# 10,000 Views on my blog!



## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Wow! It is neat to know that folks took a peek 10,000 times and from all over the world at a little project designed to enhance my own personal journal. 

I have learned so much from capturing my actions, researching aspects of the techniques, reviewing journal notes, and responding to messages and e-mails. It has been as much a learning experience for me as it hopefully has for those curious to the hobby and growing application.

I have a white board with enough potential posts to last quite a while let alone the day to day stuff I can share.

For those thinking about creating a blog, start today! It has been easy and learning some HTML has been cool too! Share what you know and enjoy and you will likely benefit many folks looking for the same info.

And of course thanks to the folks on here sharing their own successes and missteps. Those are invaluable.

Blog on Bloggers!


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Congrats!!


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## furholler (Feb 1, 2005)

Great job!


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## Pam6 (Apr 9, 2009)

Congrats on the hits!


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks folks.

Support your local bloggers!


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Halfway, that is fantastic! Way to go! I knew your blog would do well as it is a great niche. People want to know how to do that and I know from my other homesteading forum, they talk about it all the time. Congratulations!!!! :banana:


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Thank you Kat!

Your input and opinion are always valuable and you are a tremendous asset to this forum. 

Blog on bloggers!


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## seeknulfind (Jun 6, 2011)

Excellent!

What are you using to count with? Google analytics or something else?

Andy


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

seeknulfind said:


> Excellent!
> 
> What are you using to count with? Google analytics or something else?
> 
> Andy


It (page counter) was under the "gadgets" tool. 

I still don't have a good lock on the facebook applications. The facebook page for frugal hydroponics shows 7 friends, while the blog shows 45 or 46 
friends".


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## seeknulfind (Jun 6, 2011)

It may be interesting to see what a more advanced analytics code might reveal about your visitors. There are a couple I use - Google Analytics and Stat Counter. Both are free and easy to use. Just sign up, add your site to your account and get the code. You'll find out all sorts of things like - how many first time visitors you get - how many RETURN visitors you get (an indication of how valuable your content really is) - what your "bounce rate" is (your bounce rate tells you what percentage of visitors leave instead of poking around. For most sites >80% is cause for concern where 50%+/- is pretty good. An 80% bounce rate means 8 out of 10 people who visit hit their back button and leave.

You can also find out how long folks stay at your site and what pages they visit. Not to mention what keywords they use to find you. Thus if a lot of people find you by searching for "hydroponic tomatoes" you may want to consider an expanded section on this subject.

Since I don't use Blogger much, I had to sign in to see something. Since Google owns blogger it would be nice if they could integrate their analytics into the system but it doesn't look like it to me.

So what you would do in this case is add the code to your template (when the code is generated they will tell you where but it's usually just before the </head> tag.


Andy


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Great info Andy. 
I will nose around the sites you mention in the next couple days. 

Thank you!


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## seeknulfind (Jun 6, 2011)

If you need help, let me know.

Andy


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## PMcNemar (Jun 5, 2011)

Congrats on all the views. It'll probably take me over a year or two to get that many views.


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

Andy, I was trying to add Google Analytics but I can't locate the closing </head> tag. I'm pretty sure I've used a mechanism to locate html code before but I can't remember how to do it. Any tips?


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## seeknulfind (Jun 6, 2011)

Sure,

It might be easier if I used a page for an example. I made this one up :

****Between the Stars *******

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Enter Page Title Here</TITLE>
<META -----------=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META name="generator" content="Trellian WebPage PRO">
<STYLE>
BODY{font-family:arial}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff scroll=auto>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P align=center>
<TABLE height=50 cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=12 width=331 border=1>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top width=299 height=44>
<P align=center>How Do You Like My 
Body?</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P>
</BODY>
</HTML>

********

If you look at the page above you can see it starts out with <HTML> and then <Head> - don't worry if there is other stuff there - you never know what these crazy programmers will come up with next.

The head is usually VERY short - less than 10 lines and ALWAYS before the <Body> tag.

The easiest way I've found to add code is to use a program called "Programmers Notepad 2" It's a free download. 

I like this program because it will separate the lines so they are easy to find. If you still can't find it just use the search function and search for "head". The first tag you find should the be the opening <head> and the second one SHOULD be the closing head </HEAD> (of course if you have the word 'head' someplace there - such as in the meta keywords then the search will find that too 

That is all there is to it.

Andy


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

PMcNemar said:


> Congrats on all the views. It'll probably take me over a year or two to get that many views.


Thanks PM. Your blog is easy to read and interesting content. It won't take long!


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## PMcNemar (Jun 5, 2011)

Not that interesting. All it is about is my life and me trying to be a homesteader, slowly but surely going to try to head into that direction anyway. Once I've really gotten started I'll try to add good information about whatever it is I'm working on so maybe other people will have more luck and an easier time than me. lol


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## LoneStrChic23 (Jul 30, 2010)

Talk about a unique blog! Fascinating 

You've got yourself a new follower


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## busymomof7 (May 11, 2010)

Congratulations!


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## clovis (May 13, 2002)

Wow...10,000...very cool!!!!!


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks folks!

It does get tougher as the days get MUCH busier, but I have quite a few topics on the ole white board in the home office.

I need to start a blog on impending move to Big Sky Country, but that has us so consumed I may not be able to muster the energy.

Maybe after we get some of the big rocks out of the way....ahhhh...what a day that will be!


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