Actually, Google Analytics only begins to tell the story about who is reading this blog or any others. Much of what I write is also read on Facebook or Twitter, is skimmed on blog aggregators or Google Reader. In other words, I think Google Analytic’s numbers are a conservative estimate of how often this or any other blog is being read.
Honestly, it’s not enough to judge a blog by readership numbers. At least, that’s not how I look at it. I more excited when a post of my leads to hat tip from another blogger, reporter or writer, as St. Petersburg Times’ reporter John Frank did here. Better yet, is when another blogger picks up on a discussion I started, as the Campaign Manager did here.
But what’s really exciting is when I write something and it’s influence is felt in the mainstream media, even if it’s difficult to prove a direct correlation. For example, on Thursday, I wrote a post about Senator Dave Aronberg’s campaign website’s bragging about Charlie Crist calling Aronberg a “rock star”:
Then, two days later, the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact Florida makes a ruling on this issue.
Understand, the information on Aronberg’s website has been up for months, so it would be silly to think that both me and the PolitiFact writer arrived on the same topic at the same time. What’s more likely is that an editor or researcher at PolitiFact read my post and thought the issue would be a worthwhile one to put to the test. And I think that’s just great.
Like I said, it’s been a great week around here.
