I Bloody Did It!
Yes, I did it. It's November 30th and I have posted every single day. I am so proud of myself, which is kind of stupid because it's only a blog for crying out loud. 
Nonetheless, I am glad that I did it, It's taught me a thing or two.
Firstly, before I review "behind the scenes", let me just thank everyone who supported me this month. Thank you for the e-mails and the comments egging me on, thank you for the entry suggestions, and thank you to every deranged fool who sat there and read through each entry (even though quite a few were the shittiest shit I've ever published). I don't think I would have, or could have finished without you guys.
Anyway, on to the bit about the hits. I haven't really talked about it much but my hits have been slowly dropping since earlier in the year. I know for a fact this is a combination of more sporadic blogging and the decreased quality/standard of the post. I've not posted anything useful, I've not really updated my scripts and due to work commitments I've not been involved in all of the online stuff I used to distract myself with. I almost want to say that I'm lucky the drop was minor, but I don't know who I'd be kidding: at the end of last month I was down 16,000 uniques on April, with around 24,000 less page views.
I know some of you have been positively busting a gut to find out how they have been affected so I'll cut the crap and get to the point. Although I've not covered the ground I've lost this year (with around 6000 less uniques than April I've still got a way to go) but my page views and overall hits are higher than I think they've ever been. This is a major positive.
Apart from slightly warped figures in the middle of the month whereby a few of my pages got a couple of Thumbs Ups on StumbleUpon, and an early review of The Simpsons DS game brought in a lot of organic Google traffic, the interest on both of these has died out again but my hits are still climbing. Mint is reporting a good 350-400 unique hits extra per day than average (peaking when I post about useful things like PageRank), and according to Feedburner, my RSS feed hit a peak of 461 on Tuesday 27th (to think just a few weeks ago I was celebrating 400!)
Mint is also telling me that a lot of you are coming back daily now (which is brilliant), and there's a large increase in unfamiliar IPs with multiple repeat visits. The change in hits and large amount of new visitors has swayed my browser stats, with Firefox dropping from a 69% holding to 64% (Internet Explorer gobbled up the extra 5%); however, this hasn't affected the OS/Platform stats overly (Windows still reigns, used by with 88% of my visitors).
It's plain to see that an increase in blogging frequency — coupled with informative or useful posts — is the fastest way to bring up your hits. That said, I don't think I could keep it up daily (far too much stress), and while I would like to maintain 5 posts a week I'm not promising anything!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 12:27, Skye said:
Congrats! I feel special now, having been here every day of it. XP Wish I had done as good on Nanowrimo but school got in the way. And speaking of school, Im off to get ready for an exam in three hours...
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 12:36, Amber said:
The great thing for you is that you have knowledge and handy advice that you can post about. The most I know is about flattering waistlines and other pointless fashion tips! (I can't believe I just used 'fashion' and 'pointless' in the same sentence...) Congratulations on making it to the end!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 12:37, Rachael said:
Keep up the good work! ^___^
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 12:53, Grant said:
Well done jem!
Just dont neglect you fans for the rest of 2007 
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 13:03, Rhys said:
Congratulations! Interesting you noticed the traffic go up. Mine has gone steadily down this month. Though it could be the fact that I generally post rubbish
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 13:05, Kim said:
Congrats Jem!
Lets see if you can continue to keep it up though... 
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 13:38, Belinda said:
CONGRATS! And yay, more Jem posts!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 13:42, Brigitte said:
Congrats!
I made it, too, yay! I was really happy this morning to see my little calendar all bolded and happy. I'm going to try to keep the magic alive. Also, on RSN I get (soon to be got) around 400 uniques a day and I thought I was a pimp! You, my dear, are the bomb, I tip my hat to you.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 13:45, Ad Tracker said:
I wish you a line of dancing rodents! (You know, Conga-Rats!) Get it?....Oh, never mind... Good for you! It ain't an easy thing to do.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 14:07, Aaron said:
Well, all I can say is congratulations on both blogging every day and on your increasing number of hits.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 14:40, Hayley said:
One of these days, I'll start tracking hits. I sort of care, just not enough to do anything about it. Well done on completing your 30 day marathon, I've been visiting daily (procrastinate? me?) and have indeed suffered through all the posts ;-) I was secretly attempting to blog more often in November and managed 16 posts during the month, which compared to the usual 2 or 3, is pretty good going. Here's hoping we all keep it up!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 15:57, Denise said:
Congratulations on posting everyday and increasing your amount of unique hits! That's quite a wonderful accomplishment.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 17:40, Jordan said:
Your blog is one of few I always frequent, so to have nearly daily updates was really nice since it wasn't something I had been used to. Granted, it won't be as much blogging, but if you can keep up with 1-2 posts a week, I'd be completely appreciative
I don't think I've got the nerve to blog that much. I've noticed a HUGE drop in traffic (Alexa ranking as well, although I don't dwell on it, it was just an obvious. Went from being in the top 100,000 [okay, more like 120,000] to dropping back to close to 300,000. Which reminds me, you should do a follow up of your Alexa Ranking follow up. 
I was looking at them the other day to see what I was at a few months ago.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 17:41, Britney said:
WHAT? INTERNET EXPLORER! Damn IE for snagging that extra 5%. grrr! I hate IE with a passion. I get mad when I look at my stats and see that more of my visitors use that. lol.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 17:59, Ashley said:
Well, congrats on your hits going up (and your feed number too!) and for making it all of November with posting every single day. That is quite an accomplishment in itself. But, the most impressive thing in my opinion, is how you seem to know your site stats super well and monitor them regulary. Most people don't worry with that information to the extent that you seem to. And, I must confess, that I am among that 5% increase for IE users. I use IE at work and on my laptop, and I have been visiting your site every day while at work because I am soooo bored.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 18:53, Carly said:
Wow, I cannot believe it's been a whole month already! November has flown past so so quickly for me. I think I've read pretty much every post of yours this month. Wooo!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 19:05, Hev said:
Way to go, Jem. Knew you could do it. I have read every entry this month. I don't remember if I commented but I have read every entry.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 20:41, Lene said:
Congrats on accomplishing a full month of everyday blogging =D It must be so hard, I can hardly keep up blogging weekly, having nothing at all to blog about! I didn't know traffic could increase so much with the frequency of posting, but seems like this little experiment proved it!
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 20:55, Kaylee said:
I visit your site every day; regardless of an updated blog. But it was great to have something new to read every day! Congrats on finishing - I didn't think you'd last all the way
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 21:30, Annie said:
One of those repeat visitors is probably me
. I use different computers though so it's not on the same IP. Anyway, well done on blogging everyday. I was wondering what subjects you were going to fill you daily blogs with 
.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 21:52, Nyx said:
Congratulations! I didn't commented much if at all, but I was here every day to read your new entry.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 22:42, McKenna said:
NaBloPoMo sounds fun! I wish I would have known about it sooner, so I could have participated. Still, I suppose I was busy enough with NaNoWriMo, haha. Anyways, congratulations on writing a post a day--it is quite an accomplishment, even if the only benefit of it is showing how dedicated you are to your site and blog!
I certainly have been slacking off with my own site, and my hits have dropped...I have to bring them back up, somehow. I'm glad yours are increasing though--now you've inspired me to blog more often! Hehe.
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 22:52, Jenny said:
Congrats! I didn't do it because I never have anything decent to talk about. LOL
On Fri 30th Nov 2007 @ 23:38, Nano said:
Congratulations! I wanted to experience this too, but I just can't write everyday.
On Sat 1st Dec 2007 @ 00:34, Sarai said:
Congrats! I couldn't have done it.
On Sat 1st Dec 2007 @ 08:58, Mumblies said:
Deranged i may well be... but i look forwards to reading your posts. They cheer me up
)
On Sat 1st Dec 2007 @ 15:49, Chrissy said:
Whooooooo!
On Sun 2nd Dec 2007 @ 12:04, Niki said:
Yay....
On Sun 2nd Dec 2007 @ 15:42, Ang said:
Step 1: Blog every day for a month. Step 2: Take over world.
On Sun 2nd Dec 2007 @ 20:19, Casey said:
I am jealous
&& I love your new layout; Jem 