It’s a while ago now since this blog notched up its 250,000th visitor but I was too busy to notice it at the time and the moment for that little blog milestone passed by.
But today I discovered something else I’m rather pleased about:
There are dozens of those blog-ranking sites around now, and most of them are popularity-based which means that a niche blog like mine is rarely going to get a mention. At BlogRank, for example, the top blog is Paul Coelho’s blog. (The only surprising thing about that is that Dan Brown’s blog isn’t at the top LOL but maybe he doesn’t have a blog).
However, BlogRank also gathers stats about blogs that have the Most Unique Monthly Visitors, and guess what, ANZ LitLovers comes in at no 47! Not only that, it’s no 25 in the ranking for Top Books blogs by the number of pages indexed by Google (all that work tagging and categorising pays off!) and it’s no 49 in the Top Books blogs by Compete rank.
I am really pleased to see that some of my favourite blogs also get a mention too – Kim’s Reading Matters, (love that stylish new look, Kim!) and Iris on Books (who hosts Dutch Reading Month and has the most beautiful header online). I’m a regular visitor to both these blogs and they’re terrific.
But so is every one of the blogs listed in my blogroll, even if BlogRank doesn’t know it yet. I visit them regularly too, as you’ll know if you read comments too. (Isn’t it amazing how comments on book blogs are nice to read, compared with the foul dross on so many online sites?! It must be because booklovers are nice people, eh?) If you’re a booklover, there is no smarter way to find out what’s good to read than to browse these blogs regularly, or better still, to subscribe to them so that every time they post a review, you know about it.
Must go, it’s National Bookshop Day and I’m off to visit my current favourite, Benn’s Bookshop in Bentleigh!
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Congratulations! What lovely news.
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By: Stephanie @ Read in a Single Sitting on August 11, 2012
at 11:56 am
Huzzah for you Lisa. You obviously invest a great deal of time in your reading and in writing such thorough considered reviews. So it’s great that’s being recognised by readers.
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By: annabelsmith on August 11, 2012
at 12:20 pm
Well done Lisa – well deserved :)
Now if there was a list of the bottom 50, I might be in with a shot ;)
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By: Tony on August 11, 2012
at 1:03 pm
Nonsense, Tony, you probably have more international visitors than I do with your focus on Japanese and German literature. Your blog is one of my favourites:)
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By: Lisa Hill on August 11, 2012
at 10:42 pm
Congrats Lisa … much deserved for all the hard work you do.
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By: whisperinggums on August 11, 2012
at 3:52 pm
Wow – what an amazing achievement! Congratulations, Lisa!
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By: Michelle ~ Book to the Future on August 11, 2012
at 6:14 pm
Félicitations! C’est bien mérité
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By: Emma on August 11, 2012
at 7:59 pm
Congrats Lisa!
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By: shelleyrae @ Book'd Out on August 11, 2012
at 9:53 pm
Thank you all, you lovely people!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 11, 2012
at 10:42 pm
Quarter of a mil, what a milestone indeed.
Your enthusiasm and work ethic never cease to amaze me.
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By: karenlee thompson on August 12, 2012
at 7:35 am
Thanks, Karen – but what amazes me is that there are so many booklovers out there, booklovers who like my kind of books. I’ve spent most of my life not knowing anyone who shared my taste in books. I knew these people existed because otherwise the books wouldn’t be published and sold. But I didn’t know where they were. And now I have what I’ve always wanted, friends to talk about books with!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 12, 2012
at 7:46 am
that’s what I love about the Internet – everyone can find their own kooky little niche
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By: annabelsmith on August 12, 2012
at 12:23 pm
do you know roughly how many regular readers you have? and/or subscribers?
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By: annabelsmith on August 13, 2012
at 5:06 pm
Sort of. WordPress (when it’s not having a hissyfit like it is today) will tell you how many have subscribed through their email service, but that doesn’t tell you how many you have through Google Reader or RSS. The number of visits is always more than it looks too, because many people just read the post (or part of it) on Linked IN or Facebook so they don’t actually visit. I do this myself, I subscribe to so many blogs that I find it easier to scroll through and pick out the topics I have time for (there’s never enough time to read ’em all!) and if I want to comment, then I actually visit the blog.
But I don’t get hung up about it. It’s like having Facebook and GoodReads friends, if I didn’t have any I’d feel a bit miffed, but I don’t count them or compare them to other people. And I only agree to be FB or GR friends with people I know.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 13, 2012
at 5:54 pm
Ah that’s interesting. I’m just starting to look at the google analytics data for my blog. I try not to get too obsessed with it!
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By: annabelsmith on August 13, 2012
at 7:33 pm
Congratulations Lisa, I only discovered your blog a few months ago, but I greatly enjoy it. You review a lot of great titles but I really like the fact that I can discover a lot of new authors and titles especially from NZ ( they have a lot of great authors who are pretty much unknown to the rest of the world)
Anna from The Reading Room
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By: anna on August 14, 2012
at 9:29 am
Hi Anna, and welcome!
I never feel as if I review enough NZ titles, and this is a pity because trhe ones I’ve read have been very impressive indeed.
Not making excuses, but this is partly because new releases and debut authors (of my kind of literary fiction, that is) are so difficult to find out about and to source here. (Which is absurd, considering that NZ is just across the ditch.) I’m on a bit of a Russian spree at the moment, but I do intend to tackle the ones I have on my TBR soon:)
Lisa
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By: Lisa Hill on August 14, 2012
at 3:38 pm
Have you tried Kurkov? If not I strongly recommend Death and the Penguin! one of my favourite contemporary Russian writers another one that I read recently and really loved was “Partial History of Lost Causes” although it is not Russian, it takes places mostly in Russia and I truly though it was a brilliant novel. You can check my review on The Reading Room site by calling this title up.
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By: Anna on August 19, 2012
at 6:07 pm
Congratulations Lisa, what an achievement, I’m so glad to see you recognised for the obvious amount of work that you do on the blog. I’m always astonished by how thorough and thoughtful your posts are. I’m glad the rest of the world is noticing, and the counters are too.
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By: Louise on August 14, 2012
at 11:52 pm
Thanks, Louise!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 15, 2012
at 12:15 am
Congratulations, Lisa. This is well derserved and earned.
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By: readinpleasure on August 15, 2012
at 1:21 am
an amazing milestone I just about to pass 200000 next few days myself ,I love your blog so lets hope there are many more milestones Lisa ,all the best stu
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By: winstonsdad on August 17, 2012
at 1:44 am
It’s a buzz, isn’t it *smile*
I might miss your milestone because I’ll be in transit for a while, so here’s congratulations to you too in advance!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 17, 2012
at 11:14 am
Aw, thank you for the kind words! I didn’t know I was ever ranked on BlogRank. It appears I’m not anymore, but looking at the other names on the lists I feel honoured to have been among them.
Congratulations on the wonderful blogging milestone!
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By: Iris on September 16, 2012
at 10:08 pm
Hi Iris, these strange little bits of recognition for our efforts are nice to have, aren’t they?
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By: Lisa Hill on September 16, 2012
at 10:35 pm