me look back at my own stats. The boobie-tastic Amane shiratori is running away with popularity (at least, just checking for the first week). So no surprises that boobs = hits with your Kaguya!!
Strangely tho, Otaku.fm doesn’t really count for many of my referrals, despite being the earliest. Animenano does the biggest load of my 4 aggregators for me.
And people search google for the weirdest things…
meronpan said
most of my stuff was funded by the bonus i got last year (1st time ever getting a bonus! woo!) this year with the economy… no such luck so i’m trying to trim the spending as much as i can ^^;;
heheh i wonder if we’d have an internet if it weren’t for pr0n. can’t stop those hormones :P
Blowfish said
Haha guess what?You did exactly the post I was about to write at the end of the month when I hit my Blogs first anniversary: July 1st.
Ill provide some stat pr0n aswell but my numbers are a bit funked up.My Hosts stats are a total mumbojumbo and I dont really believe them.I think I installed Statpress last movember and its probably the better resource.
Anyways!
Its fun to read your blog and to see how you improve from post to post.To be honest im more than a little jealous about your photography skills and cant wait to celebrate the second year with you ^^
Yoroshiku!
meronpan said
haha, had forgotten we started at similar times
glad you’ve been enjoying my posts and hope my wallet can survive another year ^^; you give me too much credit for my photos, i’ve still got a lot to learn!
yoroshikuna
Observer Extraordinaire said
Oppai FTW!
meronpan said
sansei!
@animefigures said
Great post – hope to see @animefigures among your top referes next year!
meronpan said
doumo de~su
Magna said
This is the first time I see that Dark Elf and, God, I’m in love. Unfourtunately she’s very rare and expensive now. That Kanu also is quite something.
Anyway, I think I’ll have to participated in some of this link exchage programs too if I want some readers for my blog, but I guess I’ll need to start posting in english first. ^^;
Anyway again, congratulations, Meronpan! Your blog, reviews or whatever you post here is great!
meronpan said
though she was rare, tokyo hunter seemed to have her up almost regularly in his auctions… not sure if that’s still the case though, and of course, there’s the premium for her rarity ^^;;
i’ve tried on a couple occasions to read your blog but unfortunately i don’t know Portuguese ^^;; though i tried google translate just now and it worked pretty well!
thanks, glad you’ve enjoyed things here ^^
Magna said
Yeah, I saw his auction, but it’s just too much for me. I even saw a broken one even more expensive!
But thank you for using a translator to read my blog. Once I have a little extra time, I think I’ll make a English one in wordpress, so you (and maybe other readers) don’t have a hard time with my postings anymore. ^^
meronpan said
nowadays i wouldn’t have considered getting her but i was buying way too much stuff back then ^^;
best of luck on your (potential) english blog ^^
Rin said
Congrats!!!!!
You even achieved more than me in one year!!!!!
I hope for good future posts!!!!!
meronpan said
thanks! i hope to keep delivering ^^
Otaku Dan said
congrats on making it to 1 year in blogging
meronpan said
doumo~ ^__^
YuKi-To said
grats and Kanpai! :3
Spend more to improve the economy! =P
meronpan said
thanks ^^ i actually just spent a ton ^^;;; will post on that as soon as the goodies arrive~
Persocom said
Congrats on one year and so many hits! I’m nearing a year myself in a month and a couple days. Nice stats and stuff I have no idea how to find out mine, and I haven’t had a counter in ages.
meronpan said
thanks! i guess depending on your host you may or may not already have some stats stuff built in? ^^; lotsa free options out there too, especially if you’ve got total control over your site.
Kairu Ishimaru said
Did I just saw an underboob! OH WOW!
meronpan said
only the finest shitapai for my readers! heheheh
Panther said
Congrats on a year and 100K (soon)! :)
meronpan said
thanks! almost there… 1004 more hits atm ^^
ELTboy said
Congratulations on your 1 year! You have got really good viewership numbers for your blog. I have enjoyed reading your blog ever since I started, so please keep up the good stuff. ^^
meronpan said
thanks! not really sure why but the growth has just been insane over the last half year. we’ll see how long that lasts ^^;
sonic_ver2 said
Oh yeah, i was the first to comment in your blog. It’s still in blogspot back there.
meronpan said
yeap, and unless blogger gets wiped off the web, will be there for years to come ^^;
optic said
I recall beating you at one time (stats wise) but overtime it slowly ticked away at a rate where it’s impossible to catchup. Not that it matters now as I found where I want to go with my blog.
It’s been a pleasure getting to know u from the start and there’s never a dull moment in ur post. Actually I will be lying if i said that but in terms of the general community, u cater for everyone which is great.
Congratz on ur anniversary and almost 100K. As long as ur are enjoying bringing out the good stuff then I will enjoying reading it. ^^
meronpan said
hahah yeah i would definitely say i have my fair share of dull moments ^^;; totally not used to writing so much all the time and making things interesting all the time is hard work ^^;;
exactly my thoughts in regards to enjoying things… always makes for a good read when the writer is excited about the topic at hand ^^
doumo!
samejima said
Congrats mate!
meronpan said
thanks!
lovelyduckie said
GRATS!
meronpan said
doumo~ ^^
phossil said
Congratz!!! :)
You had a very short brief in blogspot..lol.
meronpan said
yes ^^; 2 brief posts and 2 announcements posts are hardly worth acknowledging… but i like to be thorough in my recollections ^^;
doumo~
Haru said
CONGRATS! :DDD
meronpan said
^^ thanks!
wolfheinrich said
Congrats on your wonderful achievement! You have always got something interesting to share, I enjoy stopping by and reading your posts :3
I am a newbie in the blogging world myself, hopefully, I would have some decent stat to share when I hit the 1 year milestone :3
meronpan said
thanks and glad you’ve enjoyed things here!
if the top search terms here are an indication, your coverage of eroge should definitely boost your readership ^^
aaroninjapan09 said
Wow… amazing achievement. i couldn’t dream of running a blog with those stats. Your daily views exceeds my lifetime views… *I am ashamed of my milestone post*
meronpan said
doumo!
you shouldn’t be ashamed in any way! not to mention you’re way ahead of what I started out at! took me about 4 months to get to 11k. my traffic was basically flat for that time – wasn’t until the 5th month that i finally got some significant growth.
alafista said
Congrats … Soon you will be on your road to riches and fame!
meronpan said
thanks! i could definitely use some riches… ^^;
Coco the Bean said
Congrats! It’s pretty awesome to look back and see how the site has grown and changed.
meronpan said
doumo ^^ it’s been fun improving on things, from css edits to lighting my figure reviews.
lightningsabre said
Happy blogday! Wow only a year and almost 100k, eh? GJ ^_^
I’ve only started following your blog recently, but I try to visit as much as I can ^^ I have so many blogrolls that it’s hard to keep up XD
meronpan said
thanks ^^
i know how it is with excessive blogrolls ^^;; i can’t even remember the last time i had less than 300 unread posts ^^;;;
kazearashi said
Congrats on the anniversary! ^^ And the first picture is win =D
meronpan said
thanks! good ‘ol miku never fails ^^
Q said
It looks like that many of us starting blogging around this time last year. Congrats on the milestone!
It’s interesting but not surprising that the top searches are mostly… Explicit stuff that people would love to crave for especially at nights (laughs). ^^;
Again congrats for the anniversary, and wish you have a swift 100k achievement!
Animenano looks interesting. Think I may try and sign up for that~ Thanks for bringing it up!
meronpan said
doumo! nothing wrong with a bit of okazu searches :P
100k achieved, we’ll see where i get to in another year ^^;
thanks for reading!
T.I.P. said
Congrats on the milestone, looks like you’ve hit 100k. ^^
It’s interesting to read what others have gone through to achieve something, and it’s always good to see how far one has come to achieve them.
I’m just wondering where do you get the stat(s) for unique users and stuff like that?
Grats on the milestone and anniversary, will look for big things from you in the future. :)
meronpan said
ah the unique users stats came from the statcounter counter. danny mentioned it a few times so i thought i’d try it out. unfortunately because wordpress doesn’t let you add javascript you can only use the plain html counter at wordpress.com (which limits the types of info you get). However, as you can see, you still get unique visitor information, along with useful stuff like visitor paths (for each visit, the particular pages viewed), region info, avg time per visit and return visitor info.
doumo desu!
xJAYMANx said
@Meronpan: Awww, congrats, man! ^_^
meronpan said
thanks! now i just need to get back to posting. niconico has been mesmerizing me lately ^^;
Yi said
Congrats!!!
Those are really impressive stats. ^^
meronpan said
thanks! ^^