My 'fun' Challenge....... or not so much fun?

At the beginning of the year I thought I would create a small but fun challenge for myself, or to be more exact, for my website www.ajwilsonbooks.net  - I decided I wanted to see how long it would take to have a visitor from every one of the 50 States of America visit the site. To be honest I thought it would take around 6 months and would generate a bit of interest BUT I really hadn't done my research properly. I'm originally from the UK, now living in New Zealand. In my years I have visited many parts of the world, which includes a handful of those States, but I suppose it would be fair to say that there have been very few places where I have actually stayed long enough to get to know the local culture.

Anyway, back to the challenge. If you look at the progress map on the website (Ajwilsonbooks.net/#!blank/c1o51) you'll see a definite trend, no-one in Northern/central America has visited my website. This was bugging the crap out of me, I couldn't understand why West coast, East coast and Southern Central were repeatedly visiting the site, but no one north. You've heard me mention Judi of ProofreadNZ/ Santel e-publishing on numerous occasions before, and it just so happens that Judi is an American, so in conversation I happened to mention my frustrations and lack of understanding of why this was. 

I really didn't do my research! If I had spent a while investigating the demographics of the States of America I wouldn't have given myself such a massive challenge, even though it was just for fun. One word - Biblebelt.

Yesterday Vermont was ticked off as the 30th of the 50 States to register a visitor but that original 6 month target is long gone, and to be honest I think maybe a couple of years is needed to get all 50! I may have to send Judi on a tour with a laptop and a Winnebago.

Lesson learned.