Mapping Readers Around The World

I love maps, I love data and I love blogging. Perhaps the most rewarding part of blogging is when maps and data come together with Google Analytics enabling me to see all the different places from which people access my blog.

Using Google Analytics to track new blog readership starts out very slowly, with a few visits from your own area, probably because you forgot to block your IP address. After a few days and a few posts you might add a couple extra page views, this time it's usually a relative or friend. In time, you might even get someone to subscribe after you send out a tweet with a link to your blog. At some point, your blog becomes well indexed by Google and you start getting readers from all over the world, resulting from all sorts of strange search terms. This is when the blog begins to grow organically, and it is at this point where the readership maps become interesting.

Perhaps due to the world focus of this blog, I've been able to attract readers from all over the world.

I've included a map showing the location of World Geo Blog readers over the last several weeks. I've also added a new page called 'Who reads WGB?" (because I couldn't think of anything clever) up top. I'll be updating that page with various maps and metrics furnished by Google Analytics.



Sweet!

Fun fact: This blog is accessed more in London than any other place in the world. That leads me to believe that I have some loyal Londoners (had to Google that demonym) as readers. To be completely honest, with regard to "demonym", I had to use Google to figure out which word I was looking for in the first place. Fun fact number two, you get some unexpected results when you google "what do you call people from a particular place". :)

So, where are YOU? I encourage you to leave a comment and let me know which city or country you are writing from. How's the weather in your neck of the woods?