Earth to Fred, Earth to Fred

Somehow FFF became associated at a very high level with an image of Earth (not one I took, actually) that I posted in a blog piece years ago. It rose to #2 for searches in Google Images for that picture, and apparently lots of people from around the world search for pictures of EARTH.

My daily visit total more than tripled last week because of this, and the records of seven hundred vagabonds obscured in SiteMeter any “real” visitors I might have had.

Did that influx result in an increase in AdSense clicks? No, still averaging only pennies a day. Did I get emails saying I want your book or cards, or I added you to my blogroll? Nope. The pages visits did stay at 1.5 so lots of those earth-image folks must have visited more than one page after finding me by this accident of image-search. But it made no difference whatsoever in terms of community, commerce or communication.

Today, I seem to have lost favor with Google Images and the EARTH visits are falling off. Thank goodness! I’d rather have 10 readers that I know drop by than a thousand anonymous visitors who end up here by freak accident of Google.

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Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Hey Fred!

    I love the little rush you get when you first see the numbers start to spike – and I used to have grand visions of hitting the motherload every time it happened.

    Now I’m content as a clam if I get a semi-regular reader/commenter out of the rush.

    Still kinda fun, though…

  2. I agree with Ron, but I also know I read mostly through Google Reader and only show up on your visitor stats when I feel the urge to comment (or see if you’ve thrown a monkey wrench under the hood).

    How did it feel to fire up the stove this past weekend?