Some things I've learned so far (about blogging)

I thought I'd put up a quick list of things I've learned since starting my blog. Some are pretty obvious but they're things I didn't know at the start of my blogging adventure:

1. If someone follows you, it's polite to follow back - if I forgot to follow you back, do let me know please ;)
2. It's good if you have a link to your blog somewhere on your Blogger profile (or Google+ profile as the case may be)
3. When you switch your blog's URL

• you need to change a lot of links from previous posts, as well as in your blog pages
• all your stats get brought to the new blog, and yet Google still knows that your old blog is the one that got all the visits, so it takes time to get the new blog as well known by the Google bots - a really good way of helping this is participating in the A to Z challenge ;)
4. You can list your most popular posts by weekly, monthly or "all time" popularity (thanks Father Dragon for the tip!)
5. Captcha is really annoying and you can't even tell if you have it set to "on" without checking, because your own comments post just fine. Also, for some unlucky blogs, not having Captcha on means getting heaps of spam (so glad this isn't me!)
6. There's no accounting for which posts of yours are going to get the most views - sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it!
7. Blogfests/hops are a great way to meet new bloggers and get activity on your blog! Plus, they're excellent for those times when you're having a lack of inspiration and need ideas for what to post!
8. Image copyright is something really important to respect
9. The top commenters widget I'm using appears to be buggy :)

I'm sure there's heaps more I could add, but I can't think of it right now. And yes, that is meant to be a lightbulb. :)

Blog stats - a vicious cycle?

Have you guys ever checked out your blog stats and gone, "Why the heck is THAT my most-visited post?" I've been doing that for many months now, and wondering if my most visited posts are only that because they've been the "most visited" in my list for a long time now, so they are naturally the ones that new visitors are going to check out when they first pop over to my blog. To get further into what I mean, these are my top 6 posts:

• The ay to zee challenge (2011) wrap up post! (4553 visits)
• Every time I think I don't have to post for at least one day... (3240 visits)
• Travel Series: NEW ZEALAND (650 visits)
• A-Z blogging challenge "V" - Voltron (and...) (539 visits)
• Did I Notice Your Book? - blogfest (473 visits)

Some of those I can understand being popular on their own merit, i.e. the one about my 1998 travels in New Zealand (NZ is so in right now, thanks to LotR and so on), and maybe the Voltron post - I mean, Voltron is legendary! Seriously, though, I really do think that these posts get so many visits only because they're listed as most popular and already have heaps of visits. For e.g., the "Every time I think..." post consists of very little of great value, and yet it's my 2nd most popular post by far.

What do you think?