From Inmates to Playdates

When I first started this bloggy gig, I contacted a blog designer by e-mail. After a few e-mails back and forth, I kicked it into high gear and sent a list of questions that probably had her questioning her decision to work with such an incompetant client me. My questions ranged from ‘Why is a hosted blog better than an un-hosted one’ to ‘Which one of these blog titles do you like best?’

I knew what I wanted but I had no idea how to make it happen. My URL friend, Jo-Lynne and my other URL International friend, Cathy over at Desperately Seeking WordPress are the brains behind this operation. I guess you could say they make me look good.

Since that time, I’ve learned a little bit (a big emphasis on little bit!) about Widgets, Themes, HTML code, headers, Plug-Ins, and blog design.

If you are attentive to detail, and you notice a few changes here at From Inmates To Playdates, you should know that it is not my doing. I know only enough to be dangerous. Basically, I just e-mail my latest, greatest request to Jo-Lynne or Cathy with a message to ‘send me a bill’ and days later I show up on my doorstep and smile because I know they’ve been in there playing around.

For instance, Cathy changed my font last night.

And made a few changes to my theme (the layout of the page) and my widgets (those things in the side-bars like my picture, my blog button, and the calendar).

At this very minute, (or maybe not) Jo-Lynne is designing a new twitter button, subscriber button, and e-mail button because I saw snazzy new buttons over at her place and inquired about them. And before I knew it I was begging asking for them, too!

So, for today’s Thursday Thirteen, I thought it might be fun to feature some bloggy friends and facts since starting this gig back in November, 2008. The statistics are courtesy of Google Analytics.

1. Cathy – “The geek behind the beauty” at Desperately Seeking WordPress - Can I just say that Cathy is a bloggy genius. She is also “really artistic, nerdy, and nice!” She can fix what is broken, and coincidentally, she can fix what I break, too!  Which happens more often than you know. You should visit her place if you are in the market for a blog. DSW also hosts my blog which means my stuff is stored on her server somewhere.

2. Jo-Lynne – The creative owner of DCR Designs. – If you scroll through her designs, you’ll see my current blog design, as well as my old one. She is very affordable and easy to work with.

3. Over the past year, the post, It Was Me, Wasn’t It had the most page views (1000+).

4. Christmas Tour Of Homes yielded the second highest page views.

5. 12% of my new visitors over the past year came from MckMama.

6. 8% of my new visitors over the past year came from We Are That Family.

7. Google is responsible for approximately 9% of my traffic.  5% of that traffic is searching for wet t-shirt contests.

8.  Besides the words From Inmates To Playdates in some form or another, the words Preparing For Deployment were the most googled words landing people at my place.

9.  60% of my readers use Internet Explorer.

10. The average time spent on my site per visit is 1 minute 15 seconds.

11. The average reader reads 1.5 pages in that 75 seconds.

12. 12% of my readers over the past year were from West Virginia. Next was Texas, and then California.

13. And just for fun, my favorite blog is Big Mama.

And that, as they say, is that.

Hope you enjoyed my bloggy bidness.

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