Friday, November 7, 2008

Playing Around With Google Stats

Google Reader has recently updated the "details" provided for each blog when you click the "show details" link in the upper right part of the screen.  It used to tell you how many posts per week and how many subscribers there are to the blog, but now they have added graphs.

Graphs!

To a statistics-loving nerd like me, that is like putting up a free beer sign outside an ER on Saturday morning.

So beyond seeing that I have way more regular readers than I ever expected (and certainly more than I deserve), I see some interesting patterns in the way that I post, and because it is my blog, you now have to read about it (or you could just move on to the next blog on your list...)

1.  I seem to post in clusters.  Over the past month or so, I have had 9 posts that had a day all to themselves, but 25 more posts that were posted en masse, with one day in particular seeing 5 posts.  Now I subscribe to the Happy Hospitalist, where less than 8 posts is a slow day, so I know that I'm small fries when it comes to clusters of posts.  I just find it interesting, since most of the blogs I read tend to be pretty consistently one per day, or in Nurse K's case, two at a time.  The only med blog that I could find that was similar to mine is epijunky's, which probably shouldn't surprise me, since she is the one who introduced me to the concept of ADOBSO.

2.  I'm not sure what time zone Google uses for their "time of day" feature, but it would appear that I blog mostly at noon and from 9pm to midnight.  I will take this at face value as here I am at 12:53 am writing this post (though I will probably not publish it until after the election is over.  Update: now it is three days after the election and I'm just posting it now because Michael Crichton takes precedence over stupid statistics.).  It is interesting to me that I have not published a post in the 7 am hour or the 2, 4, or 7 pm hours.  But that is getting so nit-picky that even I don't care, so let's move on and look at some other blogs:  Girlvet seems to be completely allergic to posting in the morning.  Over whatever period this records, she has posted a couple times at 11 am but never before then.  Scalpel, on the other hand, doesn't like the afternoon.  His posts are clusterd mostly between 7 and 11 am and then 7 and 11 pm.  So that means that his blog is mostly about 7-11 and am/pm.  Now he just needs to find a way to work Chevron in there and he could solicit a pretty lucrative advertising package.  Whitecoat seems to post mainly in the early morning from 3-6 am.  Night shift doc?

3.  I don't seem to post on Friday or Wednesday, but Thursday is my day.  I don't know why.  Mother Jones hasn't posted on Thursday or Saturday throughout the entire time (probably a month) that Google has been watching.  Wanderer posts on Monday, Nurse K posts .  NewGradNurse posts a lot on Friday and also some on Tuesday, but leave her alone on the weekend - only one post total between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Keep Breathing likes Monday and Wednesday but not much else.

Are you still reading this?  Congratulations, you are now a member of the Braden's Gold Star Devoted Reader Club.  Contact me for your bumper sticker.

7 comments:

Epijunky said...

Uhm, I want my bumper sticker.

Just sayin'.

And I wanted to add that the NRA has just recently said that Barack O... Oh my GAWD that dog has a puffy tail.

Uhm, what was I saying?

Further proof of my ADOBSO.

Unknown said...

Graphs! I didn't even notice that...

This is good news.


Damn, I'm a nerd.

Mike Pittman said...

Blogging is my master, I shall not want. Though I walk through the valley of politics, I shall fear no commenter, for mine is the glory when a bigger blog links!

VW

Curdie said...

I want my bumper sticker!

I have a low threshold of entertainment.

Prisca: said...

Add me to the bumper sticker list. Yeah, those grafts are addicting.

scalpel said...

Cool stuff. I've never used a feed reader, but I can see how it would be handy.

If I'm not asleep in the afternoons, I'm usually wishing that I was. I only work nights.

Unknown said...

My excuse is that I use WordPress to post blog entries days in advance. I just make them for the early morning out of habit. Sometimes I don't log onto the internet for days.
Work my share of nights, but don't read or post to blogs from work. Have to keep a low profile, ya know.
Stats will drive ya nuttier than a fruitcake. Don't pay so much attention to them.