I doubt any of my readers spend enough time looking at my bestsellers widget to notice, but there is one rather puzzling thing happening there.
“Grandma vs. the Alien: Chapter 2” persists. That whole sad story started late last summer, yet it didn’t become a popular post until February. More curious, to me, is that Chapter 2, although obviously not the beginning of the story, gets all the hits. Don’t most people begin at the beginning when they read a story?
I’m guessing that it has something to do with Chapter 1 being originally titled “Grandma got run over by a … computer.” I finally changed that to make it clear that it was the beginning of the Alienware story, but Chapter 2 is what stays on the bestseller list.
Anyone have any ideas about this? My best guess is that the Chapter 2 title got more widely distributed first (no doubt being a huge hit all over the Internet — not), so more people come here following that link. Once they arrive, the referral to Chapter 1 may get their reading started in the right place, but since they didn’t land there first, it doesn’t count, stat-wise. Is that how it works? Anyone?
I’d much prefer a counter that counts every post that gets clicked on, not just the one each visitor arrives on first. But I’m kind of a stat whore.