communication. community. cognition.
Posts tagged Getting Around
The Accidental Tourist
Nov 27th
Usually, I have a good idea why people come to this site.
I use the free Sitemeter tool to track hits, and as I generally have low traffic and no ads, that’s decent enough for me.
Sitemeter tracks the last 100 visitors, and let’s me know (among other things) the page they hit, how long they stayed, what site they were on when they clicked over, what operating system, which city — a treasure trove of information.
(For instance, a lot of my traffic comes from search engines, so I can tell when people are looking for “Chocolate Covered Cockroaches” and coming to my site.)
In the last week or so, I have seen a lot of traffic from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And in the last couple of days, a similar spike from Tema, Ghana.
A couple of years ago, the spike in Saudi traffic was almost entirely centered on my “Live Nude Girls” post, but in this current wave I have no clue. The Riyadh and Tema visits are clean, no trace of the info.
It’s quite possible those are just compromised proxies, and I am being auto-scanned for vulnerabilities by overseas hackers. And, with that in mind, time to boost my security settings…
That’s why it pays to pay attention to these sorts of things.
A Place of Honor
Mar 30th
One of the great aspects of this medium is it can reach so many people around the world.
One of the downsides is that most of them will never give you the feedback that validates what you do. Having a great idea is even better when you know it touched someone or helped them.
I wrote a piece awhile back about my homegrown system for dealing with email overload: the Dr. Pepper system.
Check this out from my tracking log:
Look at that Entry Page: file:///E:/Outlook/…
That’s a locally-stored file. Let’s look at that in depth:
Someone liked it well enough to file it away. Based on nothing but conjecture, it would appear this person filed away an Outlook message, likely from an email subscription to Occam’s RazR. Or maybe just saved the link as a local shortcut. (My first thought was that it was on a flash drive, which might make sense for someone using public computers at a college.)
Still, any way you slice it, this isn’t like the many who come in on Google Image searches for Live Nude Girls or Chocolate Covered Cockroaches. This is someone who saw enough value in what I wrote they saved it. And not like those RSS Ninjas who save 40 links without blinking.
I’m honored. And that’s enough for me.
Tale of Two Cities
Mar 23rd
Here are the final moments from the two legs of my brief “presentation vacation” out west. I’ll let you write your own conclusion.
My last transaction in Las Vegas involved checking out of the Wynn at the conclusion of the Ragan/PRSA Social Media Conference. While I was at the closing keynote, my wife waited in line to square up the bill.
Apparently, the Wynn was prepared to bill us $582, representing the entire contents of the minibar (which we did not touch). She had to wait an additional 20 minutes for someone to go to the room and do an inventory of the minibar before it was removed from our credit card.
My last transaction in Springdale, Utah (just outside Zion National Park) was refueling the rental car before driving back to the airport in Las Vegas. Just after I started pumping the gas, a stranger walked up and started cleaning my windshield. I was bracing myself for the incoming request for monetary assistance.
It was the owner of the gas station. Cleaning my windshield on a Sunday morning. I told him it was the closest thing to full service I had seen since I was a child.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, but you can make your own opportunities to score a strong last impression.
Road Trip
Jan 19th
Quick note:
I’ll be presenting at the Ragan/PRSA Social Media Conference this coming March, the 11th through the 13th in Las Vegas.
If you register here by January 30th and use the code “SPK9″, you can get a $350 discount. After that date, it’s only a $250 discount.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, Ragan, PRSA, Social Media Conference, social media[/tags]
Tiny Ripples
Nov 2nd
Well, I haven’t made too many big splashes lately, but there are a few tiny ripples of me in places where I don’t appear very often.
Last week, I sent a haiku poem to the ESPN Tuesday Morning Quarterback, and Gregg Easterbrook liked it enough he dropped it in at the end of the reader feedback column. (If you must know, it was a cheap shot at Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.) Actually, I think Easterbrook used it as an excuse to run a picture of Tom’s ex-girlfriend and baby-momma, Bridget Moynahan.
Last night, the lovely and talented Andrea Weckerle posted a podcast of a conversation we had about Social Media strategies for non-profits and others. I feel privileged to have been the second installment of the Voce Nation Podcast, right after Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. (I wonder if the 
Social Media and high tech weasels on the coasts will take notice that the first two “web experts” featured in the interviews graduated from Auburn and the University of Alabama.)
Finally, I am on the cusp of something big. Depending upon which browser you use or your location, this blog is now falling somewhere between #9 and #12 on Google searches for “Ike”. Being #9 or #10 is important, because that is on the first results page. (Currently, #15 on Yahoo! and #66 on MSN Live.)
Getting Around Some More
Sep 9th
I’m still getting around. Another random check of my recent visitors showed the following:
More than enough to stage a World Cup sectional:
- Canada (4) *
- Austria (2)
- Australia **
- India
- Germany
- France
With three ‘Unknowns’, there stands a chance (slight) that more than half of my recent traffic comes from outside the United States. Fascinating. Also, the closest was Winter Park, Florida, 460 miles from my home. (Josh, I’m holding you and BlogOrlando responsible for that one.)
* Peter, three of the four Canucks came via you. You’re big in Canada.
** Lee, the Aussie was yours.
(Postscript: After that snapshot, the next hit came from Tuscaloosa, a scant 60 miles away.)
Getting Around Again
Aug 23rd
I had a lot of fun hearing from my readers around the globe. If Occam’s RazR readers held hands in a single line, they’d stretch around the Earth! (Assuming of course their arms are all 200 miles long.)
So – here’s another snapshot of my readership:
Last 25 visitors as of this post, and we have:
- Brazil
- France
- U.K.
- Germany
- Canada
Not bad. But ironic, that my closest reader at that moment was in Savannah, Georgia. 333 miles away. The prophet is not celebrated at home…
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, blogging[/tags]
