Take a look at the top of the screen. Do you see the light grey bar that runs side-to-side? Just left of the middle, you’ll see the phrase “Next Blog.” If you click on it, you will randomly (I think) go to another blog in the Blogger Network.
The past few weeks on my Google Analytics, I’ve noticed an increase in visitors landing on my blog from Next Blog. Most of the visitors are from overseas and bounce right off. A few actually stick around a read a little bit. Hopefully, they’ll come back again!
But like I said, I’ve noticed an increase in these random visitors. So I was wondering why. Why is my blog coming up in the queue more often than it used to?
I was curious and had a little bit of spare time yesterday (I literally had an hour to kill while my computer burned 30 CDs) so I clicked Next Blog dozens of time just to see what came up. During that hour I almost noticed a trend. The blogs seem to come in groups. The first block seemed to be mostly homeschooling moms. Then came lots (and I mean lots) of blogs by Mormons. Next, a group of blogs that hadn’t been updated is months. Another block of general Christian bloggers which transitioned into Catholic bloggers. And of course, all we’re interspersed with an artist, photographer, writer, hypochondriac, or mommy-blogger.
Before I started my Next Blog clicking, I anticipated seeing a mixture of foreign language blogs simply because I had so many visitors from foreign countries. But really, I only came across a few. That struck me as odd and made me wonder further about the assumed randomness of Next Blog. What really got my attention was the number of Mormon bloggers. Is blogging extremely popular in the blogging community? Or were these blogs just happen to be clumped together?
OK, I just did a few minutes of Next Blog and I got three blogs by make-up artists in a row. The blogs must get grouped together. Mystery solved.
Well, not entirely.
I don’t know which group my blog is in!
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Your Turn
Do you ever click Next Blog?
How would you categorize my blog?
8 comments:
I've done that before. And then I started noticing viruses on my computer.
That's easy - your blog belongs to the group "Blogs I Read." Then there's everyone else.
You're special, just by that definition. ;-)
I do click "next blog" sometimes. When I do it from my own, I get a lot of special needs blogs by other parents of kids with various special needs. So I know I'm in that group. I do wonder if it goes off of specific posts or what. It's an interesting experiment. Also interesting is that when I comment on blogs I find randomly, I hardly ever hear from them again. I guess they're just not into that reciprocal commenting thing!
I have to agree with Marvin. Your in class of your own. A for sure must read.
I just found your blog by clicking "next blog" haha... maybe that'll help you solve your mystery?
Yep, that's how I just got here. I was at my own blog and though I rarely do this, clicked the "next blog" button, and here I am. What is this blog about? I haven't gotten a chance to look at any other posts. Do you identify your blog with the categories you kept running into? Well, I'll see for myself......
Personally I despise the Next Blog button! But I can't resist it either! It's always entertaining to see how fast I can hit the Back button on my browser when the logo for Worlds Cutest Blog shows up! I stopped to read yours simply because there wasn't any disgustingly cute Banner or Cheesy Logo's on it! Cheers!
I also found your blog using the next blog button, and I am so glad I did. I am relatively new at this, though I started my blog in 2009, I only recently started to pay serious attention to it and find that I can use it almost as a diary because no one knows I have it. It has been a great outlet and now that I have the hang of it, I hope to be branching out and experimenting a little. I do enjoy your blog, it is a must read for me.
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