Year in Review: Finding the Spew

As part of the navel gazing exercise at the end of the year, I pondered how folks found ye olde Spewe.

Top Ten Traffic Sources

1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Blogger
5. My McGill site
6. Political Science Jobs Rumors.  I am one of the very few folks there that posts non-anonymously (probably a better way to say that).  I do get some crap for it from folks online (and far less from my chair despite what folks occasionally suggest when they post on the site).  I am often viewed as a voice of reason there.  Which says far more about the site than it does about me.
7. Duck of Minerva.  I started posting there a while back, and I usually cross-post, putting there things I post here that I think will have broad interest for the IR scholarly community.  My posting there is not consistent at all.  I tend to filter myself more there.  The other bloggers there are very sharp folks, so I tend to be a bit intimidated.  This does not mean that my best stuff appears there--just the stuff that I think sucks less.
8. Fully Myelinated: Lil' Steve's blog.  He likes my stuff, and I like his.  The best part of not being in the same department is that I would never win a teaching award with him around.  Alas, that is the only good part.  Miss the little guy and his mad band of gingers (Weasleys?  Indeed).  
9. Phil Arena's blog: Someone I have yet to met in real life.  A younger, more rigorous IR scholar. 
10. Drezner's blog.  He has so many followers that all it takes is for one reference on his blog to me and I get a huge jump in hits.  He has a lot of followers for good reasons--sharp, succinct, often amusing, always relevant posts. 

 Given that google is #1, the next question is what kind of searches lead to the Spew aside from those who throw my name with or without spew into google:

1. Hogwarts Houses     same as last year--JK-related posts still get heaps of attention.
   
2. Paul Robinson, Afghanistan: catches my post where I rant about folks who say Afghanistan militarized Canada somehow.
3. Ranking the Star Wars Movies was also on top last year.
4. Alouette (looking perhaps for the CFL team, but finding my post on the Canadian fighter squadron north of Quebec).
5. McGill Strike: people would find a number of posts as I addressed both the staff strike and the student tuition strike several times.
6. ISA, looking for my guide to Montreal.
7. For your situational awareness: where I link to a cool blog that was occasionally dispensing Pentagon-ese to the masses.
8. McGill sucks. Gets my posts on students opposing tuition increases.  Probably some of these folks are finding the opposite of that which they are seeking.
9. Pre-electoral coalitions Australia.  Really?  Hmm.
10. Quebec Patriotic Militia.  I love it that people searching for this fringe group end up finding my blog posts on it.