6,000 Tony Phyrillas fans can't be wrong

I've been posting opinions on this site since January 2005, but it didn't occur to me to start keeping track of how many visitors I get at this blog until December 2006. What can I say? I'm at least two years behind the curve on technology.

Since installing a site counter on Dec. 1, I've recorded 6,150 visitors to this blog. That's pretty good.

For those who don't recognize the pop culture reference, the title of today's post is a takeoff on "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong," the title of a 1959 compilation album of Elvis Presley's early hits. (I'm a big Elvis fan).

And to show you how suspicious I am about technology (I know "The Matrix" is real), I installed a second counter on this site just to verify the numbers on the first counter. And the numbers are very close, so there must be something to it.

Another interesting number is 161,325, which is this site's ranking at Technorati.com, a Web site that keeps track of the tens of millions of blogs and activity on those sites. You may not think that having the 161,325th most visited site in the blogosphere is a big deal, but considering there are 57 million blogs on the Internet, being in the top 175,000 is pretty good. (And I've moved up about 20,000 spots in the past three months, so I'm shooting for No. 1).

I don't know if these numbers mean anything, but our society is obsessed with rankings (TV ratings, box office totals, opinion polls). The Internet, and blogs in particular, has leveled the playing field in many areas, including politics. Candidate A can spend $1 million to get elected but could still lose to Candidate B, who can reach thousands of voters through the Internet and can get a tremendous boost from the blogging community.

I'd like to thank everyone who visits this site on a regular basis and takes a few minutes to read my views. I don't have a monopoly on answers, but I like to think I contribute to the dialogue for improving our state and country.

And spread the word to your friends and neighbors about this site, which I update at least five times a week. There's 161,324 blogs ahead of me that I have to pass.