365 days ago I was sitting in bed recovering from surgery and contemplating my approaching retirement. I knew that, in retirement, I was going to devote more time to discovering and organising my family's history. I had also blogged about my work for a couple of years.Although there a number of Genealogy blogs around these appeared to have a US, international, commercial or family bias. With the exception of Genealogy in New South Wales I couldn't find anything distinctly Australian. Twelve months ago Twitter had not yet taken off as a way to disseminate news about genealogy in Australia. As I have a hunger for news I was subscribed to a number of RSS feeds from the fields of technology, genealogy, education and libraries. I thought that perhaps I should create a a genealogy blog with an Australian bias by an amateur Australian genealogist.
Geniaus the blog was born.
Reprinted here is my first post from November 7, 2009
I've been researching the family on and off for the last 20 years and, with retirement looming, hope to finally get organised and solve some of my mysteries.
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Twelve months down the track it is time for reflection.
My blog has evolved to become more of a resource sharing tool and a presence for Geniaus on the web. I have not blogged about every little bit of progress I have made as I don't really think that the genealogy community at large is interested in the minutiae of my research. Taking part in Genealogy Carnivals has given me an opportunity to tell some stories about my family.
I have tended to blog about my big news eg my new family website http://www.geniaus.net and about the tools I use. The blog allows me space to share my latest links from Delicious and my latest posts on Twitter.
On a personal level the blog has has documented my journey as I learn about my family, genealogy and appropriate tools to use. For this purpose alone it has been a worthwhile exercise.
A perusal of the Google Analytics for my site shows that I do not have a huge audience but there are a number of people who follow the blog. Around 1400 people have visited the blog 2500 times and looked at around 4000 pages. During the year people from 49 countries have visited the blog, around half of these visitors are from Australia. Initially the visitors were mostly from the US but over the year this has shifted so that, now most of the readers are from 26 cities in Australia, with Sydney having the most representation.
18.06%of the visits are from direct traffic, 59.98% are from referring sites such as Google , Blogger and other websites and 21.96% come via search engines. So quite a few people just happen across the site.
The Top 25 referring sites are listed below:
The 25 pages attracting the most views are:
It is interesting to note that the posts for Genealogy Carnivals attract a large number of hits.
Will the Geniaus blog be around to celebrate a second birthday?
I think it will. Without access to a reliable crystal ball I cannot make an accurate prediction. As new tools such as Google Wave and who-knows-what-else appear and enter the mainstream this blog might outlive its usefulness and my minds meanderings may move to a new more exciting and innovative platform.
And now to back up twelve months of Genaius posts for the future generations' family archives.....
Geniaus the blog was born.
Reprinted here is my first post from November 7, 2009
Why add yet another blog to the crowded blogosphere?
I thought I would like a place to share progress, reflections and resources as I solve my genealogical jigsaw so here goes - another blog is born.I've been researching the family on and off for the last 20 years and, with retirement looming, hope to finally get organised and solve some of my mysteries.
*******************
Twelve months down the track it is time for reflection.
My blog has evolved to become more of a resource sharing tool and a presence for Geniaus on the web. I have not blogged about every little bit of progress I have made as I don't really think that the genealogy community at large is interested in the minutiae of my research. Taking part in Genealogy Carnivals has given me an opportunity to tell some stories about my family.
I have tended to blog about my big news eg my new family website http://www.geniaus.net and about the tools I use. The blog allows me space to share my latest links from Delicious and my latest posts on Twitter.
On a personal level the blog has has documented my journey as I learn about my family, genealogy and appropriate tools to use. For this purpose alone it has been a worthwhile exercise.
A perusal of the Google Analytics for my site shows that I do not have a huge audience but there are a number of people who follow the blog. Around 1400 people have visited the blog 2500 times and looked at around 4000 pages. During the year people from 49 countries have visited the blog, around half of these visitors are from Australia. Initially the visitors were mostly from the US but over the year this has shifted so that, now most of the readers are from 26 cities in Australia, with Sydney having the most representation.
18.06%of the visits are from direct traffic, 59.98% are from referring sites such as Google , Blogger and other websites and 21.96% come via search engines. So quite a few people just happen across the site.
The Top 25 referring sites are listed below:
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google / organic
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(direct) / (none)
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blogger.com / referral
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google.com / referral
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google.com.au / referral
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blogfinder.genealogue.com / referral
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genealogywise.com / referral
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creativegene.blogspot.com / referral
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shadesofthedeparted.com / referral
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bloglines.com / referral
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facebook.com / referral
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fbbootcamp.blogspot.com / referral
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twitter.com / referral
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| 14. |
ifamilyforleopard.com / referral
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| 15. |
geneabloggers.com / referral
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| 16. |
vidarsslektsblogg.blogspot.com / referral
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small-leavedshamrock.blogspot.com / referral
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yahoo / organic
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| 19. |
notebooks-brasil.blogspot.com / referral
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| 20. |
thebesthosting.org / referral
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| 21. |
caroleriley.id.au / referral
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| 22. |
geniaus.blogspot.com / referral
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| 23. |
genblogjulie.blogspot.com / referral
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| 24. |
kinexxions.blogspot.com / referral
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| 25. |
blogcatalog.com / referral
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The 25 pages attracting the most views are:
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It is interesting to note that the posts for Genealogy Carnivals attract a large number of hits.
Will the Geniaus blog be around to celebrate a second birthday?
I think it will. Without access to a reliable crystal ball I cannot make an accurate prediction. As new tools such as Google Wave and who-knows-what-else appear and enter the mainstream this blog might outlive its usefulness and my minds meanderings may move to a new more exciting and innovative platform.
And now to back up twelve months of Genaius posts for the future generations' family archives.....
I hope you do stick around for many years to come. You fill a need in the blogosphere for genealogy news with an Australian focus that no one else comes close to.
ReplyDeleteI often find news from your posts and tweets on a local level that I would never come across otherwise.
Please keep it up! We need you!