Sitemeter addiction

Like many bloggers, I'm addicted to watching my sitemeter. I don't know -- maybe it's an ego thing. Since I recently passed the 10,000 mark, meaning 10,000 readers have stopped by -- or maybe the same 10 people have each come by this blog about 1,000 times -- I figured I'd write about the sitemeter. (By the way, the number would actually be much higher if I hadn't deleted my original blog that used my real name. I'm really glad I deleted it since being anonymous has totally made me so much more attractive to prospective employers!)

Even though the sitemeter says exactly how many visitors you're averaging, it's hard to tell exactly how many people visit this blog. That's because the stats vary wildly based on the day of the week, which makes sense since this blog is mostly about school. Fridays and Saturdays are by far the deadest days. Not many people read during breaks from school. Anyway, I figure as a rough calculation, about 50-60 people check in every day, although I'm not sure how to tell whether it's 50 unique visitors or the same 10 people checking in five times per day. Earlier this week there were more than 80 visitors on back-to-back days. So with the numbers fluctuating wildly, it's tough to tell how many actual people read this.

As for who the visitors are, well, I know obviously there are plenty of people from this law school. I know of at least three faculty here that occasionally read the blog. One comments periodically, and his wife commented on my last blog. The other faculty member once e-mailed me about the blog and said he was glad I kept blogging. I don't know if any other faculty or members of the administration read it. Plenty of students check in.

I'm always intersted in how people find the blog, so I look to see the referrals page. Occasionally someone gets here by doing a Google search for something like "Life in Law School" and people come from a handful of other blogs that link to me. But I link to more people than that link to me. Strangely, people still get here by www.theURLtomylastblog.net, which doesn't make any sense because if you go to that site, you won't find a link to this blog. Maybe some day someone will explain to me how this is done.

I also like to see where the readers come from, and this is where it sometimes gets interesting. Most are from Florida, but they come from all over the place. I get a few readers checking in from Australia and a regular reader from Eufala, Alabama.

As for their identity, it's hard to figure out because usually they come from an unidentifiable source, with the majority from places like comcast.net, bellsouth.net, etc. Then I get a few odd ones. Someone from 3M (the company) stops by periodically, but only once a week or so. I have one regular reader who works in the same law firm where the father-in-law of my good friend works. I've known this friend since the 8th grade and I've known his father-in-law, who is a terrific guy (and I'm not just saying that because he might be reading this), for maybe three or four years, but we don't know each other well at all. Still, somehow doubt he is reading this blog.

Finally, there's the question of how they found this blog, based on what web page you were reading before coming here. The majority are "unknown" but I get a ton of visitors whenever I'm mentioned in Energy Spatula's Weekly Law School Roundu. Sometimes they come from the professor.

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Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Not the most interesting post and it has nothing to do with all that I wrote last week about the whole job search and the administration not helping students. By the way, am I the only one surprised that the professor hasn't weighed in on that topic?