16 June 2012

Blog Stats & Audience Following - Medicaid Waiver Interest

Quite a few folks continue to ask me about the web stats of this blog, specifically, the inquiring minds of interested parties, constituents, institutions, agencies, and organizations throughout the State of North Carolina... so in the spirit of public information and transparency, I have opened the web stats for this project.

Visitor Map screen shot, current as of June 16, 2012 (click image to enlarge).

It's important to note, regarding total hits, that the number reflected at the bottom of the page (5,683 as of this posting) is the correct total of unique hits since the initial launch of this parent / public information blog in February of 2012. StatCounter was installed in May, so the data you see compiled only reflects activity from May onward.

Visitor Visit Graph over the last 4 weeks (click image to enlarge).

A few things to know about web stats (for a DIY blog with third party plugin)... Most of us utilize a Internet provider service network (Roadrunner, Bellsouth, etc.) and most of us are wireless these days so that does skew the stats a bit and interferes with the reliability of pinpointing exact location, though generally the county geographic will be mostly accurate though more rural counties may be bouncing from larger cities / areas and should not be discounted. Also, as return visits are calculated by "cookies" and individual browser settings often default to not allow cookies to be set (for security purposes), returning visits are not very reliable. Links accessed through Facebook's interface will appear as California / Facebook hits regardless of physical location - though I know the majority are NC folks from the Facebook group. Lastly, downloads are not tracked as files are hosted on Dropbox, though the "exit links" are a good indicator. --I'm sure there are other things as well.. but then again, I was a web designer a hundred years ago, a skill not at all like "riding a bike." 

By scrolling through 'Visitor Paths,' you can see the geographic location of visitors, how they arrived, search terms and / or links, which pages were viewed, etc. Designated IPs are easily identifiable, such as universities, state and federal government, and larger businesses or organizations.

To date, the counties below reflect this blog's geographic viewing area. I have labeled each North Carolina visitor by county within the stats and linked each county listed below to it's respective legislative representation for your convenience.
To find out who your voting representatives are, visit the NC General Assembly search page.
For more on who's involved and how to advocate, see Speak Up!
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