Factoids

Make of this what you will.

Out of a string of 12 visitors to the blog early Saturday, 8 were from the US, and 1 each came from: Kenya, France, Netherland Antilles, and Finland. All four of the non-US hits found me via Google. And here's the search phrase each began with:

Kenya: "Perseverance"

France: "The Birds and the Foxes Thurber"

Netherland Antilles: "perseverance"

Finland: "nothstine.blogspot.com"

Background: By far, the search topic that has brought the most Google searchers to me has been the word "perseverance," with the Thurber fable, and the National Lampoon/Ted Kennedy/floating Volkswagen story a somewhat distant second and third, respectively. Lots of people out there Googling about those three things. I can't exactly explain why it got me readers from those particular countries on that Saturday, though. Probably better I don't know--left to my imagination, the explanation becomes a lot more fun than it most likely is in reality.

(I'm just stumped by the odd fact that Finland found me by Googling my URL--which means they didn't need to Google me at all, unless we assume they knew how to Google but didn't know what to do with a URL, which strikes me as an almost Pythonesque incapacity.)

"Perserverance" has an interesting story: From the beginning, it's outdistanced all the other keyword hits. I picked the blog title because I liked that Jefferson quote, and it was alliterative, and it was about persuasion, which gave it a tie-in to some of the ideas I planned to write about. What I didn't realize--didn't even consider--was that "Persuasion, Perseverance, and Patience" was going to be a total conversation-killer when someone would ask me "so, what's your blog called?" and I'd tell them. There'd be this long, awkward pause, and then we'd both start patting our pockets for a pencil and paper, because it was obviously way too long and clunky to remember. (Plus the blog URL isn't the same as the blog name--and worse, it's my name, which is also not easily picked up, let alone correctly spelled, in conversation.)

So anyway, the title has worked against me as a word-of-mouth device. It was too much of a word-of-mouthful. (That's why, with the anniversary makeover, I started the "p3" rebranding process.) But, in an odd way, it's worked for me as far as Google hits from the rest of the country and the world--although, of course, anyone visiting my site because they Googled "perseverance" isn't likely to stay very long or return.

Now, of course, with a year or so to think about it, I realize that blog- (and URL-) naming would be wise to follow these rules:

• No more than two words (three in a pinch, not counting "the," although I'd probably avoid "the" if possible).


• Three or four syllables total. Two syllables or five would be all right if the name was strong in other respects.


• Use a pun, a twist on a familiar phrase, or an esoteric/invented word.


• All spellings should be phonetically obvious.
  

(Compare "the rules" with the blog names on my blogroll in the sidebar.)

So, here's a p3 Reader Survey: If we were going to rename this blog following "the rules" (and, just to be clear, we're not), what would be a better name for it?