Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Next Stop and Fuzzy Statistics

Day Two of my virtual tour and I'm visiting Sia McKye’s Thoughts Over Coffee. I talk about my goals with writing, venturing online, and how it's affected my world.

Don't forget about my CONTEST to win a free copy of CassaStar! And see my sidebar for another CassaStar giveaway.

I'd also like to share some odd and fuzzy blog statistics with you.

First up is the subject of blogfests. Participation in a blogfest usually increases visitors to your site. However, the size of the blogfest doesn't seem to affect the grand total.

There were 83 participants in the Top Ten TV Shows blogfest on September 20 and almost 200 participants in the Creating Compelling Characters blogfest on September 24. I commented on every blog for the first one and almost every blog for the second. The amount of comments on my blog? 115 for each one. Exactly. Not sure how that happened.

Second fuzzy statistic - word verification. Nine out of ten bloggers don't like it. (Based on comments I received on a post about this topic.) However, as I traveled through the blogging world and leave comments, I noticed something odd - five out of ten bloggers use word verification. Now that's some fuzzy math!

Any other fuzzy stats you'd like to share?

56 comments:

The Old Silly said...

I can't STAND word verification! Unless you have been having problems with being spammed (which in WP you only have to activace Askimet to eliminate any threat) I see no reason for it. And especially those wrinkly, slashed-through letters/numbers you can hardly read. If I don't get it right the first time, I'm like - whatever, I'm outa here. You want me to comment? Make it easy, ok?

LOL, hey - off to check out your blog tour stop. We're BOTH gonna be busy here in the next while, hmm?

Lindsay said...

Word verification is a tricky thing. I took it off once and got so much spam I ended up putting it back on. :(

Yay for your blog tour. :)

Jeff Beesler said...

Word verification does sap my strength on occasion. On the other hand, some of those word caption type things almost resemble actual words, which I can sort of appreciate. Still, I got rid of it on my site and have had no problems with spam comments yet.

Anonymous said...

I hate word verifications. I will have some stats to share this weekend regarding a 36 hour period I had free downloads for my book on Smashwords and a promotional blitz on Twitter and FB.

Stephen Tremp

India Drummond said...

For a while I was into seeing how many comments I could get, but I found that all too often, it was obvious no one had actually read my post! It seems some were just out putting up comments because they felt they had to, or to try to get more comments for themselves. I'd rather have a few people actually read and enjoy my blog than a thousand that commented, but didn't pay any attention.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yes we are, Marvin! Looking forward to hosting you on Friday. (And I've no stop that day so my followers will stay here and read about YOU.)

Lindsay, the new spam feature seems to catch most it. I guess I've just never received that much spam, either.

Jeffrey, one of my fellow bloggers, Fallen, posts a list every week of those almost-words with her made-up definition!

Stephen, that will be interesting to see.

India, I think we all get those.

Vicki Rocho said...

Fuzzy statistic for you. I've noticed on average, you (that's a collective you) get about 10% of your followers to comment. Some bloggers have a knack for getting others to come out of the woodwork, but in general if you have 200 followers, you get about 20 comments a day.

Gail said...

Since Blogger has added their spam blocker I haven't had any trouble. I use no word verification.

Jules said...

YES, YES, I agree with Gail and I HATE word verification. The spam filter does work great and I only moderate posts 14 days or older.

Number of comments I think just depends on the universe. Sometimes it spins your way and sometimes it just does not. :)
Tuesday

Candyland said...

Yeah I hate the word verification, but it doesn't always deter me if I have something important to say (which really is never)!

Copyboy said...

I hear ya brother!!! I hate WV. I actually do a post from time to time asking bloggers to put an end to it on their sites. So far I've gotten a handful of converts. That makes me feel good. I'll go check out the next leg of your tour.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Vicki, I have over 360 followers and receive about 60 comments per day. I guess that's good, huh?

Jules, I think the spam blocker is great. I've not had any since it was implimented.

Candyland, yes you do!

DEZMOND said...

yes, nine out of ten people don't like (or better said - can't read) black backgrounds with white letters, but many people still use it :)

The statistic about blogfests is true, Alex. I've also visited much more blogs in such occasion than the number of returned comments would suggest :) But, I do love your blogfests and take part only in yours.

Arlee Bird said...

My blog hasn't seemed to suffer in anyway by eliminating Word Verification.

I agree with a lot of these fuzzy math statistics. I think Vicki's right about the 10% to a certain extent. I currently have 423 followers. About 40 some of those comment on a regular basis, though not daily.

When I placed a poll at the top of my page to rate favorite features on my blog, I had 43 respondants. My daily comments do go higher when I comment on other blogs more.

Alex, with your book, you attained a higher visibility and awareness from bloggers which I'm sure accounts for much of your increase over the 10%.

If you really want to test the comment theory, stop commenting for about two weeks and see what happens.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Arlee Bird said...

Oh, but don't stop commenting during your book tour-- that probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Dezz, I appreciate that! Of course, I don't do the normal writer fests.

Lee, I'd rather not! Although I know I'll have to scale back during NaNo.

Ella said...

Word verification, slows me down...I could respond to more blogs!
Interesting info..Thanks for sharing!

Off to visit the virtual tour~

Helen Ginger said...

I didn't have word verification for a long time, then I began to get hundreds of spam comments every night on old posts (ones I probably would not have gone back to until Blogger notified me). Then I added word verification. Now that Blogger is trying to catch spam and notifying you of possible spam, I'm thinking I'll take off the verification and see what happens.

When I go to other blogs, I don't mind the squiggly letters since I know how it is to try to delete hundreds of spam every day.

Carol Kilgore said...

I don't like word verification either, but I use it on my blog because I kept getting spam without it. It's been up for a while now, so maybe I'll give things another try. Thanks for reminding me.

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

Alex - How in the name of heaven did you find time for fuzzy statistics?
Sometimes Word verification is fun (the words not the act). I've even gotten a few ideas from them. I don't mind one way or the other.

Sarah Ahiers said...

that is so true about the word verification. I think most bloggers are either too lazy, or don't know how to turn it off once they turn it on

Golden Eagle said...

I'm one of the bloggers who doesn't mind word verification; sometimes the words are actually kinda fun to type out. I put it on my blog--I haven't gotten spam yet, so it seems to work!

Ishta Mercurio said...

Interesting stats! And I'm STILL working my way through the compelling characters blogfest; I know, I'm slow. But it's such a useful topic, I don't want to miss any posts!

Blogfests have increased the number of followers I've gotten and the number of comments on the blogfest day, but on the whole I've got to agree with the 10% theory, to a certain extent. Commenting on other blogs skews it, and so does the topic of a particular post. And there's a minimum number of followers you need before the 10% figure really starts to kick in.

As for word ver, we might hate it, but we hate spam more!

Hart Johnson said...

HA! Funny that those vastly different blog fests had such similar results for you. It is POSSIBLE though, that it is YOU specific--you do a lot of TV and media stuff, so your REGULAR readership may have felt more at home with that. Did you look at all for the portion of commenters who were regular readers? The TV one was also easier to leave a 'quick, not much thought' comment: 'great list, I love X files, too' where the character one required more engagement? Maybe... I'm probably making that up. I do that.

Charles Gramlich said...

I don't like word verifiction myself but I can understand it's usefullness at certain times.

KK Brees said...

87% of statistics are created on the spot.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Enjoyed the post Alex, how you got time to write good post at this stage amazes me,

Take care.
Yvonne.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Helen, guess I'm just lucky I almost never get spammed.

Mary, I'm giving up sleep for the next couple weeks!

Hart, you make it up very well! The TV one was probably easier. I also think there's a set number of blogs any blogger can visit on a given day and the second one exceeded it for most people.

KK - funny!

Yvonne, at this point, sleep is optional.

Elana Johnson said...

Wow, I like your stats today. And how I loathe word verification. Actually, I don't mind it if I know I have to do it (use a pop-up window, for the love!). It's the sneaky ones, the ones that process your comment as if they're processing it, but they're really searching for that WV. And THEN you have to type it in. That's what annoys me.

Aleta said...

I just recently took off the word verification. Some spam has started, but nothing I can't handle.

So, is there a site that has a list of all the blogest out there?

I don't supposed you'd consider doing a blog post about NaNoWriMo. I'm terrified to try this. I'm a blogger, not a writer, but.. part of me wants to give it a go. I just don't know where/how to start. Any suggestions for "non-writers"?

Talli Roland said...

Love the word verification stats! I detest it, but I do understand why people need to use it. Hope the blog tour's going well so far!

Old Kitty said...

Is that a pic of you over at Sia McKye's blog?!!??!?!?! Is that you with the guitar?!?!?! :-) Awwwwww!!!

I love my word verification!!!!!

*Ducking as 9 out 10 bloggers here throw rotten eggs at me*.

Take care
x

Southpaw said...

Fascinating stats indeed. A new irritant with the word verification is in the popup version – half of the time I get a red x and have to reload the page!

Belle said...

I'm actually fascinated by word verification words - I have a Word doc where I jot down the best ones I encounter. I always think I could dream up a really awesome language for some future fantasy WIP using just these words!

Off to check out your blog tour stop today!

Jemi Fraser said...

Those are bizarre stats!

I know some bloggy buddies have had serious issues, so the word ver doesn't bother me when I visit their sites. Otherwise it drives me nuts too :)

CA Heaven said...

I used to have word verification, but have taken it away, to make it easier for all the nice people who spend their valuable time commenting on my blog. It seams to work fine, no significant increase in spam.

Statistics as a branch of mathematics, was first invented to give the casinos better control on their profits. It's the science of gambling. No wonder it appears fuzzy from time to time >:)

Cold As Heaven

Unknown said...

Maybe some bloggers don't know they have it. If you comment on your own blog, it doesn't require verification even if for others it's required so they probably think they don't have it.

Hmmm, maybe I do have it on... tell me next time you leave a comment on my blog.

Great post. I'll check out the site you're visiting today.

CD

Matthew MacNish said...

It's all a bit fuzzy. Lately I haven't even had time to comment on the blogs I usually read, and my comments have been going slightly up. It cannot possibly the quality of my posts ...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Elana - agreed!

Aleta, you just have to find them. I won't do another one until January. And this is my first year for NaNo. Best advice I can give is pick a subject and start writing. Might be a great way to pound out a month's worth of blog posts in advance!

Thanks, Talli - it is!

Kitty, as long as you were the 1 who liked it, that's okay. And yes, that's me.

Belle, one of my blogger friends posts definitions of catch phrases every week. It's funny.

Cold, now it makes sense.

RaShelle Workman said...

Dude, that is fuzzy!!! And you're funny. Great review over at Scribbler BTW!! =D

Anonymous said...

I hadn't put too much thought into word verification until Candyland posted about how much she hated it. I guess it stuck with me, because after that it REALLY started to bother me. Weird, I know.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Clarissa, you definitely don't have it!

Matthew, the fuzzy math strikes again.

RaShelle, I am here for your amusement!

Kelly, she drew your attention to it - now it's an itch you can't ignore.

WritingNut said...

Yay, Day 2! I'm off to visit after I comment here :)

I don't MIIiind the word verification, but it can get a little tedious when you're ready to post and the page needs to reload with the word.

Lydia Kang said...

I can't stand word verification but it doesn't deter me. But my blogging life would be much more efficient if it didn't exist.
Since I stopped mine, I get about a 1:100 ratio of spam to normal comments. No big deal.

Laura Eno said...

I've gotten rid of almost all spam by not allowing comments to automatically go through after the post is older than 20 days. The spammers seem to target older posts.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Laura, they do!

Thanks, everyone!

Private said...

I've not got any fuzzy statistics for you, but yours were really interesting! I hate word v. with passion, but I think most bloggers forget that they have it on their blog. Also, many are afraid of spam comments... So basically, blogfests are a good way to gain followers?! I might have to join that malarky then:)

N. R. Williams said...

I think word verification is awful. It takes twice the time to comment on someones post and sometimes it makes you do it twice.

I like blog fest for many reason. One is the followers and two are opportunities to showcase my writing.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

Anonymous said...

Yeah, word verification is... annoying, to say the least. I put up with it because it's not terribly time-consuming, but the seconds spent typing in those fake words really adds up... I got rid of my WV and I haven't had a single spammer yet.

Unknown said...

So glad you brought this up! I turn it on just for Captcha Balderdash but then turn it off. I haven't turned it off yet but, thanks to you, I am now. (pssst...your lack of a formal definition for "inutm" made me laugh!)

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Aww! Look at all them warm fuzzies you have here, Alex! :)

Green Monkey said...

I took the word verification off also and I very rarely get spam - it depends on my blog title. Back when I posted something called "PUMP ME UP" I got lots and lots of penis pump spam :) now THAT was fun!

Amity said...

WORD VER- that's so, well someone told me there's word verification in my comment platform, i guess Disqus does not require word verifification anymore...

Lola Sharp said...

Boys and their need to chart, graph and... measure.

Yeah, so stats was the one class that gave me fits and nightmares. *twitch*

I haven't had word vert. since February...no problems.

Hannah said...

I don't mind word verification as long as they have pop-up comment or whole page comment format. It's so aggravating to have to wait for it to load after you leave a comment. Argh!! It bugs me to no end.

Jamie Gibbs said...

I dislike word verification but I see why it's necessary. I don't like the multiple ways that comments can be made, though. it means that you an never be sure that your comment has got through because there might be some nuance of blogging that you didn't fulfil and your comment gets lost in the ether :P