Trying to figure out my blog

I finally found the “statistics” feature of my blog. I’ve written blog posts for a year, but I’m a little slow on the uptake when it comes to technology. Maybe that’s because I’m 61 years old and for me, “high tech” used to be a manual typewriter.

I have so many questions....

This is what I want to know. I have readers in Russia? Lots of them, apparently. And in Germany? Really? I wish some of them would write to me (in English, please please) and tell me which posts they like. I’m just curious. (I’m also jealous of anyone’s bilingualism.)

I’m also trying to figure out why some posts are more popular than others. My most-read posts of all time, in order of popularity, are:

            1. The one about anachronisms in the book The Help (This one is cap and epaulets above the others, with 178 pageviews. I think readers of bestsellers are always interested in reviews.) The Help: Anachronisms?

            2. The no-sugar baked oatmeal recipe (93 pageviews – this makes sense to me because I’ve heard that the best-selling books, after The Bible, are cookbooks. I figure that hope springs eternal, i.e. “Maybe if I keep that book on my shelf, it’ll somehow get into my head.”) Gail's delicious no-sugar baked oatmeal

            3. The one about coping with the death of my parents and brother (70 pageviews. I understand the popularity of this one because death is a part of everyone’s life, but grief is not something I like to write about.) They taught us to live

            4. The one about the skin cancer on my face (62 pageviews. I just added some gross photos of myself to add to the fun; however I haven’t learned how to rotate the pix yet so readers will have to look sideways.) The Cicatrice - or skin cancer and me

            5. My discussion about good taste in music (58 pageviews. Like #1 above, this is sort of a review, but here, about music instead of literature.) What is good taste in music, anyway?

I’m looking for a pattern in most-read posts, but I don’t see one. Books? Recipes? Grief? Cancer? Music?

I see on my blog stats page that after one year, my blog has had 1,680 pageviews. I also see that readers find me first through my website (www.gailgreniersweet.com), then Google, then Facebook, then Trafficfaker (whatever that is), then other blogs.

It’s amazing to me that through these sources I’ve had readers in Malaysia, Colombia, South Korea, Australia, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Libya, Thailand, the UK, France, and Canada.

How can this be? Is Blogger fooling me? I only have 150 friends on Facebook and I know them all.

I’ve been told that good blogs hold to a theme. I want to stick to a theme, but I just can’t. I write strictly from inspiration. But maybe if I did stick to a theme, I could net me some readers in Argentina, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Vietnam.

What would my theme be? Book reviews? Recipes? Grief? Medical stuff? Music?

Naw, none of the above. It would get too boring for me. I’ll just stick to my fruit basket upset of topics. It’s so dang much fun.