Thank you

Sometimes I realize how lucky I am.

I just watched a video made by someone I never expected to mention on this blog and will probably never mention again: Pewdiepie. Now, I'm not a video gamer and I don't follow him on YouTube, but I know who he is. I've also seen a few videos of him talking to his fans. It was one of those that inspired me to write this post. In this video, Pewdiepie is reacting to trash talk in YouTube comments made by his own fans. He says whatever kind of gaming video he makes, people always want something else. He feels like he respects them but doesn't get respect in return.

Now, I don't have particularly strong feelings about this guy, but I feel more strongly about some other people with the same problem. Many of my Facebook friends are fellow erotica authors, and I read their gripes on my wall. Some of them have rude fans too, although in my friends' cases, they're mostly being hit on and sent unsolicited dick pics.

I sympathize with them (and with Pewdiepie too, although I don't know whether he deserves it), and I feel very lucky. I've been putting out MC erotica since 2002, and in all these years, I've been hit on or slagged off less than a dozen times. Most of you just lurk, but the people who comment or email me are...well...nice. You make me happy. I feel like I'm sharing something I enjoy with other people who enjoy the same thing, and that's why I started doing this in the first place. So thanks for being good people.

That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy the rest of your week. :-)

Thanks to the silent ones

Cyan stories don't get much recognition from the EMCSA crowd, but I know people read them even if they don't comment on them. For instance, I haven't received much feedback on "How Did It Come To This?"; but Stat Counter shows me how many readers are clicking through to my blog from the story.

I don't have any personal information about my visitors, but the statistics are nice in their own way. They let me know people are out there, all around the world, enjoying what I have to say. That's a great feeling.

So let me return the favor. I don't post on every forum I visit, or e-mail every writer who floats my boat. I appreciate the privacy of lurking, and I appreciate the fact that you stopped by even if you didn't say anything. You might not have known it, but you made me smile.

The numbers game

Last night, and again this morning, I peeked in on my blog stats. This is something I haven't done in quite awhile, but it's always an interesting pursuit. For instance....

I always get a little nervous when I see someone visiting from a country that I know (or suspect) censors the websites its citizens can see - and punishes those who visit censored sites. Some of you out there are really playing with fire. You have my sympathies, and I hope you stay safe.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of who's visiting from where. Remember that the free version of Stat Counter only tracks the last 500 visits to my site, so if you don't see your own country on here, that's why.

And here's an analysis of the keywords people are using to find my blog.It's always worth a chuckle, and today is no exception.

This is pretty funny

This is a picture I took of my recent blog stats: my visitors since the beginning of March. That spike started right about the time I joined the Yahoo Hypnosis Club and caught Lady Ru'etha's attention. ;-)

Ack

I'm working gobs and gobs of overtime this week, so unfortunately I don't have the time or mental capacity to come up with a really thoughtful post right now. Therefore, I've decided instead to give you a couple more screen grabs of my recent site stats. People do seem to like them. ;-)

Pleasantly surprised

Judging solely by the comments on the two MC fora and the e-mails I've received, "Spy vs. Guy" doesn't seem to be a huge success, though those who have responded have almost uniformly noted that, while m/m isn't their usual thing, they were pleasantly surprised by how much they liked the story and credited their enjoyment to the MC heat.

Stat Counter, however, tells a different story. Look how far my page views jumped yesterday, after the final chapter of SvG went online.* And then look at the most popular pages on my blog. Number two, with 166 entries in last few weeks (remembering that Stat Counter only tracks the last 500 visits), is the catch-all link for all "Peeks Beneath the Duct Tape" that I've been pasting at the bottom of each new story I submit to the EMCSA. And when I delve down a little further (no graphics for the delving, in order to preserve my visitors' privacy), I see that almost every one of those recent 166 visits linked in from SvG, Chapter 3. So apparently, the story is bringing me a lot of new visitors who prefer to lurk rather than to talk.

Well, welcome to all of you. :-) Make yourselves at home, stop by whenever you like, and drop me a line any time. Cheers!




*Note that this "picture" was taken early this morning, so the final page view count for today could be very high, as well. *fingers crossed*

I can feel your breath on the back of my neck

Over the last month, I've noticed several new blog visitors from my home state, including a couple recently from my own back yard.

No, of course I'm not going to tell you who you are...but I do hope you come back so I can tease you some more. ;-P

Visitor update

I thought you might be curious to know who else been reading my blog lately, so here's another visitor update. Bear in mind that the free version of Stat Counter only counts the last 500 visits (correction: the last 500 hits, and most visitors are responsible for more than one hit. Thus the relatively small number of dots on the map). So you're not seeing, for instance, the two or three folks from New Zealand who've dropped by in recent weeks, the Alaskan, the Israeli, or the South African (Yes! Now I've had visitors from six of the seven continents!). Also, you can't tell just how fervent some of my visitors have been. For instance, I seem to have a true kindred spirit in London; though I've never actually heard from him or her. Anyway, whoever you are, your presence is much appreciated. As is everyone else's. :-)

Finally!

I just checked Stat Counter again, and I see that I've finally lured in a couple of visitors from my own home state. So here's a quick, "Hi, y'all," to the two of them - not that they know who they are, and not that I'm going to tell them. ;-P

I really do seem to have a lot to say this week

I normally do two posts a week, sometimes three; but now it's two posts in one day. Short ones, though. And don't worry; I still plan to post my usual entry over the weekend.

It's just that I've continued to think about maps and stats and how much information to share with you. I want to protect my visitors' identities as much as I protect my own, so I never even considered using any of those map counters that identify visitors by city or - worse yet - IP addresses. Unfortunately, that didn't leave me much to choose from, so in the end I just gave up.

But I was looking over my stats at Stat Counter just now (You wouldn't believe how much data you can get by using them - and it's all free), and it occurred to me that I could share a couple of screen grabs that don't reveal too much information but are still quite interesting. So here's a whole-world view of the latest visitor map (only the last 500 hits or something like that). If you look closely, you can see that I now have two viewers in Iceland. For some reason I find that especially exciting. Iceland. Wow.



And now here's a breakdown of the number of hits I've had recently from each country. Again, this is only the most recent information. If you choose Stat Counter's "free" option, your data is a little limited. Not much, though. I definitely recommend it if you have a blog or website of your own.

A Bonus Sunday Post

My habit is usually to blog twice a week: once on Wednesdays and once over the weekend. But I just seem to have a lot to say these days; I've actually pre-written several entries for posting later on down the road, including more recommendations for free fetish stuff, a sweet little story (to me, anyway) about my first crush, and "Erotic Art History 101." I'm not sure what order I'll post them in, so if any of you fine folk out there have a preference, feel free to post a comment or drop me an e-mail.

Meanwhile, I'll let you in on a little secret. A little over a week ago, I added a hidden stat counter to my website, and let me tell you, I've been very pleasantly surprised by the results. I was expecting maybe ten hits in a week, but it's been more like fifty a day - and from five of the seven continents. I guess all those scientists down in Antarctica can't defrost their fingers long enough to type their way in; I don't know what the Africans' excuse is. ;-)

Meanwhile, here's a toast to my single persistent fan in Iceland; and a heartfelt salute to the brave souls in Turkey, India, and even China who somehow found their way through all the firewalls and cultural taboos to visit my humble home on the web. Stay safe, my friends.

And now, a question for everyone. I know Blogger at least used to have a function that let you display a visitor map on your blog, but now that I know I have enough visitors to warrant one, I can't find the darn thing. Can anyone out there point me in the right direction?