Peculiar Viewing Statistics; False I Guess

A blogger I had helped set up told me about this phenomenon a year or so ago, and now it is happening to me. Suddenly my "stats" are showing an obviously false number of "visitors" from Russia and other places.

Here's this morning's stats from this blog:

Pageviews by Countries*

Entry	Pageviews
Russia	2369
United States	495
France	367
Mauritius	117
Germany	98
Israel	76
Ukraine	25
Australia	19
Canada	12
China	12

And here's this morning's stats from Shiloh Musings:

Pageviews by Countries*

Entry	Pageviews
Russia	10025
United States	2475
France	472
Germany	382
Israel	286
Mauritius	119
Ukraine	73
Canada	60
China	47
Australia	45

There's no way that it is accurate. The numbers just don't make sense.

I guess at some point this will end. Does anyone understand how it happens? Have you experienced anything like it?

* for the week

Counter Milestone

According to blogpatrol.com, I've passed the 80,000 mark, but sitemeter.com pegs me at 93,534. A hundred thousand is just days away.

Why the discrepency? I signed up with blogpatrol first, so it should have the higher numbers, but there have been times when it was out of commission. I like its reports much better than the sitemeter ones, or I would have deleted it from my blogs. Sitemeter is just more reliable. I can hardly remember more than once or twice when it didn't function.

What's the point of having these counters? The best, in terms of blogging manners, is that we can see who's "referring" to our blog. If it's another blog, we can pay a courtesy visit and make new blog-friends. I like to thank the blogger in comments if I've been "linked."

One thing about this blog is that no matter how great I think many of my posts are, most "views" are via google to see my recipes. Easy, simple cake, baked apple and popcorn recipes are a real draw.

Sometimes it gets me down. I know that years after I give up blogging, for whatever reasons, it'll just be my recipes that will attract visitors, not the gorgeous photos, personal stories, etc.