I started this thing on Nov. 2, 2006. Now it’s three years later, and I’ve made 759 posts, including 256 entries in the resources section. The blog has received 172,496 WordPress hits, basically doubling the previous year each year – this year so far I’ve received 89,500 hits, and will probably get about 107,000 or so by the end of the calendar year. In contrast, I received about 52, 200 hits in 2008. Last month I topped 10,000 hits in a month for the first time, and in October 2008 I set a then record of 4,825. My busiest day was this past August 31, when I had 728 visitors thanks to the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones being in the news and lots of folks looking for an image of his tombstone, one of which (from findagrave.com) graces this post. So the growth has been slow but steady. Huffington and Malkin have nothing to fear, but I’m happy with the way things are going.
This past year I also jumped into social networking with Facebook. I registered the blog there with the Networked Blogs application on Facebook and have 93 followers that way. I’ve also added links to the bottom of selected posts to make it easier for readers to share my posts via different sites if they’re so inclined.
As for posts, …but I know what I like is still in the all-time lead with 4,171 views (none of these numbers include feed readers). 1862 Photos of Bull Run is a distant second with 3,212. The most viewed post written this year has been Civil War Art – Howard Pyle with 711, followed closely by Civil War Art – N. C. Wyeth with 686. Seems like a theme.
Over the past few weeks I’ve strayed from the central theme of this blog, but I’ll get back to posting primary Bull Run material soon.
Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
Congratulations Harry. I’m coming up on my 4th later this week. Given that most blogs don’t make it past 6 months this is quite an accomplishment.
Best,
Kevin at Civil War Memory
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Thanks Kevin.
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Harry, just curious about the “technical” stats a bit – would you mind relating what the “most searched for” top ten key words of your blog are?
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Assuming you’re talking about search engine terms, it looks like some form of N. C. Wyeth leads the way, with Brian Jones, Buddy Holly, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Walter Sobchak falling in behind. I mentioned Wyeth and Jones in the article above, Buddy Holly’s picture comes at the end of an article on Longstreet aides Terry and Lubbock (Holly was from Lubbock, TX), Gloria Vanderbilt was part of the Kilpatrick series, and Walter Sobchak, a character in “The Big Lebowski”, is pictured in my post about page views titled “Taking Hits.” I don’t really know what to make of any of it, except that pop culture references and especially photos are good for traffic!
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Yes, pop culture references will get raw numbers in. Guess I am looking at it more to shape the incoming traffic and frame the dialog. No offense to those who are indeed looking to compete over the numbers, but I really don’t want to have comment-level conversations about someone’s book report. Although there are some out there who’ve taken the SEO goal to some absurd level (arguably because they don’t really understand SEO in the first place), there is something to be said for optimizing the content on a site toward a topic.
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Harry
Congrats on three years’ bloggin’ and your commitment to the study of history.
November must be Civil War blogger’s month; my three-year anniversary is coming up: November 17.
Anyway, I look forward to all that lies ahead here on Bull Runnings.
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Harry,
Congratulations on three years, my friend. Looking forward to many more entertaining and informative posts here.
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Congrats, Harry. Nobody knows better than me what’s involved in long-term blogging, and anybody who’s made it as long as you have has my respect. Keep up the good work.
Eric
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Congratulations Harry! I really enjoy your discussions on First Manassas and your other excellent posts about various aspects of the Civil War. Very enjoyable reading all around.
Chris
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