{"id":13899,"date":"2013-08-11T11:40:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T16:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=13899"},"modified":"2022-05-07T08:33:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T13:33:38","slug":"odds-ends-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/odds-ends-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Odds and Ends 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have a slew of short topics not befitting an entire article on their own. That means it’s time for another installment of Odds and Ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Non-Native English Readers of 12MC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Pie
Breakdown of 12MC’s Audience from Non-English Speaking Nations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twelve Mile Circle receives a robust amount of website traffic from readers in nations where English is neither a predominant nor an official language. It doesn’t come close to the number of visitors from the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and the like. However, it’s more than I’d generally expect. I have a hard enough time writing for an English-speaking audience so people from other nations have a double handicap — my trouble stringing together an intelligible sentence along with reading my gibberish in a foreign language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I examined statistics generated by readers since the beginning of 2013. Thus I recorded the following Top 10 non-English language reader nations: Germany, France, Russia, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Japan. Those ten comprised a little more than half of the set with another 150-or-so nations taking up the rest. I don’t have a point to make with this compilation, I just found it interesting. That’s all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loyal reader “January First-of-May” probably pushes Russia up as high as it is. Russia would still be in the Top 10 although a few slots lower, otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Metropolitan Area Pattern Game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Metro
U.S. Metro Areas with 12MC visitors on August 10, 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I based the article “Room to Grow<\/a>” on the metropolitan area tab in Google Analytics, last November. I mentioned at the time that I hadn’t used that tab much before. I’ve kind-of grown fond of it since then. It doesn’t tell me anything useful that I don’t already know, however I’ve turned it into a little game. Each day I check to see if I can trace a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean following a contiguous trail of 12MC readers. I award myself double points if I can also connect to the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. I completed a route and nearly won double points from yesterday’s example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I don’t actually track the points or anything like that. It’s a fun little mindless activity when I open Analytics each morning, like pulling the lever on a slot machine. I can’t trace a path as often as one might think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Supreme Court<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Supreme<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not sure how many readers went back and noticed the comment from “Brandon M.” or saw my recent tweet (a good reason to subscribe to the 12MC Twitter<\/a> feed). So I’ll repost his photo. Brandon read Order in the Court<\/a> and noticed he’d be near one of the streets named Supreme Court. This one happens to be in Gaithersburg, Maryland (map<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also he said he checks the 12MC Complete Index Map<\/a> for local geo-oddities when he travels. I thought I was the only one who did that so it’s nice to hear the index provides a useful purpose for someone other than myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tripoint House for Sale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n