by Debbi | Feb 13, 2009 | Web/Tech
I noticed something exciting (well, to me anyway) last night- this blog reached 20,000 visits yesterday!
I haven't paid much attention to the statistics lately, mostly because they aren't very interesting. The blog averages about 25 visits a day, and the search words that lead people here aren't as funny as they used to be.
It seems like a lot of the traffic comes from Facebook, which is good- that means that people who are actually interested in the Sandbar are the ones arriving here, instead of random people across the country who get here by mistake. I've said before, I'd much rather have ten regular readers (who leave comments!) than fifty randoms who never come back.
The rest of the traffic is the usual "what happens before/during/after a hurricane" searches. It seems like everyone in the world should have an answer to that question by now.
I started the blog back in September, 2006, so it's taken about two and half years to reach 20,000 visits. I think that's pretty good. Thanks for reading!
by Debbi | Nov 12, 2008 | Web/Tech
Can you believe it's November already? It's time to start planning our St. Patrick's Day float!
The blog stayed fairly busy last month. There were 863 visits, which is more than the 689 last year during October, and a few more than last month's 804. Average number of visits every day was almost 28. At least I'm not losing people.
One of my favorite parts of the statistics page for the blog is the referral page- or the silly things people type into Google that lead them here.
makingjelloshots.blogspot.com
- I was surprised to see this show up one day. I clicked on the link and found myself on a blog dedicated to exactly that- making jello shots. I was also surprised to see that the owner of the blog had pretty much cut and pasted my entire post about our jello-fish shots onto their blog. Not cool.
gmailblog.blogspot.com
- So, when I wrote about Gmail's new feature, Mail Goggles, I had no idea that Google apparently has a magic feature that automatically adds a link to anything that links to them (I know, I should have known better, it's Google after all). Within minutes of posting, the Sandbar blog was inundated with what seemed like five thousand visitors from Google.
hurricane famouses
- I don't know about hurricanes, but I can tell you where to go to learn adjectives and proper placement of them.
what do mermaids have for fashion
And, my favorite search phrase of all time….
how do you dress up as a hurricane for Halloween
I don't have an answer for that one.
by Debbi | Nov 7, 2008 | Web/Tech
We're trying to locate as many former employees as possible so we can try to keep better tabs on where they are and what they're doing these days.
As you may know, The Sandbar turns 20 years old next year. Back in 2004, we had a fabulous reunion bus tour and dinner, and while it was mostly made up of people who worked or played at the bar at that time, there were a few people who came back to participate. I'm sure we'll do something bigger and better next year and it would be really cool to get a bunch of former employees back together.
We have a new group on Facebook called "Sandbar Employees Past and Present!" It's a closed group so random groupies don't join, but if you ever worked at The Sandbar and you're on Facebook, please make a request to join the group. Even if you only worked there one night you can still be a member. You can find the group here.
The group already has 29 members, so we're off to a good start! Once upon a time, Dave and some of the other guys made a list of every former staffer they could think of, and it was a long list. Unfortunately I can't find it right now, but it's here somewhere. Check out the group, and if you know of someone who isn't a member, let me know.
by Debbi | Oct 14, 2008 | Web/Tech
September is usually the slowest month of the year at The Sandbar, which might seem ironic to some since we're located in a college town. We attribute the slowdown to everyone getting back into the swing of the school year and checking out new places, then slowly finding their way back to their old favorite.
The blog was no different- visits in September numbered exactly seven more than the month before; not much of an increase. But, more importantly, the 804 visits this year were a big improvement over the 627 for September of last year.
What were people searching for this month on the internet?
Once hurricane season begins, the Google searches for hurricane information dramatically increase. Some of the amusing ones this month, which I haven't seen before:
- What happens when two hurricanes feed each other?
- Poem for wedding during hurricane
- What happens to fish during a hurricane
And of course, the most popular search of all time featuring the word hurricane, "what happens during a hurricane."
The keyword searches that people used this month which led them to The Sandbar weren't all that interesting or unusual. Lots of people looking for all things mermaid- decor, paintings, and pictures. And lots of people looking for Landshark Lager stuff. And other Sandbar locations. The usual stuff.
by Debbi | Oct 12, 2008 | Web/Tech
The other day while I was perusing The Sandbar Facebook page, I noticed that Frank (yes, that Frank) had become a fan of our neighbor directly to the east, the Eighth Street Taproom. I was intrigued that the Taproom had a web presence, so I checked out their page, and to my surprise I found that they also have an actual website as well, and a pretty cool one at that.
Apparently, they love (or hate?) being our neighbor so much, that The Sandbar got a shout-out at the top of their website. Go check it out.
Anyway, one of the things I noticed on both their website and their Facebook page is that they have a Flickr group for the bar, and anyone who has a Flickr account and joins their group can upload pictures to be shared with the rest of the group.
I thought this was a cool idea, so I decided to borrow it. Thanks, Taproom people, I hope you don't mind.
If you have a Flickr account and want to share your Sandbar pictures with us, join the Sandbar group and upload away. If you don't already have a Flickr account, it's really easy to sign up.
I did a quick search on Flickr for "Sandbar Lawrence" and found lots of fun pictures that people have posted. We'd love to see more!
by Debbi | Sep 23, 2008 | Web/Tech
August was kind of a slow month around the blog, but if it means all of you were outside enjoying the sunshine instead, that's okay with me.
The total number of visits for the month was 797, which is still more than last August's tally of 516 visits, but down from last month's 952. It worked out to almost 26 visits per day.
As always, the search words and phrases that led people to the Sandbar's blog were of interest:
hula girl bike horn: This brought back fond memories of the now-defunct Sandbar gift shop and one of the trinkets that hung on the walls. It was a cute little hula girl sitting on a bike horn, and for a time, we all had one on our bikes.
mermaids with no braws: Yes, that's how it was spelled. I don't think you'll find mermaids anywhere with "braws." And probably not with bras, either.
pirate tractor float: Now there's a combination, why didn't we think of that one? Perhaps we would win the grand prize trophy.
wackiest hurricane track: I'm not exactly sure what this person was looking for; maybe the wackiest path of a hurricane? Apparently Google thinks our song is the wackiest hurricane track.
jimmy jimmy my love of the sea: When you put this phrase in quotation marks and search, our site is the only one that appears. It's that unique.
Joe's Crab Shack Bahama Mama: Because borrowing the Shark Attack wasn't quite enough. Now they have all of our drinks on their menu.
And lots of people looking for flamingo trinkets. We are too, so if you find some, let me know.
