The Simmering Mind

I love my pretty new winter header image!

Today is a commemoration post – this blog has been here for three years as of today!  I didn’t blog faithfully in the beginning, and things petered out for awhile, but I am excited to report that since March 22, 2014 (when I began blogging weekly), the Simmering Mind has been going strong!

This post may be totally boring to most, but I had so much fun looking over all the “stats” from the past three years, and I wanted to round them up in once place.  So here they are!

Stats from Blog History

Blog views over all time (as of writing this post): 7,877

Blog comments over all time: 459 comments.

Single day with the highest number of blog views: Saturday, September 20, 2014, with 123 views – most of them on my most popular blog post ever, which had just been shared (see below).

Google Is My Friend (Sometimes)

Five most common search engine terms that led people to the blog:

1. “the simmering mind” – 39 hits
2. “harry potter head” – 14 hits
3. “divination harry potter” – 13
4. “tuesday” – 11 (okay?)
5. “harry potter in class” – 9 hits (I’m sensing a theme…of ALL the search terms that ever led people to my blog, Harry was involved in 43 of them)

Most common topics I see bringing people to The Simmering Mind from Google:

1. Harry Potter
2. Heaven, especially referring to the book by Randy Alcorn
3. Science-Fiction
4. Firebird, by Kathy Tyers
5. The Hunger Games
6. The blog name itself, my name, or other related search terms like “Kraesinia land” (eeep, really?) – I also saw several people that seemed to be searching directly for my old (unfinished) serial story, “The Queen in the Wooden Box”, which I think I deleted from the blog because it was unfinished

What I’m learning here is that the internet wants more fantasy and sci-fi reviews from me.  😀  Most of these hits brought people to my reviews of those science-fiction and fantasy stories.  The internet especially wants more Harry Potter.

Here, internet.  Have some Harry.

Harry Harry Harry Harry 😛

Weirdest and funniest search terms ever to bring people to The Simmering Mind:

1. “list of fantasy and sci-fi books containing physical telepathy that is only activated after marriage and after intercourse” (uhhh, there are enough of these to make a list??)
2. “6 year old severely distractible” (as well as “distractibility in 6 year old”, “song about distractibility”, and “stories about individuals with distractibility”……)
3. “alone in the daik.” (HA!  A typo got them here, because of my character Daik 11)
4. “kevin bloody wilson early songs put a potatoe down ya bahte free download” (huh?)
5. “my husband has been absent lately” (I’m sorry…)

Best Blog Posts

Five most popular posts and their views over all time:

1. How Myers-Briggs Typology Became My Worst Nightmare (But I Still Love It) – 344 views
2. Harry Hater to Potterhead: A Christian Reader’s Journey – Part II – 220 views
3. Think About These Things – 196 views
4. Between Two Worlds – Internet vs. Home – 152 views
5. Have We Forgotten the Monsters? – 140 views

Bethany’s other favorite blog posts from the past three years – these may not have gotten as much love from the interwebs as the others, but I loved them!

1. On Being Relevant
2. How to Be Invincible
3. 5 Reasons Writing YA (Sci-Fi and Fantasy) Is Awesome
4. You Know You’re (Really) A Grown-Up When…
5. Self-Publishing Is For Failures, Said Ignorant Teenage Me

Thank You!!

To all my faithful readers who read, those who leave me comments, and those who share my posts to others, thank you so much!  I love the conversations we have, and I greatly appreciate that so many take time out of their day to read my ramblings.

Much love,
Bethany

P.S. Who here thinks I should do a giveaway for the person who makes my 500th blog comment? 😀