Counting Stars turns 16 and the best of all its figures is ... a zero

@ElentirENG ESGL 7·15·2020 · 6:42 0

This corner of the network is today birthday. In the early morning of July 14-15, 2004, Counting Stars appeared, and its first post was ... to count stars.

The spectacular rise in audience of Counting Stars in 2019 in numbers
Gatestone Institute in New York talks about the success of Vox and quotes Counting Stars

Counting Stars figures in 2020

It all started as a literary hobby, which was growing, much more than I imagined then that it could does it. Today it is a blog with an audience typical of a media. So far this year, Counting Stars has accumulated more than 6 million visits and more than 9 million page views (last year's total exceeded 10 and 13 million, respectively; I thought it would soon hit the ceiling, but this pileup would has given up).

The languages and places of origin of the readers of this blog

The vast majority of its readers are Spanish-speaking, but this year it has already been visited by more than 281,000 English-language readers, almost 22,000 in the Portuguese language, more than 7,500 in the French language, more than 5,000 in the German language, more than 4,200 in Italian language and more than 4,000 Polish language. In 2020, the top ten countries of origin of the readers of this blog have been Spain (2.9 million), the United States (more than 231,000), Mexico (more than 188,000), Argentina (more than 145,000), Chile (93,000), Colombia (87,000), Peru (66,000), Poland (27,000), Venezuela (27,000) and the United Kingdom (26,000). I am especially happy with the influx of readers from our sister Hispanic-America and from my admired Poland.

As a curiosity, this year Counting Stars has received 18 visits from the Faroe Islands (vælkomin!), two from the remote archipelago of Svalbard, north of the Arctic Circle and of which I spoke here recently (velkommen!), one from the Isle of Man (failt erriu!), another from the Åland Islands (välkommen!), another from Kiribati (mauri!), another from the Marshall Islands (kōn jouj!) and occasional visits from other small and very distant countries. I love geography, so I enjoy these curiosities.

More than 15,000 posts and a cost of zero euros for taxpayers

In these 16 years, Counting Stars has published more than 15,000 posts. In addition, I have linked more than 1,700 posts and articles from other blogs and websites in the Buenas Ideas section, which is my bit to try so that others can receive the attention that what they write should have.

But without a doubt, the number I am most proud of is zero: this is what this website has cost taxpayers in these 16 years, since it has not received a single centime of public funds in any way (or subsidies, or institutional advertising), neither directly nor indirectly, of any administration, national or foreign. What that zero means is freedom and independence. This blog is maintained exclusively with my money (what it costs me is similar to what others spend on shots or shoes), so nobody can dictate what I publish.

Acknowledgments

I leave for the end the most important thing: thank you to those who read this for your attention and your patience, starting with the regular and the most veteran readers, and also to those who share what I publish here, and to whom you often warn me of erratum so that correct them (I hope not to give you more work with this post). I especially thank @Isaacj for the fact that this blog goes like a motorcycle and does not stay KO before the numerous computer attacks that it suffers (you would be amazed if you saw the number of attempts to tear it down that there are every month). And above all, thanks to my family for their constant support, and thank God, because without Him none of this would be possible, especially considering the disaster that I am ... I ask the Lord that we can continue reading here for many years.

Like other years, I finish this post with my favorite verses by J.R.R. Tolkien:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.