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Category Archives: Administrative
WSGS Blog Analytics
One of the more interesting part of posting all these articles on the blog is checking to see which blog posts are read by the most people. Google Analytics keeps track of which blog posts are read the most, which have the highest bounce rate (people that only read one article), and duration of time on the article. They recently added a switch to turn off listings from known search bots which really are not blog readers.
The majority of our readers are from the United States, but we get readers from many countries, today ten countries are listed from Brazil to Slovakia. I am always amazed we get very few from Canada even though we are very close to British Columbia.
To break down where the readers are, Google Analytics also lists the city of the reader, and for the past year or so that city is Chicago. In case you did not know they collect information on conferences, seminars and even monthly genealogical programs and post them on a list of genealogical happenings for the whole country and that is done in Chicago. Number 2 on that list is always Seattle, I guess since they are the largest city in Washington. Past Seattle is a bunch of other cities that change places almost daily, but usually the next two are Spokane and Wenatchee. In this weeks top 25 is Brookline, San Francisco, Des Moines Iowa, San Antonio, Ashburn and New York. There was also two readers from Busan in Korea.
We have as of today 875 subscribers to this blog, and I guess it is one of the largest of any of the blogs from the Easy Net sites that many genealogical societies subscribe to. Only about half of those subscribed read the blog weekly. So how do others find the blog? Google is the most used method. All blogs are easily found by Google and all the other search engines. So what article was most searched by Google this last month? It was an article on the University of Washington genealogy Class that was posted in 2015: http://wasgs.org/blog/2015/06/04/university-of-washington-genealogy-class/
New Blog Banner Photos Posted
Have you noticed the Blog banner changes every time you visit? The photos are submitted by readers like you — and Sue Schack Jensen, Library Director at the Seattle Genealogical Society. Sue recently sent us three beautiful scenic photos of Picnic Point on the Puget Sound near Edmonds.
We’re always looking for scenic photos of our beautiful state for the rotating photo gallery on the blog banner. It’s easy — just send a Washington State jpg image to wsgsblog@wasgs.org with a description of the photo. The blog masters will take care of the rest!
Hay There! Your Photo Could Be Here!
Have you noticed the banner at the top of the page changes every time you visit the Blog? The photos are submitted by readers like you. I just posted a photo of a field of baled hay that I snapped while driving near Brady, just a little east of Montesano.
We’re always looking for scenic photos of our beautiful state for the rotating photo gallery on the blog banner. It’s easy — just send a Washington State jpg image to wsgsblog@wasgs.org with a description of the photo. The blog masters will take care of the rest!
Call for Blog Articles
If you have noticed the blog has been rather boring lately, the lists of meetings is very important, probably the most used part of the blog. The articles of interest have always been near the top of the most read articles each week, so I am asking for our members to submit articles to me to post on the blog. It could be a local attraction, a historical society, a cemetery, a project your society is working on, a review of a book, review of a genealogy program, a tip of the week. or anything else that might interest 800+ Washington State genealogists. Although many people reading this blog are not from Washington, the top city for readers has been Chicago for months edging out Seattle by a large margin.
My E-Mail is CharlesMike4903@gmail.com
Washington State Genealogical Society News
Announcement from the Board of Directors
The Board of WSGS met in Yakima on May 10th & 11th to consider our future. Many changes have come about in the past few years to the science and practice of genealogy. We recognized that WSGS was no longer fulfilling some of our missions developed many years ago. Our current model of business was no longer working.
The Board was challenged with the decision of whether to close our doors or to reinvent WSGS to meet the challenges of staying relevant. The Board made a unanimous decision to take WSGS in a new direction. The renewed WSGS will be rolling out our vision later this year. Hint: preservation! So stay tuned!
Virginia Majewski, President
WSGS Facebook Page
Did you know WSGS has a Facebook page?? Click here: to access the page. Since the Blog digest only comes out weekly, sometimes we get notified about meetings too late to be seen by our subscribers here on the blog so I post the meeting notice on Facebook. I also share many meeting notices and other interesting articles from genealogical societies in the northwest.
Too Many E-Mails
Two years ago I wrote about how to read this blog and any other blog without getting more E-Mails. You can read that article here. I get about 1000-1500 E-Mails a week and I really do not need to get another 100 blog posts each day added to my E-Mails, but I love reading blogs for their hints. I have a blog reader, Feedly and it works great. I have several folders for the blog posts to go to so I have a Genealogy Society Folder, A Genealogy Folder, A Google Folder, A Home & Garden Folder, A Library Folder, A Newspaper Folder (this is my busiest folder about 60 articles a day from the newspapers), A picture folder, and a couple of folders for work.
There is a Feedly app for both IOS and Android smart phones.
Many Genealogical Societies have blogs, many genealogists have a blog, they are great cousin bait. Since Google searches blogs and finds your ancestor in a blog in Texas, you can then contact that blogger and hopefully find a new cousin.
WSGS Blog Year in Review
Since we are in the United States most of the people reading the blog are from the United States. Most of the hits from France was from them checking to see if we were following the new privacy rules the European Union put in this year.
Seattle has always had the top readers of the blog. New York, Ashburn and Boston seem to be locations of Bots since nearly all their sessions are 100% bounce rate (means they only look at one item then leave). The city that amazes me is Wenatchee, which has came close to the top of the list starting in the middle of the year. Notice Paris number five, they are checking on us for the European Union rules.
This is the list of most read blog posts for the year. Number 3 on the list is from 2015! Number 8 on the list is from 2016! I also notice several are found by using the categories to find blog posts. I was amazed that at least some people have found the tags we use for most posts even though we do not have them very easy to find. (They are at the bottom of each post).
It has been a good year and I want to thank all the local genealogical societies that have sent me their information for their seminars and monthly meetings, you can see that they are being read by a lot of people and so hopefully a few will come to your meetings or seminars.
Elections: Pay It Forward To WSGS
It is that time of year folks! Elections are on the horizon for WSGS. Do you have a few spare hours? Would you like to make a contribution to the genealogical community? Would you like to help WSGS transition into a new era? Please contact Donna Potter Phillips, (Donna243@gmail.com), if you are interested or would like more info. Job descriptions are available on the WSGS website, www.wasgs.org
The following Officers and Regional Reps are open or up for re-election:
Officers:
Vice President (open)
Secretary (open)
Treasurer (open)
Regional Reps:
Region 1 North and 1 South – San Juan, Island, Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish Cos.
Region 2 – King & Pierce Cos. (open)
Region 3 – Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Mason, Thurston Cos. (open)
Region 5 – Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat and Skamania Cos. (open)
Region 7 – Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Stevens