Happy blog-day to me

It's been a year this week since I started blogging for mental_floss, and to commemorate such an auspicious anniversary, I thought I'd take a page from David's book, Google the phrase "the average blogger," and see how I stack up.

According to Google, "the average blog is read by one person."

Who is this person?? (Kidding.) In all seriousness, I can say with some certainty that the _floss has at least two loyal readers -- unless our "commenters" are all one guy, deeply schizophrenic and with nothing but time on his hands. (Upon reflection, I honestly can't rule that out.)

"The average blogger is a 14-year-old girl writing about her cat," said Alexander Halavais, an assistant professor of interactive communications at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

It's true, I've written about my cat a few times, but in this year of blogging I've also written about talking gorillas, a friend's now-famous monkey and pictures of a pet moose. Also how sometimes church music makes you poop. (Just thought I'd throw that in there.)

The average blogger "makes about $20 to $50 a month for their efforts," mostly funded by click-through advertising like Google AdSense.

Thankfully, the _floss compensates its fact miners a little more generously than that. (I suspect this figure has a direct relationship to the number of blogs that haven't been updated in at least two months.)

The average blog "has the lifespan of a fruitfly ... with 60% to 80% abandoned within one month." Of those that survive, "66% have not been updated in two months."

If that's true, we're practically geriatrics around here! Bring me my calamine lotion, whipper-snapper!