Tag: Web Traffic

Bandwidth Thief At Work

My web traffic’s down. Can’t be sure why. Maybe I’ve become more boring. I’ll be asking for your help later this coming week.

Curious as I am, I went to the backend of this website tonight and took a quick look at part of my server logs I’ve don’t often check. two thirds of the clicks to this site were coming from a British football forum. That’s weird.

As it turns out, someone found a picture of two playing cards from an earlier entry here and linked to it. Every person who saw his comment (tens of thousands of them) was taking bandwidth from my site as they downloaded the image.

It was the equivalent of opening your wallet and showing a picture of your kids… but they’re really someone else’s kids!

Anyway, the graphic has been temporarily replaced. I was toying with the idea of writing something filthy, but thought the better of it and just typed my url on a white background. Now, every one of this guy’s posts features my web address.

We’ll see how long it goes until he figures out what I did.

My Fall From Google’s Grace

A few months ago my web traffic started to plunge. From about 1,500 page reads a day, I was down to 1,000. On some days, it was less.

I finally figured it out. My Google page rank has gone from a 5 to a 4. That means Google is much less likely to suggest visiting my site in response to certain keywords.

It’s not like this is a business to me. Still, I’d like to see my traffic increase, not decrease.

What to do? I’m not totally sure. But, I will ask a favor as you read this. If you ever see a reason to link to my site, please do. That’s true if you have your own site or even if you’re posting to a public spot (though please, only link if my content is germane to what’s being discussed). Links are good. Links are helpful.

Unfortunately, getting back to a “5” might take months, if I get back at all.

Thanks Elena

Web traffic’s way up for the past few days. Must be Elena Dementieva!

From Google News:

Sharapova ousts Dementieva to lift Pacific Life Open title – Daily Times – 3 hours ago

Sharapova dominates Dementieva in all Russian final – Sports Network – Mar 18, 2006

Dementieva: 3-setter, anyone? – San Diego Union Tribune – Mar 17, 2006

A few years ago, at the Pilot Pen, I took some photos of her and posted them to my gallery. Somehow Google felt they were ‘important’ enough to show with their first page of Dementieva pictures.

Now, whenever she does well, so do I. Let the clicks begin.

At this moment, I have about twice the traffic I’d normally have on a Sunday evening. I hope she does better next time.

Web Traffic Explained – Oops

Over the past few months my web traffic has grown like crazy. In the last few weeks it’s doubled. Unfortunately, I think I know why – a disappointing reason.

Someone in Finland inserted a graphic from my website into his. This is not the same as simple linking, in that he used my photo without credit, and had my server send it to his users! So, my traffic was up, but no one consuming that extra traffic actually came to my site or even knew they were looking at a picture from here.

It would be similar to your neighbor running his lights off your meter.

After I found the Finnish site, I found a few others. I have cut them off and now expect my counters to register a whole lot fewer hits… I think.

Too bad. I liked the mistaken thought that I’d become a popular web stop.