Three Months Live, 1,320 Strangers Found Their Way Here
Three months, 1,320 visitors. The analytics panel tells the story — bilingual content stood on its own, Zhihu and Bing led the charge, and a SIM card guide became the traffic king.
When the dashboard flashed 1.32k Visitors, I refreshed three times.
Three months ago, when I deployed this blog, my expected reader count for the first half-year was roughly: myself, plus a few friends I’d强行 shoved links at. Now over thirteen hundred real people, in the span of three months, have typed in this domain, opened this URL, and read what I wrote.
Honestly, I’m pleasantly surprised.
In an era where algorithmic feeds rule attention, the fact that someone is willing to type a URL into their browser, click a bookmark, or scroll through search results to land on an independent blog — that alone makes me feel the internet still has warmth.
Thank you.
What the Numbers Say
The analytics dashboard, laid bare.
Both Languages Stood Their Ground
| Path | Visitors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| /zh-cn/ | 663 | 35% |
| /en/ | 387 | 21% |
The Chinese and English homepages combined account for 56% of entries. Bilingual writing has been running since day one, and the two language tracks each attract their own independent readership. The Chinese reader base is larger, but the English audience is growing organically.
Zhihu and Bing Lead the Channels
| Source | Visitors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| link.zhihu.com | 100 | 42% |
| cn.bing.com | 46 | 19% |
| b.rikka.moe | 38 | 16% |
| bing.com | 22 | 9% |
Zhihu leads at 42%. Writing substantive long-form answers on Zhihu and attaching a blog link is far more effective than any other social platform.
Bing combined contributes 28%, while Google sits at just 3%. In the Chinese search ecosystem, Bing’s weight is noticeably higher.
b.rikka.moe contributed 16% — it’s an indie blog aggregator. A small blogroll link drove traffic that rivaled several search engines combined. The mutual-link network among independent blogs is seriously underrated.
The Top Article: A SIM Card Guide
| Page | Visitors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Giffgaff UK SIM Card Complete Guide | 131 | 7% |
| Scarcity of Leisure | 32 | 2% |
The guide to activating a UK SIM card became the traffic leader. 131 people searched for Giffgaff activation steps and landed on my blog. Content that solves concrete problems generates sustained traffic naturally.
“Scarcity of Leisure” only got 32 clicks, but it represents a different kind of reader: someone opening a blog late at night, willing to spend a few minutes reading a reflection on life and time. This kind of writing builds trust.
Bounce Rate and Dwell Time
- Bounce rate 57%: For an independent blog, anything between 50%–70% is healthy.
- Average dwell time 1 min 55 sec: Readers are genuinely reading, not clicking away after a glance.
My content isn’t being treated as clickbait — opened and then instantly closed.
Three Time Zones of Readers
| Country/Region | Visitors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mainland China | 571 | 45% |
| United States | 409 | 32% |
| Japan | 147 | 11% |
| Hong Kong | 78 | 6% |
| Singapore | 38 | 3% |
Domestic, North American, and Asia-Pacific — readers across three time zones form the core audience. Looking at this map, the image that comes to mind: 1 AM Beijing time, someone scrolling through “Scarcity of Leisure” before bed; 3 PM New York time, someone just landed at Heathrow, searching for that SIM card guide from the terminal.
Once published on an independent blog, words sit forever in some corner of the internet, waiting to be found.
Browsers and Devices
Chrome 59%, Edge 20%, mobile Webview 13%. Most readers are on desktop, but mobile is growing. Dark mode font colors on mobile, line spacing, code block rendering — it’s time for a dedicated round of testing.
What’s Next
- Write one “complete guide” long-tail article per month — titles targeting search keywords directly, letting sustained traffic feed the blog.
- Cross-post every technical or tutorial article to Zhihu, writing a concise answer under relevant questions with a blog link attached.
- Reach out to 2–3 independent blogs for mutual blogroll links — b.rikka.moe’s 16% already validates the return on this action.
- Keep writing essays and reflections. Follow inspiration, not traffic.
1,320 strangers, three months. I don’t know what the next number will be, but I’ll keep writing.
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