June 01, 2005
Ratings junkie
Calling the Birdwatching namecheck Aurora Borealis's 15 minutes of fame was clearly over-egging the pudding; in the past 48 hours since the magazine hit the newstands, there have been approximately 120 hits on the blog... which is a bit grim, given the blog often averages more than that without any endorsement. Conclusions?
A mention in Birdwatching has an inverse effect on blog traffic, and in fact puts people off looking here? Surely not...
Nobody read the article? But it was interesting! C'mon people, armchair birding at its very best (particularly all the other glossy blogs Katie mentioned, the ones where the authors are on the other side of the world and regularly post photos of mouth-watering exotica...)
Nobody reads Birdwatching? Can't be the case.
Birdwatching readers don't own computers? Or are wary of leftfield birding blogs? Hey, I don't bite!
Maybe it'll all change this weekend when people have time to sit down and read the magazine, or come across it when they're out buying the Saturday papers. It's all a bit galling now I'm doing the whole Birding 500 website ranking thingy, which is in danger of becoming a compulsion. (Ha! Birders and obsessions... we'd know all about that.) I think my highest ranking last week was a brief stint at 5 or 6, so to find Aurora Borealis hovering in the 20-40 limbo is a bit disappointing.
Mind you, I know what'd cure this. A nice juicy rarity on the island. After all, you can only eulogise about drumming Snipe and starving Arctic Terns for so long before it becomes old hat. I need new copy to tempt people in... Preferably a rarity-finding story with some exclusive photos. The Brown Shrike and the Gyr Falcon both sent the blog-counter off the scale, so there's something in this theory.
So what news from here? It's 10.30pm, still daylight outside (mad), and I've just dug some more of my tattie patch. Have come inside for beer and sympathy. There's Arctic Terns trying to fish offshore, and some nice Snipe drumming overhead if anyone's interested?
Follow the Weather Starling for a forecast, or see Shetland live on the NAFC webcam… 
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Come back soon!
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Posted by: at June 27, 2006 05:43 AMbuttes addition,hillsides safekeeping Coleman - Tons of interesdting stuff!!!
Posted by: at July 1, 2006 05:40 AM