"REAL TIME" BLOGGING

BLOGGING IN "REAL TIME" THIS WEEK WAS KINDA DIFFERENT. WITH JUST MARY AND I OUT IN NEVADA WE TEND TO WRITE A BLOG AND JUST PUT IT IN THE "DRAFTS" FOLDER. THEN AT NIGHT BEFORE I GO TO BED, I PICK OUT A BLOG ENTRY TO POST FOR THE NEXT DAY. REALLY, WHAT DO YOU CARE IF WE PLANTED TOMATOE SEEDS ON MONDAY OR WEDNESDAY? SOMETIMES THE "DRAFT FOLDER" IS EMPTY, AND SOMETIMES THERE MAYBE SEVERAL BLOGS WRITTEN THAT WE ARE WORKING ON.

BUT THIS WEEK WITH CHAD HERE, WE WERE BLOGGING IN "REAL TIME", AND HIS SISTERS AT HOME WANTED TO READ WHAT CHAD AND HIS MOTHER WERE UP TO TODAY, NOT SEVERAL DAYS BACK. FRANKLY WE DIDN'T DO SO WELL, AND EVEN RECEIVED AN E-MAIL WONDERING IF WE WERE OK? WE HOPE THE NICE WEB ALBUM OF PICTURES MADE UP FOR OUR SLOPPY BLOGGING.

I HAVE RECENTLY FOUND SOME FREE SOFTWARE AT STATCOUNTER.COM THAT ALLOWS ME TO INVISIBLY TRACK YOU, OUR READERS. IT TELLS ME YOUR COMPUTER'S IP NUMBER, BUT NOT YOUR NAME, WHERE YOUR INTERNET HOST IS LOCATED, FOR EXAMPLE WHEN TERESA LOGS ONTO OUR BLOG FROM WORK IT INDICATES THE POSTVILLE SCHOOL SYSTEM, BUT LISTS DUBUQUE, IA AS WHERE SHE'S AT.

IT ALSO TELLS WHAT TIME YOU LOGGED ON, HOW LONG YOU WERE ON THE SITE, HOW MANY DIFFERENT PAGES OF THE BLOG YOU CLICKED ON, WHICH WEBSITE YOU WERE ON BEFORE YOU CLICKED ON MY BLOG. SO FOR EXAMPLE, I KNOW BARBRA IS A DAILY EARLY MORNING READER, AND TO GET TO MY BLOG SHE CLICKS ON A LINK FROM HER BLOG.

I AM ALSO NOW ABLE TO GET THE ACCURATE NUMBER OF READERS EACH DAY, INSTEAD OF JUST PAGE HITS.

MY POINT IS FROM THE OLD HILLSTREET BLUES TV SHOW, "LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE" WHEN YOU'RE SITTING IN FRONT OF YOUR COMPUTER. IF I CAN LEARN THIS MUCH ABOUT YOU FOR FREE, IMAGINE WHATS TO BE LEARNED FOR A FEE? WHEN YOU TURN ON THAT COMPUTER "BIG BROTHER" IS DEFINETLY WATCHING.