2008 in review 6: hot posts on English/ESL

For a small blog, compared with this blog, English/ESL scores big, thanks in some measure to the NSW Higher School Certificate, though the clientele is actually more international than for my other blogs.

Here are all the posts to have more than 1,000 individual views so far in 2008.

1. Studying the Gothic, or Emily Bronte? 12,199 views in the past 12 months
2. Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems 11,225
3. How should I write up a Science experiment? 8,190
4. Workshop 02 — NSW HSC: Area Study: Imaginative Journeys 4,665
5. Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems updated 2,544
6. Six suggestions for Imaginative Journeys 1,848
7. Workshop 010: HSC Advanced English — "Brave New World" and "Blade Runner" 1,716
8. ESL+ 1,577
9. Scaffolding 1,567
10. Literacy 1,518
11. Studying comic strips? Really! 1,431
12. SBHS Trial HSC 2007 Paper 1 Question 1: 1,402
13. Workshop 01 — a theme unit in four different text types: senior English Studies 1,392
14. How can I improve my essay grades, especially in exams, without learning model essays off by heart? 1,352
15. The mysteries and injustices (?) of the NSW UAI Ranking 1,262
16. Workshop 03 — Creative Writing (Year 12 1,239
17. In the Wild: Brave New World and Blade Runner 1,207
18. From my personal site: The Secret River 1,161
19. Links 1,146
20. How can I write better short stories? 1,122
21. What tense should I use when I write about literature? 1,121
22. HSC English NSW Area Study Standard and Advanced: Belonging 1 1,053
23. Workshop 09: Advanced English Module B "Critical Study of a Text" 1,008

 

2008 in review 5: Of course I am not obsessive…

Am I?

You be the judge… Stats are up to today, of course.

Floating Life

• 1,422 Posts, including a sizeable archive imported from other earlier blogs 1,458 Comments 19 Pages – some of them redirections to other blogs
• 2008 posts: January 112; February: 80; March 86; April 72; May 57; June 65; July 76; August 74; September 68; October 76; November 67; December to date 17.

Ninglun’s Specials

• 269 Posts 107 Comments 35 Pages
• 2008 posts: March 28; April 16; May 19; June 4; July 5; August 4; September 33; October 109; November 45; December to date: 6.

English/ESL

• 205 Posts 235 Comments 29 Pages
• 2008 posts: January 4; February 4; March 8; April 2; May 2; June 4; July 5; August 5; September 6; October 4; November 3; December to date: 0

Floating Life Apr 06 ~ Nov 07

• 1,100 Posts 1,663 Comments 12 Pages
• 2008 posts: June 1; July 2

Neil’s modest photoblog

• 148 Posts (one pic per post) 5 Comments 2 Pages Total views: 1,347

My student blog

• 5 Posts 7 Comments 11 Pages Total views: 359

 

Trounced by Thomas!

Tomorrow I will do the usual Saturday stats thing, but I do so with a heavy heart… The reason? Deus Lo Vult!

Thomas can’t be seen for dust! See 2353: yes, that refers to the number of visitors he had on 5 November.

My own best ever ever was April 4th, 2007 with WordPress saying there were 2,296 page views that day – and now look! 

The US elections have been good for Thomas’s blog, so I really sincerely congratulate him for the achievement. Really. (What, you don’t believe me?) And read his post too, as there’s a funny side to where the hits have come… Or should that be a frustrating side?

Nonetheless, I contemplate Sitemeter: to even get near Thomas’s total there this month I have to combine all the Floating Life blogs with English/ESL. That’s (so far in November) 3,126 visits + 2,061 giving 5,087. Thomas in the same period has 5,992!

 

October 2008 on Floating Life and English/ESL – and what’s new

• NOTE: see also Week ending Saturday 1 November 2008.

What’s new on Ninglun’s Specials, English/ESL and Photobucket

• Friday 31 October: Redfern Visions 26: East Redfern 4 
• Surry Hills 84: west of Crown St 1
• Saturday: Redfern Visions 27: East Redfern 5
• Surry Hills 85: west of Crown St 2
• Added 20 pics to Surry Hills on Photobucket. NOTE: the link is set to ALL so you will see 140 thumbnails. It works best in Firefox and Chrome.
• Added 8 pics to Redfern and East Redfern on Photobucket. NOTE: the link will show 68 thumbnails.
• Reduced the side bar in Ninglun’s Specials and also the number of posts displayed at a time. This is to ease download time. I am also keeping the Google Reader selections to 65, so check frequently!
• Restored the categories drop-down menu to this blog! It had been accidentally dropped. Sorry. 
• NSW Module A English HSC Advanced: on not seeing the wood for the trees… – English/ESL
• Sunday: Surry Hills 86: west of Crown St 3
• Redfern visions 28: East Redfern 6
• Monday: Redfern Visions 29: East Redfern 7
• Redfern Visions 30: back to Redfern Street
• Tuesday: Surry Hills 87: seen on Sunday
• Wednesday: Redfern Visions 31: Buckingham Street 1
• Thursday: Redfern Visions 32: Buckingham Street 2
• Surry Hills 88: overgrown
• Friday: created a new (password-protected) page on Ninglun’s Specials to hold thumbnails of my South Sydney Herald assignments.
• Redfern Visions 33: Little Eveleigh Street 1

Overview of October 2008

Floating Life sites and English/ESL have both exceeded 12,000 visits each in October, according to Sitemeter. Floating Life sites have achieved a second-best ever – 14,579 visits in September, but English/ESL has broken its former best by about 3,000!

The final Sitemeter counts were: Floating Life sites – 12,585 visits and 15,538 page views; English/ESL – 12,075 visits and 15,236 page views – best ever by over 3,000 visits.

WordPress counts at c. 9.00 am our time on 1 November – that is, with about two hours to run WP time.

• Floating Life: 8,733 page views (best ever last month at 11,781)
• Ninglun’s Specials: 2,440 views, the best since July 2008 which had 2,698. When the blog was “Oz Politics” the best ever was November 2007 at 5,209, which was of course the month of the election. Further details about Ninglun’s Specials are in a separate post.
• Floating Life Apr 06~Nov 07: 4,238 views. The best ever there was November 2007 with 8,998.
• English/ESL: This is the big one last month! 14,371 views. Best ever!

What was hot

The top individually viewed posts for the month, with the exception of Ninglun’s Specials, appear below the fold.

 

Ninglun’s Specials in October 2008

There are, as at 31 October 2008, over 1,000 pictures and other media on Ninglun’s Specials, 119.8 MB out of an available FREE 3 GB. So there’s scope for more for some time to come!

In October over 300 images were added in 110 posts, the most ever on this blog. 6 October saw the most visitors for the month – 148. That day was a big set on the Chinese Garden with 10 posts in one day!

Last week of October

A few thumbs showing highlights of the last week. The thumbs are not hyperlinked. There were 16 posts, 10 on Surry Hills, 4 on Redfern, 1 on Chinatown, and 1 announcement re the Photobucket albums.

Stats for October 2008

 

Milestone: visitor #275,000

That is by Sitemeter count and refers to all the sites and blogs, mostly these Floating Life blogs, that I have applied this meter to since July 2001.

To see how things were 275,000 visits ago: Found — a whole stack of my old entries!

 

 

Boring geeky navel gazing etc 2

Yes, there is a record this month! Sitemeter just stopped counting, but WordPress goes for another ten hours. Here’s Sitemeter’s version:

Floating Life blogs

This includes Floating Life, Ninglun’s Specials, Floating Life 04/06 ~ 11/07, Ninglun’s Journalpace, Ninglun on Geocities. It does not include Ninglun on Blogspot.

English/ESL

This is just the WordPress blog plus a couple of items on Geocities.

More after WP finishes its count. [Done: see over the fold.]

Ninglun on Blogspot managed just 121 visits in September.

 

Introblogging

Have you been to the revamped Ninglun’s Specials yet? You really should; I think it is turning into a rather good photoblog, with original photos, though of course it has more to offer. Here are a few of the items published lately. These thumbnails do not lead to bigger pics. You will have to go to Ninglun’s Specials to see them properly displayed.

I have also rejigged the recent photo series so each entry displays just one photo when you view the blog as a whole. Each post viewed individually will show the full three to six photos on that post.

How the blogs are travelling

Now the end of the month approaches, and I thought I would show you the WordPress monthly stats for each blog. Floating Life has gone well in September, but the most successful blog in terms of hot months remains English/ESL, though Floating Life is not far behind.

The graphs are over the fold.

 

March 2006 review 2 and posts for Tuesday, 1 April

Sitemeter figures finished the month at midnight Sydney time; WordPress figures have about an hour to run, but since that won’t make much difference I’ll finish off my month review now.

Sitemeter stats

The Floating Life Sitemeter covers this blog, New Lines, Old Lines, Sans Words, Ninglun’s Journalspace and a few items on Geocities. The last two figure very little these days. 9,832 visits and 11,975 page views. That is down on February but up on January. Note that all my Sitemeters are configured to ignore my own visits.

English/ESL includes another smallish component on Geocities, but is otherwise purely the WP blog. 7,768 visits and 10,175 page views. That is better than February, but still behind 1) November 2007 (8,515/11,255) and 2) October 2007 (7,778/10,649).

 

I am in decline…

… or so you could conclude from the Sitemeter dailies for the past 30 days. This is the whole Floating Life set:

 

More bloggery and stattery

Yesterday Thomas mentioned in the course of his 24 hours post the Technorati authority stats:

9:22pm – Check my Technorati profile and blog rating. This blog, among the registered blogs at Technorati, is now ranked 150,747. Yesterday, at around the same time, it was 135,000-something. This fall is due to the blog losing ‘authority’ – links from other blogs. It was at 55 ‘authority’ yesterday; now it’s only at 51. Out of interest, I go looking for what Ninglun’s Gateway has (962,510/ 8 ‘authority’), New Lines from a Floating Life (294,012/ 28 ‘authority’) and then Personal Reflections, Jim Belshaw’s blog, (345,597/ 24 ‘authority’)…

 

Posts with that 1000+ appeal!

In order to show up as “visited” in the WordPress stats, a post has to be individually clicked on. Of course most visits are “generic” — that is, people look at the latest page and that’s it; they don’t hit an individual entry unless they choose to read the comments or make one of their own. The other reason, perhaps the main one, that an individual post (or page) registers as visited is that a search has led to it.

 

Posts for Easter Sunday

Tibet again, but with a difference perhaps. On New Lines from a Floating Life: The Dalai Lama is a living treasure; on Floating Life Sans Words: How big is Tibet?

Later on Floating Life Sans Words I introduce you to some of our Surry Hills fauna. If you are arachnophobic, don’t look.

And as you will have noticed, there has been a total template change through all my WordPress blogs. The previous main template, I found, was slightly erratic in the “previous entry” link at the bottom, which could be very annoying for anyone doing searches. I trust the new templates are better for that.

 

Milestone

Sitemeter shows the number of visits to the Floating Life blogs (and ancestors) since 7 July 2001 as 198,016. Visitor #198,000 came from Sweden at 7:46:46 pm my time and read family stories.