omarphillips.net: Big brother is watching you

During my "blog template change every week" phase, someone who knows real life Omar accused me of only having a blog so that I can have a place to mess around with CSS.

That's SO not true. How much of a nerd do you really think I am?! There are so many wonderful and rewarding things that come from blogging, like writing, trying to be creative, "meeting" people from all over the world, and... um, yeah. Ok. The truth is, I blog so that I can obsessively monitor website statistics.

My StatCounter obsession has been well documented. To that, you can now add a Google Analytics obsession. I got it set up last week, and it's fantastic. And while there are scads and scads of features I enjoy, my favorite by far is this:

It's graphical representation of the number of unique visitors per geographic location (it's a map of the entire world, but 85% of my traffic comes from the US, so I cropped it). A few things are very clear after looking at this image:

I need to step up advertising out west.
Cate needs to wear her AV-wear shirt out more in other parts of Utah. And Arizona and Nevada.
I'm a smash hit in the original 13 colonies.
Oregon is L-A-M-E. Honestly, I expect that out of New Mexico, but you, Oregon? I thought you were better than that.

Comments

Becky said:

i take full credit for the blob over florida.

Glo said:

Wow. You are just one big blog in the Great Lakes. I'd heard those Sea Monsters find you DA BOMB...(i so wish they would update their slang. *Sigh* Sea Monsters these days.)

Syar said:

despite the fact that I'm a bit upset over the tiny malaysian dots being cropped up, I too understand the joy of statistics. good to know you're going to step up your game. Call me if you ever need some PR done out here in the East. you know, way East.

elasticwaistbandlady said:

Just checking in to let you know that H-TOWN'S IN THA HOUSE! I see that little speck right there on the Gulf Coast that represents me and your other legions of Houston fans. If you look closely you'll see me waving.

Radioactive Blob said:

D'Oh! Why didn't I comment sooner?! Then *I* could have taken "full credit" for Florida. Now I have to take stupid Nebraska!

Cate said:

You're right - I have been remiss in my duties to assist in your plot to take over the world. I'll start right away on wearing the AV-wear shirt to places other than bed.

Is anyone else nervous that Cate supposedly only wears her t-shirt to bed and yet Utah makes quite the showing of hits to Omarphillips.net. I'm just puzzling here ;)

Katie said:

I claim not just one state, but the whole Rocky Mountains. Omar... if you send me a shirt I can advertise more often for you. The mountain folk need to know about you!

Koenix said:

*I* take credit for MO! There's only one dot there, so it's gotta be me...

jasmine said:

are you that big orange blob?

I said:

The size of the blobs represents how many unique visitors come from that particular area. So I'm one of the people in that big blob, but I am not the entire big blob.

But it's pretty specific about location, so cities and suburbs have their own blobs, often almost right on top of each other. I wish it would combine them, but oh well.

cadiz12 said:

you know you have a fan in chi, omar.

Gia said:

Look at me representing the entire east coast of Canukistan!

wendela said:

OK, so I know Glo's here in CA with me- so do we have lurkers?? Omar, we need shirts out here. Cate can't be the only one....

Sarah said:

I'm glad the Carolinas are representin'!

Thanks for the congrats!

Lianne said:

I'm not the only one with Omar's shirt in bed.. I mean I'm not the only one from Utah hitting Omar on a regular basis.

And.. I'm about to begin the "change the template every week" thing... and it is all about the CSS baby.

Screaming Buffalo said:

I take full credit for the tiny little blob in Michigan. I hope that no one comes and stalks me now. I certainly hope that someone would not waste their time stalking me, but at the same time, it would be kind of flattering.

Um, did I just say that?

Wow. I'm glad I never got one of those t-shirts. Apparently does strange things to Utah girls...

X said:

You caught those too, Glo, right? I thought it was just me being dirty.

---X

Lanna Lee Maheux-Quinn said:

Maine Represents! Omar, how many Mainers read your site? (If it is two or three, they are probably all me!)

I see three Maine visitors, from Portland, Monmouth, and Brunswick.

I didn't realize this post would bring out so much geographic pride! Now I wish I had posted the entire world map as well.