A couple of years ago, I discovered my most popular post was black & white pictures of implements in my kitchen. Also well-favored were cute pictures of Bonnie and a 300-word piece on why I’d like to be called “Spike.”
You can read my MOST popular ever piece here and try to figure out why for yourself.
Also, about once per year, other than my faithful friends, I have a whole new group of followers and a piece I’ve revived is new to them. Even I don’t remember everything I’ve written. It’s not that each item isn’t good, but they aren’t all that much better of different than the other 10,690 posts I’ve written.
The “biggest post” has gleaned more than 10,000 hits. It’s a complete puzzle since it’s not topical, not especially well researched or passionate. If you can figure out why everyone wants to read about why my blood type is B+. I’d like to know.
What do these posts have in common? Let’s analyze them a bit. The pictures are good, but this isn’t the first time I’ve published them. On previous occasions, no one found them particularly remarkable. I’m sure this means something, but what?
Coming home at sunset
Cute pictures of Bonnie? Well, you can’t argue with cute pet pictures, now can you? I mean … who doesn’t like kittens and puppies and adorable animals in general?
Finally, everyone has a name and everyone wishes it was something else. Now there’s a revelation.
Why are these three most popular posts more popular than other better pieces? What do they have in common, other than having been written and photographed by me? I can’t see anything special in any of them. Well, maybe the swan.
I have no idea. I can publish the same piece three times under slightly different names. It will be ignored twice, but be almost viral the third time.
My most popular photograph. It’s a good picture, but is it the best?
There’s no accounting for taste. Also, no accounting for when people feel like reading and the other times when no one bothers to read anything and my stats fall through the floor. To keep myself from getting crazy, I have stopped trying to figure it out.
I take pictures of what I see in a world grown much smaller in recent months. This piece may get a great response or fall flat. If something does poorly, I run it again later. Often, it’s a big hit on a different day because … well … who knows? Full moon? Wind from the north?
Do you know? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows. We just do what we love and hope the rest will follow.
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Categories: Humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Statistics
STATS FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2019 – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern involved although there are plenty of businesses out there trying to sell you ways to “improve your traffic”. I don’t think that would help me anyway. I write what interests me and if it pleases other people that’s great. Sometimes I have a day when I have an abnormal number of views but that could just be bots too I guess.
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Not for nothing, but your photography is amazing. Color or black & white. You have a gift’/talent/eye for finding ‘the’ shot and then taking it without fuzziness, over pixalization (is that a word??) or other problems that haunt those of us who would like to be great photographers, but who aren’t. Hubby was AB negative and the American Red Cross and any blood bank that heard what type he had would hound him for donations. I’m the ‘universal’ type O whatever that is – and I used to donate regularly. I’d give platelets too. Then diabetes came along and suddenly my blood is no good any more. I don’t (obviously) donate any longer. It’s a crazy world and the numbers only make it more confusing in my estimation. Keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s more than enough!
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I’m certainly NOT the person to analyze stats for you, but I can confirm that all those pics shown here are extraordinary. I’d really fave them – and the blood group thing I fully understand too, I have (so I’ve been told w/o being the expert) a rare blood group who can give blood to everybody but then, the blood group of my new born son wasn’t compatible with mine and he had as one of the first things in his new life, have his blood exchanged by or to a ‘normal’ group. I still haven’t figured that one out and I guess I never will….
Let’s just say, it’s all a bit of a mystery and as such it has its rightful place. I am simply glad to have found you (via several clever comments on Pat’s blog) and I shall remain faithful. Love from Switzerland
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That is one of the things I found out. There the primary blood group — A, B, and O in + or = (this includes AB combinations). But there are SUBGROUPS to all the main groups. I have one of them and I only know this because I have to carry around a card which tells doctors what weird sub-group into which I fall. Blood groupings don’t prove anything, though for some bizarre reason there are a lot of hate groups out there that think they have the answer and that “racial purity” is related to blood types. It’s not true.
And it’s a lot more complicated than anything I wrote. So complicated that a post couldn’t begin to really explain it.
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I know. I also have a blood-group card which I (should?) carry with me at all times. I even had several made out as I lived in several countries. But at least mine is a ‘good’ one, even if I bleed out, I can still give my juice to anybody at all….. 🙂
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O negative (-) is the universal donor. Anyone can use it. It’s a rare blood type and VERY much in demand. I have another friend with the blood type and she was always giving blood. Not now since she had cancer and no blood bank wants blood from people who had cancer. But she used to and she used to get calls when they needed her blood. There aren’t a lot of people who have it. It’s not a big deal for you, but it’s a lifeline for other people. You should keep a card in your wallet.
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That’s mine, I checked after my comment my wallet. What I never understood was why my newborn son’s blood had to be exchanged…. Years later, after my divorce, I understood at least that my then husband’s and my blood groups didn’t agree with each other – and not only them 😉
It might have been also because I didn’t have one of the ‘important’ vaccinations at the time of birth. When this was discovered, I was too close to give birth, but heck, it’s no longer of any importance. Son is doing just great!
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No one knows, least of all the blogger themselves.
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After all these years, I’m even more baffled than I was at the beginning.
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I’ve stopped trying to figure out what works.
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I think most of us who’ve been doing this for a long time have given up. There’s no logic to it and you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out.
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Yes, and it serves no purpose at all. I might write my heart out and get a few likes and no comments at all. And then there would a hastily scribbled post which will get so much attention. 🧐
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That last little creature is a real cutie too.
Leslie
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He is a cutie. There doesn’t seem to be any way to figure how something will be received and if you run it three time, 1 (maybe the last one) will do really well, one of the others will fall flat and the last will be mediocre. Same post. Same blog.
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