Are You Alone?

This graph shows the most read articles during
the past month.  Articles with the highest counts
are listed first.
Click the image to enlarge

A few neighbors have expressed a concern that not enough of the community is reading this blog.  Basically, they are supporters of my writing, and wish that every owner in the community was paying as much attention  as they are.  When I ask why they think people aren't reading this blog, they cite the lack of comments.  It sounds like it would be useful to share what I do and don't know about readership.

The first measure for me is the number of people who have chosen to receive my messages.  Since I began, four people have asked to be removed from distribution--two LLC managers, one devout LLC loyalist, and one CA Board member.  In contrast, I have had 12 requests to be added to distribution, and I've had 5 email address corrections or changes.  It's not surprising that representatives from the establishment choose to drop off, but it says a lot about the one's who are willing to read my articles even when they probably don't agree with my viewpoint.

The second data point available to me is the number of times each article is opened.  Here's what I can say about the number:

• it does not guarantee the number of unique readers
• it does not count a reader who opens the blog home page and reads the article
• it counts when an article's Title or Comments links have been clicked from the home page
• it counts when someone clicks an article's link in my mail message

KG households probably have no more than 2 readers, and some readers probably reread certain articles more than once (thus double-counting).

On the first day I publish a new article, the number of views is generally between 75 and 100, and after the second day, the count is usually between 100 and 140.  These are the most useful numbers, because I know I'm not opening these articles, and in all probability there aren't a lot of revisits to the same article in this time frame.

Of the readers, I assume there are about 30 who are not supportive of my effort.  I don't have any basis for guessing how many of the 100 or so other views represent individual households, but it wouldn't surprise me if the number is between 60 and 80.  Make what you want of that, but I think it's fair to assume that most of your fellow neighbors are reading along.

Comments would normally be a good indicator of blog readership, but I'm writing controversial viewpoints and this is a very small community where people don't want to damage social relationships.  I know of many supporters who don't want to show their support publicly, but are hoping this blog helps to educate the community, and influence and correct some of the unfair practices that affect us.