What’s Up With These Belgians?

19 commentsWritten on September 5th, 2010 by
Categories: About The Blog

Don't worry, this post isn't about the ongoing political problems that Belgium has been suffering from for the past 3 years. It's about something far more interesting (ahem): the way they read my blog. I was going over the blog's stats for last month:

As you can see, the numbers for the Belgians are far different than they are for each other country in that list. The number of pages they read each visit is way above the average. The average time they spend on this site is also much higher than most countries. And the percentage of new visitors and the bounce rate is a lot lower than what we see from other countries. That means that almost 4 out of 5 Belgians that visit this site have been here before, and keeping the total number of visits in mind and the fact that it has a much smaller population than the other countries in the top 7, they seem to keep coming back as well. And this isn't just an anomaly because the all-time stats for this blog show pretty much the same picture:

So that makes me wonder: what's up with these Belgians? And yes, i know that some of you are probably thinking: "well duh, it's because you're Belgian too!". But there are a couple of reasons why i don't think that me being from Belgium explains it:

  • The Google Analytics plugin that i'm using does not count my own visits :)
  • I do very, very little networking so it's not like i'm often in contact with a lot of Belgian developers to plug my blog
  • I don't go to developer events to evangelize my ideas, in fact, i generally don't go to developer events
  • I don't give talks or presentations, except for one that i did on NHibernate a year ago. And i don't see myself doing a lot of talks in the future either since i have no idea what i'd talk about.

So, it can't be because i've been pushing this blog among the Belgian developers. So what is it then? Is it because we Belgians are generally quite thorough when it comes to learning about stuff we like? Or are we just lazy and do we love to waste a lot of time online? Both are true to some degree :) . Either way, it's nice to see Belgium among the top of a list (even if it doesn't mean shit) that isn't related to female tennis, chocolate, beer, organized crime or fraud.

Seriously though, i do find this kind of stuff interesting so if you are Belgian (or are familiar with how Belgians are) and have some ideas on why those numbers are so different from other countries, please do share :)

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 11:29 and is filed under About The Blog. You can subscribe to any comments to this entry via RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://blog.tcx.be/ Tommy Carlier

    Being Belgian myself, I didn’t even know you were Belgian. Maybe Belgians have a longer attention span, are more interested in details, more thorough while researching, smarter and more handsome. ;-)

  • BV

    I did in fact attend that nHibernate presentation of yours. When I bumped into your blog later, your name sounded familiar, so I hit the RSS button.

  • http://www.kenegozi.com/blog Ken Egozi

    Never knew you’re Belgian.

    Mayhap has to do with chocolate consumption levels?

  • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

    @Ken

    or the beer

  • http://www.technologies-dotnet.be Kris-I

    Hi Davy,

    May be they need more time to read English specially the french part (like me) of the country

  • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

    @Kris-I

    there are a lot more Belgian visitors from the Dutch part than there are from the French part, as this image shows:
    http://davybrion.com/belgian_visitors.png

  • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

    small note for future commenters: let’s keep the whole Dutch/French thing out of this discussion from now on, as i’m sure you’ll find other places where people like to discuss that topic

  • http://jclaes.blogspot.com Jef Claes

    I have no idea why I like your posts. It might be the Belgian to-the-point, no-bullshit style of writing? :)

  • http://www.kenegozi.com/blog Ken Egozi

    hmmmm

    Belgian beer …

    [Like]

  • Asger Hallas

    I wondered the same thing, when I saw the NHProf usage stats. Same pattern.

    And as I recall it’s not even that large a population compared to the others on the list…

  • Steven

    Very strange indeed! And I’m from Belgium but didn’t know you were…
    You’ve also seen this Profiler Usage Analysis
    Perhaps there’s a big it-crowd in Belgium?!

  • http://www.clear-lines.com/blog Mathias

    Your mom spends way too much time on the internet ;)

    • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

      If she did, she would’ve replied to tell you how lame that joke was :)

  • http://jclaes.blogspot.com Jef Claes

    Btw I’m seeing the same patterns on my blog. Although the numbers aren’t as big as yours ;)

  • http://abombss.com Adam Tybor

    Employers or recruiters?

  • Jakub

    Planning on moving to London next year (from Dallas TX) maybe I should choose Belgium?

  • bennyb

    I had no idea you were Belgian. Maybe it has to do with being bilingual in English and French. It makes you want to understand the details (and root course) of any problem.

    I sually find that trait among people who are bilingual [in English and French]. … I also both and also German, Russian, Italian and Creole

  • http://odalet.wordpress.com Olivier

    I’m sadly noticing that France hardly appears at the bottom of you top-10 list… as previously mentionned, maybe this is due to French speakers (as well as other latin-rooted speakers, no spain or italy, portugal or romania) being less fluent in English than northern-rooted locutors.

  • Anonymous

    Window Design Director at guess outlet has dazzled the fans once again,
    gguess store never ceases to wow us with
    guess online over-active imagination.

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