Being a numbers-minded gal (I live in spreadsheets at work) I naturally gather stats on my blog and from time-to-time have a look to spot trends. My longest set of analytics come from Blogger itself, and go right back to my first post Nov 6, 2011 at 8:08am. I added Google Analytics May 12, 2013 where I was able to gather some other data as well.
I've categorized each post as F (female/male), M (male/female), FF (female/female), I (informational), P (political). I've also categorized the title and photo as 0/1/2, where 2 is most sexually provocative and 0 is not at all provocative. Then I added total lifetime comments and views as at Jan 15, 2021, and I also have total blog views as at any given date.
I use pageviews as the main thing I look at. Unfortunately I get different data from Blogger and Analytics.
More or less consistent, but something changed in Blogger in April 2019 (start of the highlighted rectangle). The dip in views was -17% on Analytics versus -35% on Blogger. So Blogger clearly changed something that skewed all the future numbers as well. Therefore, from a consistency point-of-view, I trust the Analytics numbers more (bottom graph).
Each of the peaks in views can be attributed to an exciting series of posts.
- The first large peak around Dec 2017 was due to my adventures with Tracy and John with Julie Paddled in November, Julie's Belt Licking in December, then Schoolgirl Punishment in January. For the first time I included a lot of photos of myself (Tracy was willing and able to snap the pics). I also divided my recounting into multiple parts that I think had viewers checking back in frequently for the next update.
- The second large peak around July, 2018 was due to a visit we had with a couple of friends of Sue who were feminists and lesbians for a discussion and demonstration of how feminist thought and wife-on-top BDSM can coexist. Oh my gosh, that was amazing! Again, it was serialized due to its length: Husband Spanked in front of Feminist Lesbians.
- The third peak around August, 2019 (obscured a bit on Blogger due to the downwards adjustment) was when I learned how to edit and blur videos and posted videos of both David and myself being spanked. I thing it was great because my readers could connect with me a bit more, but it was a lot of work and pretty risky! Julie Spanked on Video and Strict Julie Spanks! (ON VIDEO!!!).
- The fourth big peak was around April/May 2020 when I got more into my submissive side, briefly entered into a Domestic Discipline Contract with my husband, and involved my family to an unwise in retrospect extent (no lasting issues - Phew!). Starts with Julie Spanked for being Irresponsible - and Daddy Knows... It was exciting for me to explore that, and I also admit that I pushed the boundaries trying to entertain you all during the first round of lockdowns.
Been on a downhill slide since June 2020 for a combinations of reasons. I posted much less frequently (a bit of burnout); I was working on my book and posted mainly short informational blogs about that; then I made a few political posts which alienated a lot of my left-leaning fans (the majority of my fans are more left-leaning I believe - or they were back then at any rate!). As well, there was some sort of algorithmic shadow-banning at play as well (my organic google search hits took a dive, but this is from memory as I don't have records of past performance versus current).
Here is the breakdown over the life of the blog by type of post.
Orange is Female/Male, blue is Male/Female. Black is political and Grey is informational. You can see my orientation switching from F/M to M/F largely in the past year. That did not hurt my numbers at all. In fact, it drove them precipitously to all-time highs.
I had one political post back in Dec, 2017 called Sexual Assault? where I defended Matt Damon for something fairly innocuous that he said. I started the post with,
Ok, I'm going to go a little political on your asses on this post. I never do this, but now I'm getting frustrated. So trigger warning. If you don't want to mix politics with your BDSM, stop reading, and if you think all sexual assault is created equal and #ibelieveher is right on, and get too angry about it even to discuss it, then please stop reading now!
So, Matt Damon said we are living in a "culture of outrage". He went on to say “there’s a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation. Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated.”
I also made the case that I saw statutory rape of a teenager by an adult differently depending on the circumstances, and in many cases of a teenage boy having sex with a young female teacher to be not in the same league as an older man having sex with a younger female. I thought we needed to assess the trauma, or lack of trauma, suffered on a case-by-case basis.
There was little controversy over my defense of Matt Damon, but a lot more regarding the latter point, but very notably everybody in the comments was quite well behaved. The very first comment on that blog was from Kaaren Sissy and began,
Ms. Julie you've entered into dangerous territory here and it's a shame that I have to say that! We've entered into a time of hysteria and it just seems to be getting worse all the time!
Truer words were never spoke.
My next foray into politics was not until June 2020, indirectly a response to Bonnie's post on her blog What Must Be Said where she said,
I am convinced that the current administration in Washington poses an existential threat to the survival of our country and our civil society. We’ve watched for four years as this unholy collection of greedy profiteers, shameless charlatans, bellicose autocrats, cowering toadies, and evil misanthropes has hijacked our American dream for their own destructive purposes. Each day, they add to a growing mountain of Orwellian lies as our people continue to suffer and perish needlessly.
Then after that a huge raft of comments saying "Oh Bonnie! You're so brave!".
Rather than post a comment there, where I was worried I would be unwelcome and disrupt the harmony of Bonnie's blog, I decided to respond with my Spank the Leftists! posts. I knew full well what I was doing and what it would mean to my numbers. But though I am fascinated by the numbers, fascinated by what interests people, the numbers are not what's important to me. Free speech is considerably more important, as is speaking truth to power (the power of the mob and the Canadian government at the time, and now the US government and the Social Media giants as well - I do not expect to last on Blogger much longer, but hey, a decade is a good run!)
That post mainly dealt with BLM-type issues, because the looting, arson, and rioting was getting out of hand. I made the argument that the statistics around unjust shootings of black citizens were not so clear, and jumping after isolated anecdotes is dangerous. I suggested that the problem was not skin colour, but poverty in general. I suggested the solution was to be found in socially positive capitalism. I quote from myself,
And when I promote capitalism I am not talking about disgusting crony capitalism, where certain organizations get an undue advantage due to government interference. Especially in regards to war profiteering and drug profiteering. I find that despicable and anti-capitalist. Republicans who claim to be conservatives are some of the worst offenders (e.g., Dick Cheney).
Nor when I promote capitalism am I talking about a complete laissez fair capitalism, where the profit motive reigns supreme and excesses are not reigned in through reasonable government regulation.
I am not advocating for any sort of extreme position. A well-regulated capitalist system where working hard and clever ideas are appropriately rewarded, where the wealthy bear the brunt of taxation, and where democratically arrived at laws are fairly and evenly enforced is the sweet spot.
I then applauded President Trump's efforts along these lines: extra funding for historically black colleges and universities; enhanced opportunity zones; raising the threshold to pay tax; a better economy through corporate tax cuts, fair trade, and removing excessive regulation leading to better employment amongst poorer people and minorities; better health care in poor neighborhoods; criminal justice reform; police reform; and school choice.
Predictably, the left was incensed by my post, and it really got quite ugly in the comments. So that, naturally, encouraged me, and I started posting more political blogs. I was a bit busy with my second book, but took time out in September to write a post about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, abortion, and the advisability of appointing a new justice in an election year R.I.P RBG. In December and early January I then posted quite a few more political ones (about 8 in total) about the election, COVID-19, how to think and debate, climate change, and soft censorship. Those are most of the issues I feel passionate about, though I feel I have one more good one coming about the "Capital Hill Insurgency!". I'm sure you can't wait! I feel a bit like Ricky Gervais in his Golden Globes opening speech.
"I don't care anymore. I'm joking... I never did care."
To change the topic, over the years, some of my most popular posts have been as follows.
- 163K views - 2013-03 - Beating you man properly
I share my experiences on how to give a man a very hard, but safe, spanking. - 118K views - 2013-12 - Forced Feminization for Hubby
I'm a bit mystified why this one is so popular, but it's my response to a Q&A of an article I read on the web on the topic. - 113K views - 2012-01 - Husband Spanked by my Sister!
No question why this one was so popular. It's a recounting of how I got my sister involved in spanking my husband for the first time. - 77K views - 2012-07 - Husband Taught His Place in front of Sister and her Girlfriend
Another fond memory. Sue had a kinky little subby girlfriend whom we all three played with. This was david's "payback" in front of her. Epic! - 67K views - 2015-05 - Trainer Whips his Penis and Balls
I've had many personal trainer blog posts over the years, but this one made it to the top by a fair margin, likely because of its super-provocative title and accompanying image. - 66K views - 2016-02 - husband diapered in front of sister
This one covers the bases. Sisters and diapers! david made the mistake of not pulling off the highway and making me wait until the next rest stop whereby I almost peed my panties. Sue and I taught him a lesson he has never forgotten since! - 65K views - 2015-07 - Advice for Wives
So happy this one is so popular. I advertise it top right on the blog. It's advice that a husband can send to a wife or girlfriend if he wants her to spank him like I do my husband. - 59K views - 2018-02 - Julie Spanked in Front of Family... For Real!!!
This was an amusing little incident where David gave me a play spanking in front of my whole family, young nephews included. So hot! - 49K views - 2015-05 - An Epic Spanking for my Husband
A fairly routine spanking in our household, but I guess the title caught people's imaginations. - 48K views - 2014-06 - Husband Bathed and Spanked
Awww! I think male spankees like to regress and being bathed by their female spankers is a big thing.
I was wondering how various things about a post, like the type of the post, the number of days between posts, how lurid is the title, or how lurid is the first photo, impact a post's popularity. More recent posts get a lot more views than older posts because my audience has grown by so much, but also older posts have been around for longer and have accumulated more views, and trying to account for that is tough. So I looked at the year 2018 which has a decent mix of posts and did the analysis just for that year.
Here are the average views by type for that year
As you can see, the M/F posts actually garner significantly more views than the F/M or F/F posts. But have no fear, what I blog about is based on whatever is happening in my life at the time, I will not chase numbers.
Here is how days between posts impacts the views of a post.
Not a terribly strong relationship, but I'm thinking I should leave a post up for at least 3 days to get it the number of views it deserves. Mind you, even my 1-day-between posts garner about 5000 views, so a strategy of daily posts versus every 3-days would garner 5000+5000+5000+5000 versus 7000+7000, so 20K versus 14K. Posting more frequently will get you more views, but not as much engagement I think, as demonstrated by the correlation of comments to days-between-posts.
I think there is a more clear relationship here.
Here we consider how the lewdness of the title and the photo impact the blog views.
Lewder titles have words like "spanking", "fucking", "penis", and so on; the less lewd have things evocative of something, such as "Doctor's appointment" or "Christmas Tradition"; the least lewd don't even hint at anything. For photos, the most lewd have naked bums, cocks, pussies, and breasts; the less lewd typically have sexy clothed women or spanking implements; the least lewd have nothing sexy in them at all. As we can see, the more popular posts have some lewdness, though being super lewd and explicit, rather than hinting at it don't seem to gain you much.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, Bonnie, who is also a numbers gal, wrote a great article along these lines called MBS by the Numbers that also has some advice for bloggers on how to keep things engaging (and publishing on politics is DEFINITELY NOT one of those things - ha ha!)
BTW, this article I will rate as an I/0/0, not a P/0/0 (as you cannot tell from the title or first image that there is any P in it at all). Been hankering to do another type of "P" post. Me peeing on david that would be a total F/2/2!
Still having fun... hope you are too.