Some comments about comments (or lack of them)

Before I installed the Hits counter I had no idea just how many people were reading my blog simply because no one bothers to leave any comments.

I was amazed at the figures! Between 30 and 150 people are visiting my blog every day. About half of them are staying more than a minute. (Many are brought here because of a Google search and conclude that I'm not really what they were looking for so they leave after a few seconds).

I thought first of all that maybe people weren’t leaving posts because by default, Blogger doesn't allow anonymous comments and people couldn't be bothered to go through the procedure of logging into an account. So I fixed that. I must admit I haven't received many anonymous comments after doing so. Then I thought, maybe people just don't want to leave public comments but they may want to contact me privately to let me know what they think so I added a private "Contact Me" button at the top of page. I don't think anyone has ever used this yet!

I added an instant feedback counter to rate the post from "Excellent" to "Rubbish". Hardly anyone has bothered to click on this line, despite the fact that it takes half a second to vote.

Nevertheless, I'm getting what I think is pretty good traffic. People are staying and reading even if they aren't leaving comments.

The Stat counter tool also keeps statistics on visiters so I thought it might be interesting to share some of these stats with you.

Looking at the stat tables:

The most popular posts by far are the ones about food. Also, 90% of the traffic comes from Israel.

Next come the technical computer related stuff but the traffic is mostly from people doing Google searches in chutz la'Aretz and finding their way here.

Regular (returning) Visitors

80% of my regular traffic in from Israel. I do seem to get a lot of visitors from Israel government office internet services for some reason. For example: The Israel Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Absorption Ministry, Israel Post Company. I have a regular reader from Israel Electric Company. I haven't seen the Prime Minister's Office yet though.

Foreign regulars:

Someone from Eschborn, Hessen, Germany pops in at least once a week.

Someone from Amsterdam, Noord-holland, Netherlands, seems to like my post on Kosher cheeses. He/she has been in and out of the same post for two weeks now.

I have a regular reader from Aix-en-provence, Provence-alpes-cote D'azur, France

Someone from Redbridge, United Kingdom British Telecom visits a lot.

Someone from Berchem, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium got hooked on my sufganiyot.

Someone from Jamnagar, Gujarat, India sticks around.

Unusual Visitors

I've had visiters from Korea and Kuwait who have stuck around reading for a while.

I get a few visitors from the "Gaza, Palestinian Territory" but they aren't here to read my posts on aliyah or even my Jewish recipes. They only come to read about my advice on Bezeq wireless routers.

I was amused that my article where I criticised Lord Chief Rabbi Sacks received a visit from someone from the London Chief Rabbis Office Internet Service. Maybe the man himself? Who knows.

Popular Downloads

What photos have been downloaded from my blog? Well, the photos I took of the English countryside when visiting Constable Land are the most popular. Followed by photos of my Chanukia.. Also the picture of Elite regular and Elite Megadim chocolate side by side has been downloaded 6 times.

What's Next?

I was thinking of doing some product reviews next week. Maybe putting up some of my notes from my recent shuirim? Let me know what you think please. I know, I know, you aren't going to bother are you!