It’s De-Lurking Day, So Leave a Comment!
What is De-Lurking Day? Today is the day that I encourage all of my site visitors to go ahead and leave a comment. Say whatever you want. If your mind is blank, say hello, who you are, where you’re from, and what type of content you enjoy on the site (bike stuff, the random stupid stuff, web design stuff?).
Lately I’ve been looking at my stats, and without digging to deeply into it, I see that I’m getting somewhere between 50-100 hits a day. That’s not a ton, but it’s certainly out of proportion with the number of comments I’m getting. There are about a dozen people that regularly leave comments on this site (and I love you all). I think the posts and the site itself is more fun because of the conversations that take place after I publish a new post. The more comments, the better the conversations and the better the site!
I’ve also been using Crazy Egg for some real estate analysis on my site — to see where people tend to click. I’m going to do a full write-up on Crazy Egg soon, but in the meantime, take a look at the aggregate activity on my homepage, the brighter the spot, the more that area is getting clicked:
I’ve noticed that the Artwork tab is getting a lot of action, but I haven’t posted anything new there in a long time. This has inspired me to really beef up this section, since I wasn’t sure if folks were even interested in that. Web Design and Bike Lane are also getting lots of clicks, which is great because these three categories are the ones that I am most interested in.
Gadgets & Technology posts will still exist here and there, but that tab will likely go away, and I think Random just needs to get renamed to set better expectations of what’s there. Those posts tend to be on the personal side, and I have a feeling if I rename the tab Personal, it will sound juicier and I’ll get more hits.
I am also thinking about totally re-working the right rail, the Recent Articles section is some prime real estate that I think could be better used. Oh, and just so you know, De-Lurking Day could easily turn into De-Lurking Week because I’m about to head out of town to my friends’ wedding in Hawaii! Not sure if I’ll have internet access on my trip, so just keep the comments rolling in, I can’t wait to see how many new peeps surface because of De-Lurking — you can do it!
This concept was inspired by Veerle’s Are you a lurker? posts.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Frist Psot!
:-) Hi Sally. I like the egg-whatever-that-graphic is. That’s really neat.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Hey Sal!
Funny, I just e-amiled you for advice on fixin’ a website. The Crazy Egg would surely be helpful, I’ll have to see.
My thrid block Visual Basic class says hello. I suppose they are officially delurking for the day. (does that count as 23 hits?)
September 13th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Sure, why not? Haha! Hello Visual Basic class!
September 13th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
my name is albert and i am an alcoholic.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
I think the artwork is a great idea. Between the doodles and the whiteboard fotos, you could easily do one a week. You don’t even need any text…just post the picture.
That drawing of your ride into work reminds me of when my dad was younger, he used to ride in the NYC on his motorcycle with a bunch of friends. I think he was like 20. Anyway, going through traffic, the motorcycles could sometimes squeeze by when the cars were stuck. All of the guys carried something on their bike that they could put through someone’s windshield if someone tried to cut them off!
September 13th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Because of you, I spent half an hour talking to a guy about fixed-gear bikes.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Hello. Offically de-lurking. Is that anything like turkey-lurkey?
Anyway, I like the web design stuff and the bike stuff…because that’s what I go to the web to see, and there’s only a few people out there with fixed surly’s, a blog, and web design skills. Like my run on sentence? Dems my gramma’ skillz.
September 13th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
I’m a little confused about the Crazy Egg graphic. How many clicks does that image represent? The hot spots seem a bit too focused for it to include many clicks.
September 13th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Your post on pickle juice was great. I suggested pickle juice to a hungover friend just a few days ago, citing your blog and extolling the merits of electrolytes. Instead, he ate a burrito. But I tried. I really did.
September 14th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Missed it by a day. Sorry, Sal. I’m curious about the CrazyEgg thing…how is it able to plot where people clicked the same link on the X/Y coordinates? Maybe I’m seeing things, but it looks like they’re plotting geographically (like on the last tab at the top where there are two different spots being plotted) as well as for popularity. Is that correct, or is that legacy stuff from when links were positioned differently in previous iterations of that page?
September 14th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Hey Sally! I’m not a lurker but I’ll represent myself anyway. Have fun in Hawaii!
September 14th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
Sally, you may or may not remember me but I knew you at VCU (Chris S.’s roomate).I was google image searching pics of Surleys(and other) bikes a few days ago when your “sport utility vehicle” popped up. Thinking this was funny, I clicked the pic and it dumped me here. Still pretty surprised. We didn’t know each other all that well in Richmond, and I’m feeling somewhat weird about leaving a message, but what the heck.)It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you or Chris, but just thought I’d say hi. Blast from the Richmond past. Nice site.
September 14th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
hey sally
how strange–the first time i check out your site it’s de-lurking day. this is sam you-probably-don’t-rememeber. we met at SXSW and I think the last time I saw you was in Lance Armstrong’s bar. I had an idea for a bike website today and decided i’d finally check yours out. a few months ago one of my roommates got back from a bike thing in richmond and i saw him checking your page out. it was weird. anyways, hope everything’s going well.
sam
September 14th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
p.s. i drink pickle juice too. at first it was just for hydration on longer rides, but now i like the taste on its own. over the summer, a girl i sort of know sent out a listserv message saying she needed a gallon of pickles taken off her hands so she could use the jar for making tea or something (she’s kind of a hippie). i put the pickels in a big ice cream container i had and the juice went in a nalgene bottle. it didn’t make it home.
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Just wanted to de-lurk. Not that I was lurking before–this is my first time here. Came through Harris Cyclery. Just converted my bike to fixed gear two days ago after months of fixed gear lust. My legs are sore and I almost got launched a couple of times, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.
Like the site–I’ll be back to check it out again.
PS
My wife likes to drink pickle juice, but I’ve not tried it.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Hi. I got your card from a party i went to a while back (yun & sheva’s baby shower?). anyway, i was going thru a stack of biz cards, saw yours and came to check out your site. i love your skateboard stick animations!
Hope you’re well.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Hi Sharon! Thanks for stopping by the site!
November 28th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Hi.
Good design, who make it?
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 am
Test message
Sorry me noob…