Buenos Aires – The question in a way goes out to you, but after nearly five months of blogging, I found it interesting to see how folks get to this site. But then, I’m a statistics freak.

First, of course, are the search engines. Far and away the most common connection to SaltShaker in this category comes from Yahoo’s search engine. This is followed by Google and Google Images at a combined distant second, which is closely followed by MSN. Then far down the line are AltaVista, Dogpile, Webcrawler, and Lycos. The most common searches are simply searches for restaurants, food, or recipes in either Argentina or Buenos Aires. Then come specific searches like a particular ingredient that I might have mentioned in a post (olluco comes up more frequently than any other in this category), and then strangely, do re me fa so la si, which goes back to a posting I did on a concert at Teatro Colón, but why are so many people searching on that phrase?

Second, but not far behind, are direct connections from other websites or blogs. So far out in front of the pack that it may as well have a category unto itself (in fact, more than Yahoo’s search engine!), is Food Porn Watch. Behind that come Stephen Cooks, Cooking with Amy, Chocolate and Zucchini, Chez Pim, Chef’s Blogs, and recently, Basic Juice. There are also links from various blog indices that have their little pictures off to the right here. The one constant, and bizarre one, is a connection from the online business directory, address.com, who despite my sending them several notices, insist on listing this site as the homepage of the Salt Shaker Bookstore and Cafe in Wilmington, North Carolina (which I gather is a Christian books and supplies shop). I even get e-mail from people who come to the site and demand to know why I don’t have online book ordering available.

The vast majority of readers are from the U.S., followed by “Unknown”. Then Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Sweden. In third place, Great Britain, Spain, and the “European Union.” The rest of the world comes in a distant fourth. The site is averaging 125 “unique” visitors a day, each spending an average of about 9 minutes on the site. Over the course of the month, it’s up to somewhere between 900-1000 unique visitors.