I plan to write a couple of posts about one of my favorite blogging topics – WordPress stats.
Tonight I’ll take a global look at where my blog has been read, and where it has not been read, over the past seven years.
The map above gives a nice overview of countries where someone, in a moment of weakness, has read my blog, as well as countries where cooler heads prevailed and they managed to avoid my blog.
At this point, there are only six countries where no one has read my blog
- Central African Republic
- Congo
- Guinea Bissau
- North Korea
- Svalbard
- Western Sahara
When I last checked my global stats back in August 2020, there were 12 countries on the above list, so I’ve made some progress.
I have actively tried to get at least one view from Svalbard, but to no avail. I’ll put a full-court press on this year. The other countries may be a bit more challenging.
Here is a list of the ten countries where I just have one view. I guess whoever it was didn’t like what they saw and haven’t visited again.
And to offer a balanced perspective, here are the 10 countries with the most views:
(A sharp-eyed viewer may note that there are 11 countries – I couldn’t leave Ireland off!)
I think 400,000 of the views from the United States are from yours truly…
I think if you were to write a series of posts about Svalbard, someone from that country is sure to give it a view. It’s a well-known fact that Svalbardians are very proud of their heritage, and will want to make sure you got your facts straight. So if you purposely include a few glaring errors, you might even draw an angry comment form one of them, as an extra feather in your cap.
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I like that idea, and if I do get an angry comment, I’ll just tell them it was your idea…
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Seeing what countries are reading is my favourite stat but I don’t really believe them because I get a lot of pings on my home page from China but they never actually enter any posts. It’s like hit and run!
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That’ll be the Ministry of State Security checking if your blog is fit to be seen in China.
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🙂
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Obviously I’m not fit. A huge threat to their security. 🤪
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Strangely my own blog had five hits from China within an hour of my mentioning the Ministry of State Security…coming soon, my history of Tiananmen Square.
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maybe you’ve unlocked the secret to getting hits from China!
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🙂
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hmmm…. that’s odd. I’ve got a bit over 2,000 view from China over seven years, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever gotten a comment from someone there. I have taught a few students from China, so perhaps that’s where my views are coming from…
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言论自由是基本人权 gets a hit almost every single time I post it.
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Most of my views are from Antarctica and some extra solar planet.
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So the penguins are viewing your blog? Probably wondering why you don’t have any photos of them!
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I don’t shoot black and white
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I haven’t had my coffee yet! 😶🤚!
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Have some toast too
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…mmm…!! Smartie! 😛
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is that the first head smack of 2022?
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No, I did yesterday, but maybe this will be the only head smack of the day!
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a head smack a day keeps the doctor away!
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I guess that is why I am healthy. Haha!
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I guess you can thank Tippy and Jason for your good health!
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SSH! They never need to know. 😛
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🤐
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🙂
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🙂
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they must be photography buffs…
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We are at the mercy of WP’s definition of countries and the inability to zoom in on the map. I’m also missing Svalbard but it is part of Norway. The other countries I’m missing are Iran, Mauritania, and Western Sahara, which i didn’t even know was a country. I’m sure there are islands that won’t show on the WP map that haven’t been enlightened by any of my posts yet. It is surprising that China hasn’t forced WP to delete separate stats for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. I wonder how many views I’ve had in Tibet. Good luck in your quest for world domination.
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I’ve got Iran (11 views) and Mauritania (2 views). For Hong Kong and Macau, my listing shows them as Hong Kong SAR China and Macau SAR China. I was wondering if Svalbard would simply be included as part of Norway, but I thought I remember reading about one blogger who claimed to have views from Svalbard. So it may be a futile quest to get Svalbard, but I’ll keep trying…
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Maybe you could do a post on the most northerly settlements. Longyearbyen, population 2,400, on Svalbard is world’s northern most settlement that could be called a city. I also am missing DPRK. I won’t lose sleep if I don’t get it.
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I’ll see if I can do something with Longyearbyen; there is also a University on the island…
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Getting your last six countries by the time you break Ripken’s record would be a drop microphone moment. Of course, if you get them all, the next thing you’ll want is two views from every country. You stats guys are never happy.😉
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my next quest is 1,000,000 views in total. I just need to create more fake accounts so that I can view my blog with them 🙂
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I have viewed your blogs 43,000 times, so who are the other 6 viewers from the U.K.?
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Guilty as charged 😂
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ahhhhh….. yes. and I thought it was the Royal Family 🙂
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I’m as close as you’ll get 😂
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I’ll take it! 🙂
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I’m afraid you’ll have to. But if Janet accounts for 43k of your views I’m pretty sure that I’ve taken more than 6 peeks at your blog, so maybe WP need to check their counting? Either that or Janet does…
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so that may mean I’ve already hit one million views, but WP is holding back on me 🙂
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Quite possibly. I think you should take them to court: Sidney Powell and Lin Wood could probably do with the work, and their track record is very good…
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I appreciate all those views, Janet. The rest may be from the Royal Family…
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Yes, but how’s that Greenland campaign going lately? Here’s to success on that front for 2022!
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somehow I got six views from Greenland last year. someone must have typed in the wrong URL and ended up at my site…
and happy 2022 to you!
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You must have loved the game of Risk as a child….
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you would have thought, but I don’t think I ever finished a game of Risk. Maybe this is a way of reliving my childhood…
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Aren’t we all just re-living our childhoods anyway?
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if that is the same thing as never growing up, then yes 🙂
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Impressive stats, but it might be worth checking WordPress’ list of countries against the official UN definitions – though WP may think it runs the world, it doesn’t. Yet…
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I’ve done that before, and as I recall, there are a couple of discrepancies. But I can only go by what WP gives me, so they do run my world 🙂
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I know what you mean. Makes you wonder why WP don’t get their act together, really…
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maybe they are too busy adding new features that no one wants…
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Don’t say that, you’ll put ideas into their head! I’ve just about got used to the Block Editor and I don’t think I could cope with more ‘improvements’…
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I’ve only used the block editor a couple of times. some day I’ll switch over, if I have to…
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I switched as it was becoming very difficult to work with the Classic Editor in Safari. After much moaning about it I was pleasantly surprised that it was much better than I expected.
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How do you actively try to get views from a country. I can’t get Greenland, and I’ve spent plenty of time reading and commenting on Greenlanders’ blogs. Mongolia, too, is a big frustrating hole.
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I think it’s pure luck. I am going to try and look for Twitter accounts in Svalbard, and then if I write something about Svalbard, include them when I post my blog to Twitter. Somehow I got 6 views in Greenland last year…
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Ah, twitter accounts. I gave that up a couple of years ago. Hated how it made me feel.
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I rarely use Twitter, except to tweet out my blog each day. I also check it if there is a big news story breaking, to see what people are saying.
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Happy New Year!
This is impressive. But as far as I know WP doesn’t include the website owner’s hits…
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that’s why I’ve created thousands of fake accounts and then view my blog using those fake accounts 🙂
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There are more countries in our world than I ever knew. This was an interesting post, Jim. I enjoyed it!
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thanks, Jennie. I have to admit I have not heard of some of these countries, and even if I have, I’m not really sure where it is located!
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That makes me feel so much better!
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👍
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funny, I was just looking at my world map yesterday, and it’s interesting to see the patterns – keep us posted
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I am guessing you have covered every country!
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Like you, I’m missing a few and I’m always curious about them
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if ayone had every country, my first thought was you!
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There are still the elusive ones out there…
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Do you read Goldy’s blog? He’s got a project going to get viewers from every country. I notice you’re having trouble with some of the same ones.
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thanks for letting me know; I’ll check it out!
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It’s a good blog.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/65044839
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thanks for the link… i signed up to follow him….
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👍
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Good luck! Admirable goal.
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thanks, James!
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I think you can count it as only 5 countries with no views… Svalbard is really part of Norway 🙂 But even at 6 (or 10, or 20), that’s an AWESOME accomplishment, congratulations!!!
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thanks!
I just don’t know if WordPress treats the two countries as one; it seems like the only way to fill in the full WP map is to get someone from Svalbard to visit my site…
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I had to look it up: Svalbard has (as of 2016) a population of 2,667… This is going to be a monumental effort, please post when you get an update on it, and much luck!
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it is a long shot, but I’ll give it t try…
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The extent of your audience is close to domination already!
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👍
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I had a thousand views for my first 6 months on here and was amazed that many people would read my stuff. You however have crushed it so keep it up.
My “fake news” newspaper collected 60 subscribers in the first 2 weeks which was astounding as I started writing it for no reason than I was feeling whimsical and now am working on issue 4.
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that’s impressive to have gotten so many followers so quickly. After three and a half years of daily blogging, I had 50 followers…
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Yeah I was gobsmacked to be honest. I really didn’t think I was altogether entertaining as I am somewhat political and have a strange sense of humour that many don’t get.
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The fake news newspaper is seperate to my blog and I email it to those who want it. Just thought to point that out as I have 37 follows on here and 61 now for the paper, the pest controller who was here today just subscribed …. lol.
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get those subscribers anyway you can! and how does one subscribe to your newsletter?
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I email it so an email address
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always nice to be pleasntly surprised!
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This is one of my favourite features of the stats portion of WP. I like seeing my reach (which is very short but nonetheless, fun to see)! 🙂
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I agree; the country breakdown is the most fascinating stat WP offers…
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I think you’re the closest that I have seen anyone get to a full map! Nice job!
In 2020, I tried to spread my reach but gave up rather quickly. Even wrote a post about Svalbard and Jan Mayen (https://dailyflabbergast.wordpress.com/2020/08/03/fun-with-countries-svalbard-jan-mayen/ ) and nothing.
I wonder if there is some sort of WP achievement for collecting them all.
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Dumbest Blogger had told me about your site and how you had written about this topic as well. That’s how I came across your blog. Thanks for the link to the Svalbard article – quite informative!
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Ahhh. I was wondering how you made your way over here. I’ve seen you in DB’s comment section, so figured that must have been the connection.
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👍
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How did you get Greenland again?
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I’m not exactly sure, but it could have been this blog: https://jborden.com/2021/01/11/music-monday-nanook-of-greenland/
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Your stats are mind-blowing, you’ve even got one from Kiribati which I only heard about last year when friends spent a weekend there after working in the Solomon Islands for a year. As regards Svarlvard why not just throw lots of tags at the bottom of all your articles, that way it’s bound to make it’s way to interested parties!
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I’ve neer heard of Kiribati either!
and it’s hard to tell if someone from Svalbard does view my blog if is shows up as Svalbard or as Norway…
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I love your sense of humor. I hope you prevail in your mission to get some of these counties to stand up and take notice!
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thank you; I’ll be giving it a shot…
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