It puzzles me, really, that a year-and-a-half after the China trip, this blog still gets about a dozen hits a day.
What's interesting about it is finding out from the list of referring Web addresses what searches and sites bring people here. The most common search that leads to this site is the phrase "Ni hen piaoliang" (You're very pretty). It was the best-read post on this blog, and every day a couple people still want to know more about the phrase. The second-most-popular search is "stupidcensorship," the Web site that helps people unblock blocked Web sites. I've been told that China has liberalized its blog blocks since I was there. Maybe that's why I don't get those hits like I used to.
Mentioning "Ni hen piaoliang" and stupidcensorship in this post undoubtedly increases the chance that they will continue to be dominant sources for my trickle of daily traffic, thus justifying the $4.95 I give Typepad every month to keep the site alive. The reason I'm posting today, in May of 2007, is an attempt to learn about what brings people from my other main source of hits: my blog from the 2004 political campaigns.
Through the inscrutable logic of Google, that paleo-Ozblog is the first thing that pumps up on a search for my name, including the now-embarrassing, misspelled "Enjoy if yer curious" tagline. (The "yer" is an obscure Janis Joplin reference, and if yer still reading, I can safely make that digression and not lose your attention.) A lot of my hits come from the link on that site to this site, and THAT means that THOSE people may actually be looking for ME, a theory always strengthened whenever I'm on TV (like when I was on C-SPAN yesterday moderating a National Press Club luncheon) and those Ozblog hits jump right at airtime.
(Apparently people Google other people while watching them on TV. What the Internet teaches us.)
So -- here's my question. If for some reason you arrived at this site in a search for "Alan Bjerga," who _are_ you, and why do you care? Send me an e-mail if you feel like it. Maybe you're a lobbyist or a PR person probing for info before I interview your boss. Maybe you're doing a longitudinal study of ex-"Jeopardy!" contestants for signs of increased desperation over time. Or maybe you had a crush on me sophomore year and you were wistfully sighing over what might have been while sipping your soy latte. If so, I have no idea who you are -- nobody had a crush on me sophomore year -- but please, do tell. Ni hen piaoliang ma?
Whoever you are -- hope you're well, and welcome to the site. It was a pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.
