One thousand posts and my first giveaway

One thousand posts!  Can you believe it?

 

That's huge!

 

 I still don't have a totally awesome idea for what to write for this most momentous of blog posts, so I thought I would bore all of you to tears with a wee bit of statistical and meta analysis about "A Beagle and A Baby" using only the blogger toolbar for all of my raw data (which technically makes it not meta analysis at all, but it sounds cool, so I will continue to say it).

 

It sounds absolutely fascinating, doesn't it?

 

Let's get right into it (unless meta analysis gives you low blood sugar in which case you may skip to the end where I detail my first ever giveaway).

 

* I decided to write this blog because my friend Maryellen was writing a blog.  She was writing a blog because her sister, Jennifer, was writing a blog.  So really, Jennifer can be considered the godfather of this blog.  That sentence and concept make no sense, whatsoever, but then again, neither does actually doing a blog meta analysis.

 * I published my very first post on December 16, 2009.  It was called "A Beagle and A Baby".  I actually wrote it several days prior to the 16th, but it took me an embarassingly long amount of time to figure out how to add pictures.
  
* This is the first picture I ever posted:
*Chelsea holds the honor of leaving the VERY FIRST COMMENT.  It was for a post called "Bionic Tumbleweed".  I wrote the post and she commented on  December 19, 2009.  You can see the post and her comment HERE.
 
* Maryellen left the second ever comment.  It was also for "Bionic Tumbleweed".
 
* Nobody ever commented on my first two posts.
 
* I have had 3,071 comments in 999 posts.  I can't yet use comments for this 1,000th post in the meta analysis because I won't get any until after I publish this post. It's a bit of a mind twister really. 
 
* There are 33 blog posts that never received a comment.  And yes, I counted them, specifically for the purpose of writing this post.  And yes, Michael rolled his eyes at me.
 
* The last time that one of my posts received no comment whatsoever was on July 15, 2009.  You can read it HERE.
 
* I made a list of the posts that have no comment.  I am ALL kinds of crazy.  Be a pal.  Go through my archives to find the links (because I'm not including them, ha ha), and leave a random comment YEARS after they were published. 
 
This is the list:
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Wordless (but not numberless) Wednesday- 7/15/09
The Trip: Day 5 – Balboa Park and Back to Yuma- 7/12/09


The Trip: Day 4- The aquarium and the beach at night- 7/11/09


The Trip: Day 3- 4^th of July in San Diego- 7/10/09


AHHHHH-I missed 22 months- 7/7/09


Memorial Day- 5/25/09


Easter Fun- 4/13/09


Rainbow- 4/13/09


My Husband……- 3/25/09


Wordless Wednesday- 3/4/09


Sorry Friends- 3/1/09


Eggs- 2/22/09


Wordless Wednesday- 2/18/09


Wordless Wednesday in Hawaii- 2/11/09


17 Months- 2/6/09


Warning- 2/4/09


Wordless Wednesday- In Berlin- 1/28/09


Uh-Oh- 1/26/09


Wordless Wednesday- 1/21/09


The most annoying part of my day- 1/15/09


Waffles- 1/11/09


Monday Morning- 1/5/09


Marital Karma- 1/3/09


Flashback Friday- 1/2/09


Happy New Year- 1/1/09


Our 7^th Wedding Anniversary- 12/31/08


On the second day after Christmas- 12/28/08


On the first day after Christmas- 12/26/08


Toys, Noise, Family and Fun- 12/26/08


Christmas Eve- 12/25/08


Teeth- 12/18/08


Fat Beagle- 12/17/08


A Beagle and A Baby- 12/16/08
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* The most number of comments in a single post is  22.  That was my 500th post where I wrote about humidifiers (because I am awesome like that) and BEGGED my readers to leave a comment.  You can see it HERE.
*My very first "blog stalker" (defined as somebody that you don't really know in real life but that starts reading your blog) was Janet. We did have a real world connection though. She is Maryellen's cousin. She left her first comment on February 22, 2010.  You can see the post HERE.
* My second blog stalker was Jeannette.  She started silently stalking me and then left her first comment on October 24, 2011 when we randomly met each other at a mall in Tucson and I broke blog stalker protocol and wrote about her being my blog stalker.  We also have a real world connection.  She is Chelsea's friend. You can see the post HERE.
My third blog stalker (and first without a real world connection!) is Sherry.  She "met" me through Valerie (who I blog stalked first, so I am her blog stalker, not the other way around) and left her first comment on June 28, 2012.  You can see the post HERE.
* Google is the search engine that directs the most traffic to my blog.  Yahoo comes in second.
* Janet's blog, The GVZs, is the non-search engine site that directs the most traffic to my blog.  This is followed by Karen's blog (Chung Family), then Sherry's blog (Our Sweet Life) and Jennifer's blog (A Peek Into Our World).
* The search phrases that bring people to my blog change all the time.  They are never the same week to week.  This week the highest numbers include "liver enzymes in people", "ikea scavenger hunt", "outer space wall paint" and "toddler broken nose".
* The United States is always in #1 place for my audience.  The rest of the countries change frequently.  This week the US is trailed in page views by (in this order) the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Australia, Italy, France, Russia, Malaysia and Poland. 
* My blog has, overall and as of today, 96,844 views.
* On average my blog gets about 2,600 views a month and about 80 to 90 views a day.  Sometimes it's as high as 120 per day, sometimes it's as low as 40 per day.  Apparently less people check my blog when I don't post new content.  Total shocker!
* Note: Blogger didn't introduce the counter for individual blog posts until a couple of years into my writing of this blog, so this next analysis, sorry, meta analysis, is definitely not accurate.
-My biggest all time most read post was on April 22, 2013.  It was called "On Vacation at Home" (you can read it HERE) and has 1,982 page views. I am CERTAIN that the majority of that is spam though.  I actually had to shut down comments on that post because I was getting so many spam comments.
-My real, non-spam biggest all time most read post was on August 29, 2011.  It was called "IKEA Scavenger Hunt" (you can read it HERE) and has 1,172 page views.
-Coming in second place with 1,125 views is "T-Rex and the Tower" (yep, read it HERE) and was published on 4/11/12.
-And finally, coming in with the bronze medal, but probably also tainted by spam, is "Early morning post" from July 18, 2012 with 699 views.  You can read it HERE.
OK.  So that is all I have for the meta analysis.
Did you enjoy it?  Did you take notes?
No?
That's OK. 
You're going to enjoy this.
In honor of my 1,000th post I would like to do a giveaway.  It's going to be really simple.  All you have to do is leave a comment for me.  That's it.  I will be really technologically advanced and will assign each comment a number.  I will write the numbers on a tiny piece of paper, fold them up and put them in a bowl. Then I will let Spencer pick a number out of the bowl and you will be the winner.  And what will you win, you ask?
Well, the prize for this giveaway will be me going to my local Hobby Lobby and hand selecting for you your very own springy, Eastery decoration in the price range of $15-20 dollars.  I will package it up really nice and mail it to you with a handwritten note card.  I will probably also include some candy.  It will totally make your day.  I promise.
So, get cracking on those comments. 
These are the additional blah, blah, blah rules:
1) One comment per person please.
2) I will close the contest on Saturday, March 22nd and will write a post announcing the winner on Sunday the 23rd.  If I don't hear from the winner to give me their contact information by Tuesday the 25th I will pick a new winner.
3) If I know you in real life and you are the winner I will call, email, facebook or text you too.
4) If I know you in real life and you live relatively close by and I will be seeing you soon I will probably hand deliver the package instead of mail it.  If I hand deliver it I might bring you a flower or something since you lose out on the joy of getting mail.
To end this most epic of posts, please enjoy pictures of Spencer and Elliott eating breakfast at Village Inn this morning and Ginger doing what she does best this morning. 







Thanks to all of you for reading, be it all 1,000 posts or......however many you've read!