Who Picks This Stuff?

As a person that has been blogging for over 3 years... I become fascinated with the traffic sources of my readers.  Meaning, I constantly check my stats to see what websites or keywords people have used to find me.

Back when I was using this domain name before, I had 200 followers and several hundred hits per day.  Then, when I changed my blog domain and moved everything over to my other blog (www.lifeandtimesofjoblog.blogspot.com), it moved all of my followers with it.

So, I basically started from scratch again when I resurrected this blog domain.

Since starting back up, I've accumulated 8 followers.  That's fine with me... even if I didn't have any followers, I'd still write.  But, one thing that caught my eye this morning was the amount of page hits I've had since starting over.  There has been over 6000 page hits to my 40 blog posts.  That means I've been posting for little over a month, and I'm averaging over 150 hits per day.

Something didn't sound right with that.

What on earth is sending people my way in those kinds of droves?

Well, a quick review of the stats revealed this as the top source of my hits...

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/get-motivated-top-8-sites-fitness-inspiration/page/3/2

A couple of things don't add up.  The date located with this article is July 25th, 2013.  That can't be right, because I've had over 1300 hits from this site in the last month, and only 150 of them being from the last week... how is that possible when it was supposedly published a couple of days ago?

Regardless, I know for a fact that the article is older than that, because I was first notified of the article a few years ago...back when I really did the stuff it said (like lose 60lbs).  Back then it was located in the weight loss motivation section... now it's been moved to the fitness inspiration section.  Maybe July 25th was when it was moved to the new section..and people were still visiting from the old section.

I've gone to Shape Magazine's site a few times... looking for tips and information.  But, now I'm a little miffed.

Why on earth would they use my site for a motivation source?  

If the article's writer had spent any amount of time reading my blog, she would definitely reconsider that title.  Maybe, back in the day, when I really was having a ton of success and losing a ton of weight... but certainly not anymore.  If anything, I should be showcased in a "success stories gone bad" section.

Back when this article was first written (three years ago), I felt honored.  I found out about it through Twitter.  Nobody from Shape magazine contacted me and asked my permission to even publish my website on theirs... but it didn't bother me.  To be considered one of the most motivational sites out there for weight loss was a humbling honor.  Even back then, I could have named off 30 more blogs much more worthy of a place on that list before mine.

Where do they even get their information?  That's my biggest question.

I didn't nominate myself.  I didn't really have that many followers that would nominate me.  So, what?  Did the author just do a quick search of weight loss blogs and found the first few that looked somewhat interesting?  Still don't know if that's possible.. because I'm quite sure that my blog wouldn't show up in the first 100 pages on a Google search for Weight Loss Blogs.

And now, it's just been regurgitated on to the site once again.  No check of updates or if the owners of the blogs (myself only being the point in this) is still worthy of being known as "motivational".  I did a quick check of the other sites listed...and besides Yum Yucky (who is one of my favorite bloggers) the others aren't really all that motivational...in terms of fitness.  Of course, I suppose you could look at them that way if you wanted.

Looking at my other traffic sources has also left me a little puzzled.  I mean, I know how people get here from weight loss blogs... but there are websites listed as traffic sources that in no way, shape, or form list anything about my site or are even associated with weight loss.

I've had 408 hits originating through a site called vampirestat.com.  Looking at the site doesn't give me the slightest clue how traffic was directed to me.

I've had over 1000 hits from Google.  Those come from the keyword searches like "fat women" or "diary of fat woman".  Not sure who searches for stuff like that, but they get to come see me when they do.

The rest originate from Twitter and Facebook... which makes total sense because I publish my blog to Twitter and Facebook each day.

It's all so puzzling and confusing.  Maybe it's best if I don't bother looking at the stats anymore.  Maybe I just focus on who's reading and commenting... and just keep writing what I write.

Anyone else get puzzled by checking their stats?  I'd love to hear about it.

But, that's enough for me for one day... need to get my butt in gear to do something productive.