You stalk me, I stalk you

So, awhile back I added a Sitemeter to my blog. It counts hits, visits and it track the location of visitors. Once you log in to Sitemeter, you can go to a page that tells you who, what, when, where, and how they got to the blog. (It tells TONS of information, but I'm pretty much interested in a small amount of it).

I'm always curious how far away some readers are. Of course, most of my list is Wichita, Shawnee, Lenexa, Olathe, Derby, Kansas City, etc. I'm no fool - most of the people who drop by here often are my friends and family.

Every once in a while, I'll get a hit from Japan, British Columbia, Australia, etc. Usually these are folks who have Googled a phrase I used in a post. These surfers don't usually stick around long. The night of the Oscars, a bunch of people stopped by the Chittum Files because they Googled the phrase "Cautionary Whale" from "Juno." I had named a post with that phrase once.

Then, there are the people who Google search me by name. Yep. That's a LITTLE weird. Just last week, someone in Chicago, someone somewhere in Arizona, and someone in Tennessee searched me by name and came across my blog. That's when Sitemeter is kind of addicting - I want to know who that person is and why they're looking for me.

A few times, someone in Baltimore typed the phrase "charm city cakes anna" into their Google search box and briefly clicked on my blog. Could it BE Anna from Charm City Cakes herself? I've never written about her specifically, but I have written about my obssesion with Duff and his crew. Maybe when she randomly Google searched herself (we've all done it - you can admit it) my post was on the list.

How cool would it be if someone from CCC actually looked at my blog once?

Being a blogger is SO much more fun when you think people are reading your words. You feel less like you're toiling for nothing. That's why I love comments so much. Lately, I've been lax about commenting on other blogs. I need to do that more often - share the love.

Maybe I'll make one of my goals for this summer "get some celebrity to comment on my blog." Even if he only stopped by for a few seconds, it would be pretty effin' sweet if Duff Goldman said hi...

Someday, I would like blogging to be a money-making proposition for me. Sitemeter will be a good tool for that eventually, because I can tell what words draw clicks. It's like stealthy market research, I guess. In the future, that could help me get more ad revenue...who knows?

For now I'll have to be satisfied with the big bucks I make from teaching...

Oh, wait.