My blog was WAY popular yesterday!

On Wednesday, I posted about a situation with one of the DJ's from Atlanta's Q100 radio station. Since I keep track of my blog's visitor statistics, I am able to determine how many people are viewing my blog at any given time (along with a myriad of other unique stats). This list below shows my daily list of viewers from the past week:



As you can see, on average, I get about 6 or 7 unique visitors per day. Well, one of the stats that my sitemeter tracks is the "clickthrough url". It lists the webpage you were on that provided a link to my blog. Say you happen to be searching a particular topic using Google search engine. If my blog is one of the many returned to you during your search, you can click on the link to my blog. Once you do this, I will see the search string that you entered into Google to get to my blog. Of the 166 hits I received Thursday, 160 of those were referred to my blog using the search string "Jenn Hobby Divorce". Try it now. You'll see my blog post is near the top of the search results.

This graph really shows the stark difference between my hits yesterday vs any other regular day.



Now if I could just figure out a way to maintain the interest of these visitors, maybe my plan to take over the world will finally come to fruition. *maniacal laughter ensues*

Beyond Myself

What's with the random, new blog template design? What does "beyond myself" refer to? Both are valid questions.

I'm trying to come up with a nice Spring design that I'm happy with for my blog. So far, I've been completely unsuccessful. I usually only have about 1 hour to myself during the week, and even less than that on the weekends, sadly. Okay, I'm exaggerating about the weekends, but still. The graphic at the top of my blog is one that I found online. It reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of the area my late aunt Gwen lived in when my sister and I were very young, and would visit her. I really get nostalgic when I think about being at her house as a little child. She used to have a pretty dog named Lassie. She had very nice neighbors...the Landers family. There was a girl my age who my sister and I played with a lot. She was so sweet and very pretty. I ran into her back in the summer of 1994, I believe. Wow, it's amazing where my brain will go when I let it wander with restraints.

Beyond Myself refers to my state of mind right now. Today I had my FILL of selfishness and superficiality. It was a little much. When I look back 3 years, I remember that I wasn't as concerned about my physical appearance as I am now. I've always been extremely vain, but never this overly concerned about my physical appearance. I was a much happier, low-key person then. I just enjoyed my life and appreciated the things that mattered: my husband, my family, my friends, my church family, my service to God. I look back at pictures of me right before and after I had my son, and even right after having my daughter. I look so much happier and my smile looks a lot less forced and "posey". I want to go back to those times. Or maybe it's simply my attitude that needs adjusting. Either way I definitely need to get on a path that takes me away from this overly self-involved person I've become over the past three years.

Please forgive the quickly thrown together blog template design. Maybe the next time I get a week off from work, I'll have some play time to put together a really nice web design. I know, not likely, huh?

Blogger v/s Wordpress

Everywhere you look on the Blogosphere today, you are sure to see mention of Wordpress 2.5 being made available. A lot of bloggers sound really excited about it, and appear to be pretty happy with the result. I've done a little research on the comparisons between Wordpress and Blogger (which I use and love).

Overall, what I gathered is that Wordpress is good for people who want more control over how to open up communication with visitors to their blog. I read that the v2.5 allows visitors more options when they get to your blog. SO if that's what you're into, you will be very pleased with this latest release of Wordpress, I would guess.

Blogger, however, sounds like the better app for blog owners like myself, who want more control over the LOOK of their blog. If want the flexibility to have complete control over how your template is designed, Blogger would be your choice. Wordpad does offer templates for you to choose from, but you can't see the code and make any changes to it, or add any images of your own to it.

In a nutshell, I'm a Blogger girl, and will continue to be as long as they continue to align with my needs as they do now.

Springtime blog makeover

Yes, I finally redesigned this blog. I was SO over winter. Too many sad memories. I am definitely ready for Spring to be in full-force, minus the involuntary reaction to allergens, of course.

You know what I'm working on? Planting a flower garden. No seriously, I honestly want to plant a garden. Just a pretty flower garden that complements the colors of my home. Have you ever seen flowers that make every day look like a sunny day? I'd like to plant some of those right outside of the windows on the bottom level of the house. I want to look out at them while I'm drinking my morning coffee, and eating my egg-white tortilla. Unless, of course, I'm drinking my coffee and eating my egg-white tortilla at 6:30am before the sun rises and I can't see the flowers yet.

Okay, I'm rambling. I can barely keep my eyes open, so I need to go to sleep. I just wanted to note the new design.

Say goodbye to the old design. One last look here:



I hope the new design brings a little sunshine and springtime happiness your way. :-)