Nothing much has happened here today, hence the lack of pictures from me. I'm reduced to using a picture from Unsplash.
And the reason I picked that picture is because the Big Thing for me today is all about the blog.
I started this blog in 2013 and it's full of memories. It's not even just memories. I've looked back on here to find out if things were still in warranty or whether I've had something long or when something was due. There's also a somewhat dismal refrain of me promising to do better, then absolutely failing. I've just realised, however, that I could lose it. Blogs can get hijacked, like Facebook accounts, and I don't want to think about losing all the content.
However there may be an issue and I have no idea what to do, or even if I have to do anything at all. Every now and then, I look at the stats. I'll go through phases of looking every day and then forget about it for months. So I was taken by surprise when I remembered to look and found, after some rather threadbare posting, that I have had nearly 2 million hits on my blog over the last 30 days instead of a few hundred. As far as I can see, the posts that are getting hit are random and often old, and it doesn't have an obvious pattern. 95% of the hits come from Vietnam and just under 5% come from Brazil with what I suspect are the genuine views trailing behind.
I haven't got a clue what's happening, but if you are one of those new visitors and are well-intentioned and curious - hello and it's good to see you. Drop a comment if you have questions and I hope that you're having a good day. I suspect most of those new visitors are bots, but I'm always happy to 'see' well meaning people.
I don't have the tech know-how to do anything meaningful, or even if it's needed. I'm going to go through and possibly save the more important posts, but there are over 3,000 posts which is a lot to rummage through. I'm also going to cut down on mentioning bear. I know that he's an adult, but a lot of the newly popular old posts have mentions of him (probably because most of the posts talk about him - he is the light of my life) so I'd rather be safe. And if this suddenly disappears, then it's almost certainly either accidental or it's been ambushed.
I may reconsider trying to get advertising if this keeps up. After all, I have a son that needs supporting.
Hugs and good health to all.
I look at stats from time to time with no real understanding of what they might mean. I'm not even thinking of advertising; one of many reasons is I don't want to inadvertently host products or services I really don't want to be associated with!
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that adverts depend on the viewer. The ads shown refer to sites that have been previously viewed or similar. When I see ads, I usually get Tesco. I sort of signed up for it, but I feel desperately uncomfortable about it. I don't think I could put adverts on here. This is where I meet friends.
Deleteoooer, how strange! I never look at my stats, but due to google space issues (I will not PAY for space) I have deleted a lot of my older posts as I already have all my photos stored on disc and kept safely at home.
ReplyDeleteI can see me going through a lot of the posts now. I wish I knew what to make of it.
DeleteI do hope that you don't "lose" your blog or have it hijacked! I am going to ask my daughter if she can back up my blog for me (I wouldn't know the first thing about how to do that, myself.)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know where to start with a back up. I'm going to have to look into things.
DeleteWorrying!
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteI had a huge increase in views a couple of weeks ago. I just assumed it was a bot.
ReplyDeleteI've been assuming bots as well, but the increase just seemed so off that I started worrying.
Delete