From time to time I like to check out the search terms that cause unsuspecting readers to parachute onto this island in the sun. Here’s a few from yesterday:
- grass mushroom
- bird checklist of Toronto
- McGarrigle Wild Goose
- Chicago street-walking polka band
- Sam Smith park Canada Day
As well, every day a dozen or so people land on 27thStreet after searching for something related to Das Boot, based on a single post I made months ago. Back when I had the old blog, Mister Anchovy’s, I used to get searches for Johnny Cash finger. That went on for months.
I periodically check to see how many people are popping in here, and I notice the usual summer drop has begun. June marked the lowest hit count this blog has seen since I started it back in October (of course maybe it’s just that I haven’t posted enough accordion videos to keep everyone happy). Mostly I check just because I’m amazed that people keep coming here at all. When I switched from Blogger to WordPress, my hit count very quickly started to escalate. It went up about a third past the average hits I was getting on Blogger and then more of less leveled off. I have no idea why that is. I have no regrets about the switch in any case. I like the way WordPress is set up and I’m very comfortable with it.
There is way less chatter on this blog than on most of the ones I visit. Some blogs receive loads of comments every day. Over here, some version of the 80/20 rule applies. That small group of friends I like think of as my blog community checks in and makes the odd comment (thanks folks!). I think I do the same. I like to check in and acknowledge blogs I like. I also comment from time to time if I have a strong opinion on a post (at the risk of ticking off the blogger).
I find there is a slowly evolving group of blogs that I visit regularly. Occasionally I’ll add to that list and drop some others off it. All those blogs are on my blogroll but I confess I don’t regularly visit all the blogs on my blogroll. Some of them are there simply because the nice people who write those blogs were kind enough to link to me and I’m happy to do the same in kind. Others I pop in and visit from time to time. If I find a blog that intrigues me, sometimes I’ll link to it and visit for a while. This sometimes leads to being a regular reader but as often as not, I find out after a short while that it really isn’t all that interesting to me. Sometimes blogs intrigue me for the oddest reasons too. I’ll visit and think, I’m really not sure why I keep coming back here, and yet I’ll find myself there again the next day. Curious, huh?
A couple times, when I’ve seen blog award listings, I’ve made an effort to check out the winning blogs. Almost without exception, I’ve found blog award winning blogs to hold little interest for me. I don’t know why that is. Who are those award givers anyway? I think one of the good things about the blog-swamp is that there is no acadamy. I’m happy for 27th Street to quietly exist, floating around the blog-swamp, powered by a small community of friends who strangely enough keep coming back.
Have you found any interesting blogs lately? Let me know and I’ll pop over for a look.
27th Street 
Your description of your attitude and modus operandi in connection with this whole endeavor matches mine to a tee, Mr. Anchovy.
I catch your entries primarily through Google Reader. I wonder if that shows up as a hit for you.
I have turned off web crawling on my WP blog, so I don’t get any weird search terms. But that was one of the reasons I switched to WP and took down the the old blog. I do miss the odd search terms, though.
I have been so lazy & distracted with stuff going on in my life that I have been very lax in visiting even my favourite blogs. I feel really guilty about this. I don’t know what’s going on…ReTorte has lost its luster and I think that has to do with the role it played in my life during my Great Depression. As for my regular blog, I am finding it hard to motivate myself to write anything terribly interesting on it, and I am noticing that now I’m in remission, I don’t have the need to vent or use it as an outlet the same way I did in the previous years…Things change indeed.
curiously, blogging hasn’t gone stale for me…I still really enjoy developing this thing. It’s a fun challenge to keep it fresh.
Heehee, I love seeing the crazy search terms people get. For my blog Swallowing the Camel I’ve gotten umpteen searches for “camel syphilis” (it’s apparently a big problem somewhere), as well as “the whys and wherefores of thermal heating”, “world’s stupidest hat”, and “crack blackout”. Cheap entertainment at its finest.
I have to admit I am pretty lazy about finding new blogs to read. What generally happens is I will notice that I have a new regular reader, will go over to their blog to say hello and usually find it interesting enough to link.
I too have a whole bunch of blogs on my roll that I don’t generally visit anymore. Interests change, I guess.