I promised the other day that I would share the latest bedlamfarm.com statistics as soon as I got them. Today, I signed a new hosting contract with Mannix Marketing, my blog designers, and long time guides and partners. And I got the stats.

The servers sharing the other blogs Mannix runs were not big enough anymore, and I was surprised and curious. Mannix does a lot of business.

I was rattled and I asked for support. Things just got more expensive.

But I couldn’t quite grasp it all. Why would my little blog require a big and expensive new server?

I never look at blog stats; I don’t want them in my head, it’s too easy to write to what people like rather than what I think is good.

But it was time I took a closer look.

My hosting fees have more than doubled now, and the new stats explain why. I started the blog in 2007 as a long and desperate shot to have a place to write in freedom and authenticity, something that was becoming more and more difficult for me to do as publishing changed after 2008.

My editors and writing peers thought my blog was a stupid idea, doomed to fail. It reminded them of Hallmark cards, one said.

I was pretty scared myself,  but more than 20 years later, I see it as the best decision of my creative life. At long last, I am free.

I love my blog. It is a calling, never a job. It is my great work, my living memoir. I’m not obtuse, I know there are a lot of readers out there.

But still, I was not prepared for the stats Sara Mannix sent me. In 2020 I had nearly four million page views of the Bedlam Farm Journal.

The average blog says Mannix uses under 1 gig of space. Mine uses 28 gigs of space, as it is updated constantly, and new content is added daily.

The average small business site has 200-500 visits a month. Last month the Bedlam Farm Journal averaged between 131,397 visits (sessions) and 190,000.

My biggest single-day ever was April 5th, when I began writing about politics and contrasted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s reality-tv style with Donald Trump’s. That piece got 100,000 page views one day; most people found the article on Facebook.

My blog has 1,152,287 users, and 1, 144,650 new users, and a total of 2,580,092 “sessions” or visits in 2020.

My total page views for 2020 were 3,607,960.

No wonder I’m getting so many messages inquiring if I will take ads on the site. So far, the answer is no. If I can hold out, the answer will stay no. Your support helps. Thank you.

(A “session,” formerly called a “visit,” tracks the interactions that take place on a log within a specific time frame.

The timeframe is usually set so that a session ends once there has been 30 minutes of activity. Sessions are an important measure of blogs because it means readers are spending substantial time in one place.

Users: Formerly called “unique visitors,” users are the number of individual visitors who have at least one session within the chosen time frame, usually one month.

Total Page Views: This is the total number of pages that  users looked at on a blog within the chosen time frame (usually one month.)

I was shocked by these stats and immensely proud. I work hard on my blog every day and intend to do that until I can’t write or think any longer.

I write longer than blog writers are supposed to write and in more detail and often with more typos,  and it is gratifying beyond words to learn so many people are willing to read my thoughts and comments.

(I have purchased a sophisticated proofreading system and it is starting to get to know me.)

I think my decision to incorporate my photographs directly into the blog format was helpful to the blog’s growth. Pictures have credibility. People believe what they see, not always what they read.

My blog was inspired by E.B. White’s famous magazine column “One Man’s Meat,” his mix of thought, humor, animals, and rural life on his farm in Maine. This set the Bedlam Farm Journal tone. Thanks, E.B.

Rattled by the new monthly fee, I wrote yesterday about the need to step my monthly appeals for blog support. The good news was those stats; the bad news is what they will cost. Thank you for your support.

I am thrilled and grateful, and thanks to you good people for sticking with me, prodding me, putting up with me, trusting in me. You have made me a better human, and I still have a ways to go.

Apart from persuading Maria to marry me, my blog is the one achievement in my life I am the proudest of.