Well, it’s been another year now since I started this blog. It’s hard to believe how much has changed. I’m honestly afraid to read some of my oldest posts now, given how different my viewpoint is now than it was when I started writing them. Maybe I’ll explain more about that later, but for now suffice it to say that I started this blog as a way to process my own emotions, in a sort of thinking-out-loud kind of way. As it’s grown, I find myself censoring that more and more. There’s a much higher chance now that I’ve been around for a while that someone who knows me in bodyspace will stumble across this blog, and I’d rather collect my thoughts and assemble them carefully before releasing them, after preparing myself thoroughly to do so. I haven’t blogged much this past year because of that, and also because I’ve been dealing with fixing certain medical problems that had remained a mystery up until this past January. Somehow, during the months that I wasn’t posting anything new, I found that the number of views per month didn’t really drop very significantly—which is a little scary to me, honestly. But good. But still scary. Then when I began posting more frequently last month there was a BIG increase. As has become my nerdy tradition, I’m posting the highlights of this year’s stats below, with some commentary on the things that strike me about them. So I’ll just let that speak for itself.

Top Ten Posts this year:

1. The Primary Function of Marriage? – 1,792 views (2,253 views all time; written February 2010)
2. How to Seduce an Asexual – 1,103 views (1,686 views all time; written April 2010)
3. Asexual Masturbation – 1,059 views (1,798 views all time; written June 2008)
4. Doing Sex – Tips for the Adventurous Asexual – 872 views (2,319 views all time; written January 2009)
5. On “Creepy Asexual Guys,” Porn, and Misogyny – 738 views (1,837 views all time; written April 2009)
6. Do you want to? – 539 views (written April 2011)
7. Positive Metaphors: Chandelier Culture – 463 views (1,021 views all time; written July 2008)
8. Victorian Sensibilities – 386 views (459 views all time; written April 2010)
9. Policing the Definition: Is there a Gold Standard? – 385 views (718 views all time; written January 2010)
10. Guest Post: Interview with K on Female Sexual Dysfunction – 378 views (written September 2010)

It’s getting increasingly difficult for me to write a post that will make the top ten in the same year that it was written, since so many of these posts have been around for a while, and either been linked all over the place or have made it to the front page of a popular Google search… or both. Most of these posts already have enough momentum behind them that new posts can’t compete. I am glad to see that #6 made it in, since it’s an important message. I’m surprised that #8 is up there, as I wouldn’t think it’s that much of a popular thing to search for. Also interesting is that the asexual masturbation post has had more views this year than it had in both previous years combined. It seems there’s been a notable increase of the frequency of search terms related to asexuals and masturbation this year, and in particular the searches I’ve received lately have also been more creative and more specific than they have in the past. More people seem to realize that yes, you can masturbate and still be asexual. They’re beyond that; now they want to know why, how, and what we might be thinking about when we do. I can’t blame them for being curious, and I’m glad these people are at least trying to use the internet to find out instead of asking people in person, though some of these terms still show some misunderstandings. Because of that, I’ve started answering questions that lead people here this past month, and opened an avenue for people to ask me questions directly and anonymously here (somehow the settings got changed to private, so people couldn’t ask any new questions, but that’s fixed now).

Top 20(ish) Google Search Keywords Leading Here

1. functions of marriage – 378 times / function of marriage – 232 times
2. victorian sensibilities – 180 times
3. asexual porn – 140 times
4. infantilization – 136 times
5. shades of gray – 107 times
6. asexual masturbate – 100 times
7. asexual masturbation – 99 times
8. top facebook faux pas – 76 times
9. flibanserin fda approval – 60 times
10. gray asexual – 52 times
11. how to be more spontaneous in bed – 49 times
12. marriage functions – 37 times
13. what is the function of marriage – 36 times
14. gunn’s golden rules – 36 times
15. wrought iron chandelier – 35 times
16. how to be spontaneous in bed – 35 times
17. gray-asexual – 32 times
18. vaginal corona – 28 times
19. what are the functions of marriage – 28 times
20. okcupid review – 26 times

One other interesting thing that I want to point out is that I’ve had FAR fewer searches related to finding a cure/treatment for asexuality. In fact, the very first term that shows up on the list is asexual treatment, with only three views. That’s in an entire year. The next one that shows up (cure for asexuality) has only two views. An entire year, guys. However, I have also seen some troubling new searches related to “converting” asexuals, or otherwise trying to seduce or attract them. Because of the title of my post, I’m relatively sure that most of the ones that mention seduction are actually from people who remember that post and want to link it to someone or whatever. But the ones that are similar but vary in ways like saying how to attract instead of seduce, or “how to make an asexual want you/want to have sex” are more likely to be real. Fortunately, they are relatively rare, but more common than searches about finding a treatment or cure. It seems people who aren’t asexual themselves are still clueless (but less so in a sense, because they seem to be more aware of the existence of asexuals, and the existence of attractive asexuals at that), but maybe people who are wondering whether they might be asexual are a bit more educated about asexuality than they were before? I hope, anyway. Or this means nothing, just that my blog is a lot farther down on the list of websites that come up for those searches. All of this is just conjecture.

Other Interesting Search Terms:

• are bisexuals dangerous – Naivete so great it’s a little scary!
• asexuals are friendlier – than whom, I wonder?
• One of you regular commenters apparently has a facebook stalker. I won’t mention your name so that they’ll be less likely to make it here again.
• curvy woman in sex with trans – what does that even…?
• how to seduce myself – Good luck!
• how to like someone who is asexual – I know I posted this before, but I think it deserves a mention.
• the event “people running around stupidly” – I’d like to see this event.

Busiest day: April 20th, 2011 – 279 views

Busiest month: April 2011 – 3,594 views / average 120 views per day
This just completely shattered the previous record for busiest month, which was also in April (of 2010) and had a total of 2,615 views, averaging 87 views per day. That’s nearly a thousand more views than I had at that time last year; the record remained unbroken right up until this April. For every other month this past year, my stats have consistently ranged from around 1,800 views to a little above 2k-ish. So that’s about 1.5k more than I had in every other month, making it the largest traffic spike this blog has seen to date.

Total views: 57,721