Behind the Noodle Curtain: By the numbers and more

I’m writing this to really convince myself that I ought to continue this Thailand blog. I touched on the subject  two posts back, April 3. That was the short version of a much longer piece. But I've since reread the long version and decided to throw it all on the table -- reasons and stats.

Come July, 2010, it will be two years since I started Behind the Noodle Curtain. My readership has been going up.  I’ve enjoyed many days writing, editing, taking pictures and redesigning the blog. It was very satisfying during those periods.

During the latter part of  last year, my page views started exceeding 1500 a month. I thought that was okay -- although nothing matches those early days of excitement when I actually discovered one day that someone else read my blog.  I went back to Thailand and Laos in mid-December for six wonderful weeks. I imagine I can credit that with the fact page views went blasting by 2,000.  The blog hit over 2,500 in January, a month in which I spent three weeks in Thailand and Laos.  Writing from the field is a much more exciting and interesting  occupation and I think it shows in the more inspired writing, which, in turn, draws more readers. Put another way, the writer is living it.

February page views were so so. Martyn, at the very popular blog, Beyond the Mango Juice, attributed the January jump partly to the fact that folks were paying for their Christmas-New Year’s expenditures that came home to roost in January. So they stayed home and surfed. Good call, I think.  In February, travellers left the virtual road and hit the real road.  March has been superb, heading toward 3,000. Some days page views were well over 100. Doesn’t seem like much when compared to some of my work colleagues here in Canada (occasionally hitting 20,000 in one day!) and fellow bloggers in Thailand.

 
At the same time, the source of my traffic has been changing significantly. The end of last year, people came to Behind the Noodle Curtain from four directions: about 30 per cent or less by search engine (Google), about 30+ per cent by referring links (people arriving via links to my blog at other blogs, forums and online services), about 15 per cent direct arrivals (bookmarks and typing in the URL) and a bit less traffic from news feeds.  

Now Google and Yahoo search engines (the latter has really come on) bring me 50 per cent of my page views and many new visitors.  Referrer and direct traffic  are up a few points, but news feeds  down quite a bit. With the big jump in visitors via search engines, my bounce rate has risen -- it means people stop by, but more likely they hit the road quickly.

Looking at the most popular search terms, I can speculate as to why the bounce rate has risen. The most popular key words that bring readers to my site are: Washington Square (top photo of girls eating), Wild Country bar (inset), Huay Kwang (inset, above left, traffic scene) and a few  other night life  brand names and locations, such as the Soi Cowboy (bottom photo) Bangkok Motor show (inset, lower right). Of course, these Bangkok spots are full of regular restaurants and businesses but are notable for their night life activities. So I expect male readers were looking for specific information that I simply do not publish. So, off the travellers go.

Still it’s nice that the search engines bring them here. Among the top 10  key words are Asian films and iPhone apps for learning Thai, the latter I hand off to expert Catherine over at Women Learning Thai. It’s amazing how many hits my site gets when I publish film news and reviews. The reaction is almost instantaneous, unlike many other search terms. I recently did something on Tai Orathai (inset, below left), the luktung superstar that many farangs know, thanks to their upcountry wives and girlfriends. Barely a statistical murmur. I’ll probably get some regular site visits over time, if the search engines co-operate.

Newness, however, doesn’t seem to spur visitors. Old stuff seems to be just as attractive. I’m always surprised at how often I get visitors for old posts. I can thank search engines but the fairly recent addition of LinkWithin widget has really made an impact. Their crawler indexes your site and when a reader clicks on something in order to read it, three or four (somewhat) related posts are popped up at the bottom of the article. Most bloggers use this service now and it’s really paid off, I think.

So that’s the numbers summary. But why am I unhappy with the blog? Or is it blogging? I think my first challenge is that I spend so much time away from Southeast Asia, I can’t get new material. New material is the life blood of a blog. New material comes harder when you’re so far away. It takes a lot of research time to produce one piece, but if you’re on the ground in SEA, the material is all around you. You just have to observe, analyze a bit and write. In the meantime, while sitting here in the west,  I’ve been neglecting other things, such as, oh,  studying my Thai language materials and  reading good books to sharpen my sadly declining vocabulary and knowledge base.  

Second, personal stories are a life blood, too. Maybe even moreso.  You can get all kinds of basic info on Southeast Asia on various websites, albeit some of them are rather too commercial and mercenary. What’s in short supply is the personal story that’s entertaining and also informative. In many stories, I tended to distance myself from the subject of a post, being the type of person who always likes to stay in the background. I think that if I reformulate my blog, I’ll make it more personal and hopefully interesting. Oh, and maybe informative, if I believe what I write above! 

Third, I haven’t settled on a consistent style.  I admire so many Thailand blogs and most of the reason is the writer’s personal style. The writer is always  “in-style.”  See Beyond the Mango Juice or Thailand, Land of Smiles or Retired in Thailand and Loving It, or Women Learning Thai. There are times when I think I’ve nailed the exact style for me. Then I post another during a tired or lazy period  and that sucks the life right out of a post.

Speaking of writing, I’ve spent most of my working life editing copy. So this blog has been a great practice sheet for getting back into the writer’s head space (200 plus posts, the most I’ve written since, um, the late ’90s). Believe me, in order to write well, you have to write. If you don’t do it for years, you really do lose your writing muscles. I typically write six  to 10 words, which are all that’s required for news headlines.   This is not a good thing unless you want to write for wiener packages.

Blogging is fun and I’ve “met” so many great folks, especially my fellow Thailand writers. But I’m feeling the itch for a “different”  personal enrichment. I think I may have to  put blogging aside for a while or at least restrict my posting. I really should spend more time in the language books  and get back to reading some good fiction and just good writing.

I know the coming year will see vast change, particularly since I’ll be officially retiring from the daily grind.   The extreme might be quitting blogging altogether, or I might just find inspiration when I move to Southeast Asia in September.  I somehow think the latter will rule.   After all, a blog is an exploration of self as well as subject. The two might work well together. And I do have ideas for another blog or two. As well as longer forms. How it all thrashes out could make for interesting reading. And maybe I'll end up at a different destination. Or not!

Below, is yet another photo from the Bangkok motor show at the Impact Centre. Below that is infamous Soi Cowboy go-go bar strip.