Pyrrhic victory.

pyrrhus

Today was my Best Day Ever– 1,062 views.

But it came at a great cost, due to the ugly drama that’s been going on because of some bullies who have targeted this blog and me because they disagreed with an article I wrote a week ago.

I know they would love nothing more than for me to take down this blog, but it’s not going to happen no matter how much they bellyache about it. I think it’s hilarious though, that their hatred has actually helped me get more viewers. I’m sure not all the views are from people who wish me and this blog ill.

Most of this is sarcastic. I don’t really care about the views. I wish the people targeting me would just please move on. That’s all I want to do. Live and let live.

The top 6!

top6

Because I can’t think of anything more interesting to post about right now, here are my Top 6 most popular articles since I started this blog back in September, that have at least 1,001 hits apiece. (I am not including static pages–my Homepage/archives would have the #1 spot if I did that).

1. 20 Songs About Narcissists (#s 11-20) : 3,702 hits

2. 20 Songs About Narcissists (#s 1-10): 1,914 hits

3. Narcissism is a Family Disease: 1,821 hits

4. Famous People Who Have NPD: 1,222 hits

5. Anyone Remember Merrimints: Well, They’re Back (Sort of): 1,191 hits

6. My Son is Furry — Got a Problem With That? 1,001 hits

Other than #3, all these articles have something to do with pop culture or junk food. Not too surprising actually.

I finally broke 4K views per week!

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Click graph to enlarge.

The most views I’ve ever had for one day remains 862 (on December 25th of all days!), but I’ve never broken 4,000 views in one week before. 😀 I think it’s a good sign.

The art of blogging: new static page!

I just added this list of links to all my blogging and writing articles to the header for easier reference.

Blogging

Following is a list of links to the articles I have written about blogging and writing. I hope these tips prove as helpful to others as they have to me. Some of the advice I give is really just tried and true suggestions used by other bloggers that I tried too and have worked for me, while others are just things I have picked up along the way.

As with everything else on this blog, I’ve tried to keep a light touch to balance all the deadly seriousness of the subject matter and some of these posts are more for fun than for learning.

Blogging and Writing

franz_kafka

Is Profanity in Blog Rants Okay?

Blogging is Not for Pussies

The Drudgery of Blogging

Blogging

The Narcissism of Blogging

Blogging Drunk

Blogging is Crack for the Soul, but is Blogging about Narcissism, um, well, Narcissistic?

This Blog is Half a Year Old Today

Why This Blog is Becoming Successful and How Yours Can Too

Why is Narcissism so Hot These Days (peripherally related to blogging, but it still belongs here)

The Chatterbox and the Hermit

An Open Letter to WordPress (originally posted on FishofGold.com)

Running Naked in Public

I’m Holding My Nose

A Vast Wasteland

On Political Correctness and the Inevitability of Offending People

Writing is Cheaper then Therapy or Drugs

This Blog is Growing. Your Can Too

Nano Poblano is Over. Wow, What a Ride

Three People Who Deserve My Thanks

Can I Do It? Can I Do It?

The Article That Grew Legs

Best Day Ever

This Is What I Was Born to Do

Aspies Rule the Internet

How Writing Every Day Has Changed Me

Gratitude

I’m Frustrated

My Own Little Kingdom

Nobody Knew Who I Was

7 Science Based Reasons to Use Emoticons

My Decision to Run Ads on This Site

642 Views?! It’s My Second Best Day Since Christmas!

Narcissism on the Internet: What Vaknin Has to Say

My Most Popular Posts (as of 2/19/15)

Ever Have One of Those Days?

Handling Online Trolls and Bullies

troll_dolls

Internet Psychopaths: The Difference Between Trolls and Bullies

Two Kinds of Stealth Trolls

Internet Trolls are Psychopaths

Can We Please End This Flame War?

Beware of N’s Who Use Mental Illness as an Excuse to Abuse

Beware of Malignant Narcissists Posting as Victims in the Psychopathic Abuse Community

Replying to My Haters

Around the world in 6 months


Click on map for closer view.

I started this blog on September 10, a little over 6 months ago. One of the most interesting things to me when looking at my stats is the list that shows views by country. I still can’t get over the fact that once you hit that Publish button, my private thoughts and opinions are being seen in countries as far flung as Guam, Singapore, and Nepal.

By now, this blog has been seen by most of the world, from the looks of the map. I think that is the coolest thing.

Views by Country — All Time
United States 35,856
Canada 5,932
United Kingdom 5,345
Australia 1,630
Netherlands 575
Germany 540
Macedonia 488
South Africa 379
Ireland 373
Croatia 299
India 275
Belgium 254
Sweden 252
France 250
Finland 247
Norway 230
New Zealand 227
Philippines 210
European Union 150
Malaysia 148
Italy 144
Greece 139
Poland 137
Spain 136
Brazil 136
Singapore 131
Denmark 125
Switzerland 117
Turkey 111
Mexico 109
Portugal 107
Trinidad & Tobago 106
Israel 104
Luxembourg 95
Russia 93
Japan 85
United Arab Emirates 85
Hungary 80
Austria 64
Slovenia 60
Serbia 54
Indonesia 54
Romania 53
Hong Kong SAR China 44
Czech Republic 42
Thailand 42
Bulgaria 41
Argentina 36
Egypt 33
South Korea 31
Pakistan 27
Saudi Arabia 27
Nigeria 27
Morocco 21
Estonia 21
Lithuania 20
Iceland 20
Taiwan 19
Vanuatu 19
Lebanon 18
Cyprus 18
Kenya 16
Panama 16
Chile 16
Bangladesh 15
Albania 14
Jamaica 13
Puerto Rico 13
Dominican Republic 12
Colombia 11
Ghana 11
Malta 9
Vietnam 9
Uruguay 8
Costa Rica 8
Kuwait 8
Venezuela 7
Bosnia & Herzegovina 6
Guatemala 6
Peru 5
Nepal 5
Algeria 5
Jordan 4
Latvia 4
Mauritius 4
Slovakia 4
Ecuador 4
Qatar 4
Ukraine 4
Tanzania 4
Sri Lanka 3
Guyana 3
U.S. Virgin Islands 3
Mongolia 3
Bolivia 3
Georgia 3
Barbados 3
Guam 3
Ethiopia 3
China 3
Moldova 3
Kazakhstan 2
Åland Islands 2
Brunei 2
Belarus 2
Maldives 2
Bahrain 2
Suriname 2
Senegal 2
Oman 2
Tunisia 2
Belize 2
Gibraltar 2
Myanmar (Burma) 2
Montenegro 1
Macau SAR China 1
Paraguay 1
Sudan 1
Namibia 1
Palestinian Territories 1
French Guiana 1
Cook Islands 1
Guadeloupe 1
Mauritania 1
Lesotho 1
Bermuda 1
Armenia 1
Timor-Leste 1
Cayman Islands 1
Guernsey 1
Niger 1

642 views?! It’s my second best day since Christmas!

Some of you may remember, on Christmas Day (which is normally a slow day for blog activity), I got an amazing Christmas gift I could never have imagined–862 views, by far my best day ever. I remember feeling like I just won the North Carolina Education Lottery. Or that George Clooney or Robert Downey Jr. just kissed my neck.

Okay, most of that activity was due to a certain narcissistic writer sharing spamming an article I wrote called “Narcissism is a Family Disease” on Facebook, his own forums and groups on Yahoo and Google, and other social media. It was a good article and remains one of my most popular to date. The brilliant narcissistic writer liked it because there was a lot of stuff in there about him. After all, he was the reason for me writing it. It’s still a good article, I think.

stats311
Graph showing views and visitors over the past week or so, with 642 views today (318 visitors)

But this post isn’t about that article. That was just about my Best Day Ever. I have never again been able to quite beat that record, but that’s okay. That boost was an artificial one helped along by the famous narcissistic writer, and now I’m on my own. It takes time. As a blogger, you have to be patient.

Overall though, my views have been on the increase. Growth has been pretty steady–it levels out here and there, then shoots back up again, then plateaus for awhile.

I normally average about 500 views a day now, sometimes more, sometimes less. Prior to December 25th with its whopping 862 views, 500 views would have been a fluke. Not anymore.

Today (well, really yesterday, according to the clock on my WP–I never could figure out how to reset it with the correct time), I got 642 views (318 visitors, which averages to about 2 views per visitor), and that’s my best since Christmas Day.

stats311_2
Most popular “article” for 3/10/15–my own homepage/archives.

It’s odd, because by far the largest percentage of views wasn’t for a particular article, but for my “Homepage/Archive.” My most popular article of the day was 49 views for last night’s literary piece “My Final Words About This.” But still not even close to 121 views for my homepage.
That can tell me only one thing–that people are specifically Googling this blog.

This time, the unprecedented stats spike has nothing to do with a brilliant narcissistic writer’s help (which to be fair, was a big part of this blog’s early growth). Now I’m doing this on my own, and that feels fantastic.

Incredible news for my “Merrimints” fans!

Several months ago, I posted an article about “Merrimints,” a delicious mint candy that was made until the 1970s and then disappeared. But due to the overwhelming demand for these delicious mints, several companies have recreated them. The article I posted also contained a recipe to make them yourself (not my own!)

So I have two pieces of good news for my followers who found this blog because of my Merrimints article.

The first thing is that out of close to 500 articles that exist on this blog (which has only existed for 6 months, and I’m going to write an anniversary post after this one), the Merrimints article is my third most popular post of all time! Here are the stats that show its placement among my 7 most popular articles (a few of the articles shown in the list are not articles but static pages from my header that get lots of views)

merrimints_stats
Screenshot showing 3rd place placement of Merrimints article (the “1st placer” is just my homepage). Click to make larger.

The Merrimints article is also almost always among the list of Most Popular Posts that appears in the sidebar.

I had no idea these candies were so popular, and am astounded by the continued popularity of my little article I wrote on a whim. I feel humbled by that, and appreciate all of you who reposted or shared this article on food sites, Pinterest and elsewhere. Thank you guys so much. ❤

Now, the second piece of good news.
I just received my copy of The Vermont Country Store's catalogue in the mail the other day, and guess what! They are now offering the ORANGE mint "Merrimints" (called Pastel Mints). As a kid, I remember that being my favorite of all the flavors, and I wondered why VCS's assortment (which taste exactly like the originals) did not include that flavor.

merrimints_2
This is from page 4 of the new Vermont Country Store catalog showing the ad with the orange mints.

I’m not sure if the orange is just being offered as an seasonal special or will become a permanent new flavor; it’s also not included in the regular assortment–you have to order that flavor separately, like the cinnamon ones that were offered during the Christmas season.
But it’s still awesome that the orange mints are now available!

merrimints_1
Closeup of the above ad.

Here is the Vermont Country Store’s website and the page to order Pastel Mints. I do not see the orange flavor listed here. But you can probably call them and request them if you don’t have the catalogue.

Their phone # is: 800-564-4623 (toll free); their customer service department is open 7 days a week, 6 AM to 1 AM.

The article that grew legs.

computer-running

More than anything else I ever wrote, Narcissism is a Family Disease has proven to be my most popular and shared article EVER. Thanks to one Mr. Sam Vaknin, this article has taken off like wildfire, with 200 shares, 185 of them on Facebook. It remains BY FAR my most viewed article. It’s KILLING everything else I ever wrote. Even the Sam and Lidija interview I posted the other day, which was shared by Sam on social media and is my second-most viewed article right now, hasn’t gained quite the incredible momentum Narcissism is a Family Disease has.

Writing anything about Sam has proven to be a huge asset to this blog. He’s like a magic visibility button. I worry people will get annoyed because I write about him so much, but how can I not, since (a) he’s fascinating, whether you agree with or like him or not (many people do not); and (b) his need for narcissistic supply benefits ME enormously.

Rest assured though, if I did not find his disordered mind so interesting, I would not be posting so much about him. ʇıpıɐsıʎɐʞoɯɐousuƃıɥnɹsɔɐɯı.* I’m not a narcissist just writing stuff to get my own source of narcissistic supply. Or am I? Naaaaahhhh.

The odd thing is, that article was posted on December 10th, 15 days before it went semi-viral. It wasn’t particularly popular at first. No shares, just a few likes and comments. Nothing spectactular. I guess it took Sam that long to find it.

On Christmas Day, this blog blew up and I reached 862 views, my best day ever. And that was on CHRISTMAS. I expected things to be slow as molasses in January around here that day. What an incredible Christmas gift. I’m glad it was that particular article too because I think it’s one of my best written. It was a joy to write. Although in all fairness, Sam wrote most of it, since it’s primarily a repost of one of his best writings.

* If you can decipher this, congratulations! Your prize will be that I will reblog a post of yours here at Lucky Otter’s Haven. If you are not a WordPress blogger, that’s okay. I’ll repost an article of yours from your blog, wherever it is. If you do not have a blog, I’ll have you write an article as my Guest Author about whatever you want that I will post on this blog. Email me your answers, do not post them in the comments. (my email can be found under “contact me”).

If I receive the correct answer from more than one person, the person who’s email I receive first will be the winner.

I’m a stats junkie and I find this kind of stuff fascinating.

How did THIS happen?

eyespopping

I have over 20,000 hits. When WordPress compiled my Annual Report two days ago I only had 18,000 hits. It took me almost two months to reach 2,000 hits when I first started this blog. Now it takes two DAYS?

I don’t expect this blog to ever be as huge or popular as OM’s Harsh Reality or anything, but DAYUM.

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 18,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.