If I could only read your mind, tell me the answer I would find

Reader-submitted question: How do you know what people search for?

I have a site meter. Actually, I have a couple of site meters, the better to spy on you with. I know every single sexual fantasy you have while you're on my site. (Perverts.)

For example, we have this person, who searches for her own name every frickin' day:

Rebecca, you're a loser. Nobody's talking about you. Seriously, we don't care about you, and we don't think about you except to take pity on your child because of the way you talk about her.

My site meters tell me all about the people who read my blog. I keep an eye on them to see which posts get the most attention. That way, I can write things I know you will want to read. I also look at which links you click on. For example, I think the new list of posts over on the right is working better than the old links list I used to have. A quick primer: If you're only interested in the blogs that were on that old list, they are in the "Awesome posts from people I actually know" box. The "You also might like" box includes new posts from other bloggers I read. Both boxes continuously refresh themselves, so all of those links will bring you to new material. My old list of links included a number of bloggers who only publish new material every once in a while.

I can also tell how you get here. Most of my readers have me bookmarked, but I have about 30 RSS subscribers. Others come in through links from other blogs. Almost all of those readers come through one of these sites:
Just Below 63
Way Way Up
The Big American Zero
Townie Bastard
Cute With Chris: Craig Gallery (Every day, I get several hits to a silly post I put up months ago)

And then there are the Google and Technorati searchers. I get a kick out of these guys, but I don't usually write posts based on their searches. I figure they're probably not going to stay long, but if they like me enough to come back, that's great.

Thanks for your question.