Indiana, a Hotbed of Shows: NAMHSA Membership Stats

Recently NAMHSA* Region 8 Rep Chris Wallbruch was asked what the current membership numbers are for the organization. She posted this on the Region 8 Facebook page:

Currently 201 members.

R1: 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming)

R2: 13 (​California, Hawaii, Mexico, Nevada)

R3: 11 (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah)

R4: 15 Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, North & South Dakota

R5: 19 (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana)

R6: 20 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North & South Carolina)

R7: 28 (Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee)

R8: 35 (Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan)

R9: 24 (Delaware, Maryland, D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia)

R10: 21 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island)

R11: 5 (Canada)

Region 8, which includes Indiana, has more members than any other region. Surprisingly, it has more members than Region 2 which includes California and Region 10 (a highly active show region) with New York and Washington DC.

(Map found on Google Images, linked to Finding Model Horse Shows - Seunta LLC)

So, what causes the discrepancy? It is logical to think that the more highly populated regions would have more NAMHSA members. And while Region 8 does have Illinois in it, Illinois' population is smaller than California's or New York's.

I have some ideas but I want to think about them before I write. You may have some thoughts, too, and if you do, I'd love it if you either posted them in the comments or emailed me at horsiemama8@gmail.com.

There are more shows in Indiana to write about, but I'm still waiting on information that I'd like to have before I write. If it doesn't arrive in a day or two, I will go ahead with what I have.

Stay 'tooned!

*North American Model Horse Shows Association

The Jennifer Buxton Effect

My favorite blog of all is written by Jennifer Buxton. She is an excellent writer (Jennifer, the teacher in me gives you an A+), and her entries vary from real horses, model horses, her family and dogs, and even to flashbacks to other times in her life.

I am not alone in my fondness for her writing - she has over 4.8 million hits on her blog. Clearly Jennifer has connected with her audience through her writing.

So, when Jennifer gave me a shout out, my own stats spiked.

I track my weekly stats on my phone every Sunday, and Jennifer's shout out occurred on a Friday, so I already had some reads. (I generally get 150 - 200 blog hits or so a week.)

But the link Jennifer posted on Facebook changed that week's stats dramatically. I had begun with 25,001 on Sunday morning. When I realized how fast my numbers were going up, I began checking every hour or so. 

Already 648 views!

Another 30!

 28 more!

30 more.

Another 60.

Gulp! 427!

By the end of the week, I had had 814 blog reads, most of which were directly attributable to Jennifer's shout out.

But Jennifer wasn't done. This week she asked if she could use my candy corn blog post on her blog as a guest blogger.

And she gave me a lovely compliment. (Thank you, Jennifer!) With two days to go, the week isn't over yet, but thus far I have 476 blog hits, far more than my usual 150 or so.

That, folks, is called the "Jennifer Buxton Effect."

Tracking a Year's Worth of Blogging

On November 8, 2015, I started tracking how many reads three of my blogs were getting. I had MapLoco which tracked where readers were from, and that was fun, but I also wanted to know how many people were reading. I love to write and will write regardless of readership (I have other private blogs that exemplify that), but I was curious at the same time as to just how big my readership was on my three main blogs.

The results were surprising.

 This is a screen shot of the beginning of the tracking. (I discontinued tracking Flying High with Mrs. I  because it was for my students' families, and I switched them over to Facebook - a much easier format for my students' parents to use.)

And here's today's. (Since I accidentally deleted two numbers on 11/6/16 for Horsiemama, I am actually tracking from the second week, but it is still a full year.)

Teachinmama went from 30,236 to 33,280 reads in the year's time. That's 3,044 reads this year or 59 reads per week.

The stats for Horsiemama are similar. The numbers begin at 7,330 and end at 10,745. That means I had 3,415 reads total or 66 per week.

What's more interesting to me personally is that, although the readership is close in numbers, the people reading the blogs are very different. Teachinmama is my "grandaddy" blog - I started it in 2008 as my personal blog and it is read solely by family members. It is private and can only be read by invitation.

Horsiemama targets a different audience. I started it in 2012 when I got Abby and began filling the pages of Teachinmama with Abby tales. (Abby Tails would have been a fun name for her blog!) I wrote about her so much that I decided to give her her own blog, but I did not take hers private as I have many horsey friends, both real and model, who I thought might enjoy it. And, most of my family members are non-horse lovers, and are happy just reading Teachinmama. Only occasionally does someone cross over and read both.

Looking at MapLoco, I see that Teachinmama has been read on 1 continent, North America, while Horsiemama has readers in 5 continents. (Only missing is Africa and Antarctica!) The dots are clustered around places where family members live in the USA on the map for Teachinmama, whereas they are all over the country for Horseimama plus a large cluster in Europe and smaller clusters in Asia and Australia.

It was a fun experience for me to track this past year and then look at the results. I think I will continue filling in stats each week and, next year at this time, compare the two years and see if things have changed.

Stay tuned!