Meta Blogging

I wrote my first post on this blog a little over three years ago, and in that time it has been fascinating to see how people engage with it and what content strikes a chord. Sometimes I toss off a blog post that I think is terribly slight and - BAM - it is flooded with comments (flooded with comments for me is like three comments, by the way!). Other times I've written something that I thought was super profound and crickets chirp.

The stats on the blog are always a source of amusement and wonder. For instance, the number one most viewed post on my blog by almost double the next one? The Australian Open. I'm not a tennis expert and I have nothing important to contribute to the sports world discussion (other than Yay Djokovic!), it's just an account of our weekend there. But, it's clear when I look at the search terms that brought people to this blog why it's so popular. Number one term put into Google to get to this blog? - "Australian Open." Not "American in Australia" or "Australian Expat Blog," but "Australian Open." Oh, and the number of comments on that most popular post ... zero. Such a puzzling place, Blogland!

In case you're interested, the next most popular posts are:

• Vanuatu (I'm glad because I'm actually rather fond of this one)
• Netflix (this is definitely one of those toss-off ones. Oh, and P.S. - I've since managed to get myself Netflix.)
• Harry's Cafe de Wheels and the Tiger Pie (a Sydney landmark, but hardly a monumental piece of writing)
• Gender Equality in the Theatre (not particularly expat related, but something I'm proud to have written)
• Savion Glover at the Opera House (this one was actually Re-Tweeted by Savion Glover, which I think must account for its popularity)

The search terms that bring people to the blog are also always fun to see. Like I said, my top search terms have nothing to do with being an expat in Australia. After "Australian Open," the top searches include "tiger pie recipe" (sorry people, I don't know the recipe for tiger pie!), "friend" (can you imagine how many pages you'd have to go through searching "friend" to get to this blog?), "sad sloth," and "banana vampire" (no lie). This month, someone got to this blog by searching "ship is leaving" and someone else by searching "baby washcloth animal."

I don't know that I learn much from these stats, other than I should always remember that anyone from anywhere might somehow stumble on these pages in a most unexpected way, so I'd better stand firmly by everything I write. It's not a money making or marketing endeavor for me, so I'm happy for people to engage with it in any way that is organic.

And, if you got to this post by searching for "banana vampire," A.)Really? and B.) you want to be here...