I'm not really hoping for a repeat with that post because as far as I'm concerned, Google visitors don't really count. They're hits, not readers. I did implement the MTRefSearch plugin today to see if that might convince Google readers to click through to a second post, but I doubt it will have much effect. And the relatively high number of visitors makes it hard to view my logs as closely as I usually do, so I don't necessarily know which regulars are visiting. Google love isn't necessarily the best thing for a blog.

Agreed all around. I wonder, though, now that Bear is tracking SiteMeter stats, if people won't be trying to pad their visits with Google-friendly terms.

Well, for strictly curiosity's sake I'm amused that people from the UN, Turkey and Luxemborg would find my blog all because of one admittedly silly post.

However, I do recieve some satisfaction when I get Google referrals for the technical topics I write about.

Joy: Sure. I think techical blogs and political ones are different in that regard. Some of the blogs that are high on the TTLB traffic list but low on the link lists are either very technical sites or things like Howard Dean campaign blogs. Both get a ton of hits from search engines, obviously.

James, FWIW, I don't intend to put up the SiteMeter for NRN, even if it would help me score higher on TTLB. I have good log analysis from my hosting provider, though I can't make it public without giving away my account id and password, and I won't do that. I was thinking of adding a public stats program for the curious, but it's not a high priority for me.

I neither want nor expect to be a top tier blogger. My blog isn't even the most highly trafficked part of the site -- not even with days with 900 or so hits. I'll admit, though, that I enjoy being added to blogrolls, because I figure those links indicate regular (if not daily) readership, and it's those people I'm primarily writing for and to.