Incoming hits are how many visitors a site has sent to your top list using their link code. Outgoing hits are how many visitors your top list has sent to the site.I've been rather discouraged that I haven't been able to interest our Villagers in voting for each other, but I must admit that finally understanding HITS OUT makes me feel a little bit better about BLOG VILLAGE and my goals for our Village. I checked to see just what our statistics are at the moment, and I'm feeling better.
Out of the 364 members who are currently showing on the blog, only 98 have a vote, since the reset on May 9. That's very discouraging, as I thought for sure that putting all the blogs back on with the new SEARCH box would encourage more participation.
But then I got to wondering about how many blogs were being clicked on from our toplist, whether they got votes or not, and that made me feel a WHOLE lot better! Out of those same 364 members, there are 320 that have been viewed by someone who found them on BLOG VILLAGE!!! That's what the Hits Out number means, and that's impressive. People may not be taking the time to vote, but they are taking the time to read, and that's what really counts, isn't it??
May 23 will be our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. In that time, we have had a total of 512 Villagers, many of whom I have deleted for not keeping the BLOG VILLAGE voting banner on their blogs. Only a handful have been asked to take the banner off, because of their unwillingness to edit posts or pictures that were not appropriate for our community.
We have actually grown to be one of the larger toplists on gotop100, which speaks well of all of you, as other bloggers are constantly asking to join. In fact, I have 6 blogs waiting for me to look at them right now. So, I guess I'd better quit rambling and get busy checking them out, right??
I've met a lot of interesting people, become good blog friends with some of you, and enjoyed reading about a lot of places and lives that I would never have know about otherwise. All in all, I think it's been a good year, and the number of Hits Out makes me feel like my efforts have born some good fruit. I hope you feel the same way.
Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.
If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.
19 comments:
I use the village to visit a handful of blogs, voting outs I assume. I've found that the counter is stingy with in votes from my blog, I've voted a few times more than is indicated by the number in the box.
Wow...Happy Anniversary to all of us. I use the village constantly, many of my favourite blogs are here.
Still not sure I completely understand the in-out thing; but it doesn't really matter...I'm just happy to be here!
Great job, DB!
Hmmmm.... I've not had that complaint from anyone else, Eric, so it makes me wonder if it might have something to do with your code. Why not go back to the Member's admin page of BLOG VILLAGE, and be sure you have it done correctly.
I am glad you have found some blog friends to visit via our Village, though.
If you're visiting blogs consistently FROM the toplist pages, you are adding to their HITS OUT, and that's a good thing, Marion. I'm the same way you are ... I seldom look at blogs that are not part of our Village any more .... but then I'm way behind on even doing that LOL!
Hi Rosemary!
I have added you to my Alexa Train in the hopes of increasing all of our rankings and link love! Just go the post, copy the indicated section from my page source code, and follow the instructions.
Enjoy!
Lynda
Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Website
Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog
Life has been a little busier than usual the last couple of months...but every chance I get I go to BLOG VILLAGE to read my favorite blogs and find a new one here and there!! Even though I have added these blogs to my blogroll, I go to their blogs through the VILLAGE to give them the hits!!!
You've been a fantastic supporter of BLOG VILLAGE from the very beginning, Janey Loree, and I really appreciate it!
I use the Village as one huge BlogRoll, too.
I never think about voting when I'm surfing through...I usually go to the village page, open several blogs and then go on, not thinking about voting.
What I'm not following at all, what I've never understood, is the value of rating sites. It seems whether you rate sites or not there is no benefit to you. Most people, from what I see, don't bother to rate their own site let alone anyone else. Including the sites who always seem to be at the top of the list.
Rosemary, I decided to visit some of the lower rated blogs today. It's hard to keep up but fun to discover new writers.
Hi, I would really like to use this more often but am unsure about it all. Is there a link I can put on my blog so people can vote for my blog? I would really appreciate it if somebody could explain.
Thanks.
I tried to email you or leave a comment, Mrs. Nesbitt, so I could explain how to join BLOG VILLAGE. But, I couldn't figure out how to comment on your blog, nor could I find an email address!!
Email me, OK?
blog AT dirtybutter DOT com
I haven't had the time, Lynda, to figure out what an Alexa Chain is! LOL ;)
I'll come visit as soon as I can.
Dana, you're certainly not the only one who makes good use of the Village, but does not vote. My vision of what BLOG VILLAGE was meant to be like does not seem to match the way most members are using it. That's perfectly OK!!
You're right, Kilroy. People don't seem to pay much attention to the rating aspect of our toplist. I do appreciate the way you comment on member blogs, though, even if you do like to give everybody something to shoot for ;)!
I enjoy browsing through the blogvillage and finding new blogs. I didn't realize about the ability to comment on the actual blogvillage toplist page until recently. I always just leave a comment on a person's blog. I didn't even know I had comments from so many people on my listing. It seems complicated to have to go to someone's blog, and then go back to the list to leave a comment.
Thank you so much for all that you have done for blog village. It is a wonderful list and I have made so many friends and had so many good reads.
Marsha, the comments on the toplist are meant to be about the blog itself, rather than a particular post. This is the place for constructive criticism and praise. Either is appreciated by most bloggers. If anyone leaves an inappropriate poor rating, I do have the ability to delete it, but I've only done that a few times in the last year.
I learned from one of my faithful readers that you have changed the placement of the blogs according to Hits Out. Interesting. If you would allow me to share my thoughts:-
There can be hits out only when there are hits in. Meaning to say, if there are no new visitors, there will be less people viewing our blogs. Members like us have already bookmarked our favorite blogs and subscribed to their feeds. We will not access these blogs through the BlogVillage site.
We have been encouraging our readers to visit and register with your site. The general feedback was that they viewed some of the blogs but rarely went beyond page 3. There were simply too many blogs. Also, because of your new system of placement, they clicked our blogs too, to register a hit out. Otherwise, it seemed unfair that these other blogs appeared on the first page, instead of ours. It doesn't sound correct, but they have a point.
Ranking criteria is always subject to debate. Quite surely, comments and ratings are not a good yardstick, since many people have been rating their own blogs. In my view, between the two, I would have thought Hits In is somewhat more logical than Hits Out. With more new visitors, there is a higher possibility that our blogs are viewed. Many directories use this system since pagerank is influenced by the number of pageviews too. Either way, they do not prevent people from clicking their own blogs or viewing their own blogs to register the hits out.
Perhaps, in due course, you may want to consider giving the new blogs a chance to appear on the first page. These new blogs usually appear right at the end of the listings and rarely get seen. To welcome them into the community, we could feature these blogs for a week in a special column on the first page.
Thanks again for the wonderful efforts you have put into the site.
I really do appreciate your thoughtfully written comments, bizwhiz. This is a hard call to make, as to which is better for the Village as a whole. I've opened a poll to see how everyone feels and look forward to the results.
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