New Post: Stats Raise Questions

(Fried Steak. Recipe Self Evident.)


by Louis Bertrand Shalako

c2011

All Rights Reserved


After taking a belated interest in my stats, they seem to raise as many questions as they answer.

One of the neat things on a Google blog is 'traffic source' data, which startled me.

I had no idea that my French-language blog, 'Les Shalako,' was getting so much traffic. That blog started off as a place to experiment with the online translation technology that is available to writers today. This kind of data used to be the exclusive province of the really big players.

So now we know what 'metrics' are! By using the translator, and then spelling and grammar check, the translated poems and stories, few as they are, are of some interest to some person or persons out there in Canada.

***

It's nice to know that some of my traffic comes from India, some from Iran, and Iraq, and Russia, and Eastern Europe.

Some of it comes from South America, including Peru, and Brazil as well as Canada, the US, Eire, etc. Somebody in Germany hit on my blog--why did that happen? How are they getting here from there? When and where did they stumble across me?

Exactly which post or promo, posted exactly where and when, resulted in this specific book sale?

Why did they pick this book, as opposed to another of my titles, or any other title?

What is it that they are specifically reading, and why are they reading it? A certain post might bring a certain number of hits from a certain place. We want new readers, and new friends. We also want to know why.

***

During the course of our E-Book Week promotion, back on Mar 5-12; we observed that it took approximately 13.9 page views to give away one copy of our e-book, 'Heaven Is Too Far Away,' and that same book takes a little over a hundred page-hits (on average) to sell one copy of the book. As anyone can see, the price is competitive.

So the goal for the next while is to drive up page hits, and take some steps, (I have no idea what,) to lower the page-hits/sales ratio.

The interesting thing is that I have never said that before in my life. I have never asked the question, 'Just exactly how is that done?" before.

Disruption brings fresh insights, and new questions will reveal new questions again.

He Earned It Honestly.

by Louis Bertrand Shalako

c2010

All Rights Reserved


After dropping out of school in grade ten, I held a number of menial positions. I was a weekend watchman at the local grain elevators, I mopped floors in a local pub, and even delivered tombstones with my uncle. The funny thing was that I tried to go back three or four times, changed schools, the usual thing. On unemployment, there was the chance to go back for 'retraining,' to become a 'retread,' and I eventually got my grade twelve, the 'Level IV Equivalency Certificate' so demanded by the forward-looking employers of the day.

I was twenty the first time I ever injured my back, or felt any real pain. By the time I was about twenty-five, I knew that construction work was not a long term option, although it pays pretty well.

I wasn't a bad carpenter, or a bad welder, or a bad roofer, or a bad drywaller, or a bad high-pressure water blaster.

I went back to college and studied journalism. That was in September of 1983. Journalism is okay, and I did the job for a short while, nothing to brag about or put on a resume. But what I really wanted was for someone to teach me how to write.

Unlike some, I cannot claim that I was three and a half years old, dreaming of better days ahead as I underwent potty training...yearning for my eventual adult liberty and total creative freedom without restraint.

I've been writing for about twenty-six and a half years now. When I sell an e-book, it is such a wonderful feeling, to know that this is a privilege that many seek, and few shall attain.

When I see that thirty-seven cents accruing one sale at a time in my account, no one can take that away from me. I earned that thirty-seven cents.

It was honestly earned. No one is going to take that away from me.