Last year I set a few modest traffic goals for the blog. I wanted 85,000 page loads, 69,000 unique visitors and 35,000 returning visitors. How did I do with my predictions?
I exceeded my expectations, which I thought were a touch optimistic. After the traffic surge in 2008 because of the American and Canadian elections, I figured I might be hard pressed to top those numbers. However, I managed to dredge new readers from somewhere.
But just like last year, the traffic spike occurred right around the middle of August. Back then I attributed it to traffic from my Levi Johnson post and interest in the elections. However, I did nothing unusual in August and September, yet my numbers went through the roof. That includes the first time I've ever cracked 10,000 page loads in a month, which I did in October.
I really am a touch confused about why the numbers spike then. Back to school, maybe, a few new people discovering the blogs? That tends to be when people move to Nunavut, but I'm not sure if that accounts for so many people reading the blog then. It's a bit of a mystery to me, but if anyone out there has a theory, feel free to share it.
Oh, and as always, these numbers to not include people who read the blog from feeds or who read it on Facebook. So the actual number of readers is higher.
As for the look of the blog, I think I've streamlined the sidebar a bit, which was suggested to me. It's holding up pretty good. I brought in the walruses which get changed every month (and yes, I know, I need to do it for January. I'm still trying to come up with a theme). I'm still batting around the idea of moving the blog off of blogger and onto its own site, but that strikes me as being a lot of work, so we'll see if that happens. And I managed to post 356 times, which is not the 365 I was aiming for, but still better than the 330 I managed in 2008.
So a very good year for the blog. I'm pretty happy with it. Plus I think there is some decent writing in there as well. Hopefully if you've been swinging by, you've been entertained.
So what's going to happen in 2010? Well, we'll see if I keep up the blog a day pace. I can do it, but one of the problems with me finishing the goddamn book is that I tend to get distracted by blogging. I also had a good chat with my friend Seamus while home, who gave me a small kick in the pants to get it finished. So if the blog goes quiet for a few days at a time in 2010, it's not that I've abandoned you, it's that I'm trying to get some other kinds of writing done.
One of the more shocking changes might be the appearance of some advertising. My friend Dups is currently planning on taking over the world with his new company - Empire Avenue. So if he asks, and if it is a good fit with the blog, I might give it a trial run. I've never done advertising on this blog before because it made the blog ugly and would have provided literally pennies in revenue. So why bother. But if Dups mad scheme works, putting some ads on the blog might not be such a bad idea. We will see.
(By the way, if this idea works, and I see him on the cover of "Wired" in a few years time with the headline "Dups revolutionizes the internet" I may have to shoot myself in the head. Just sayin'...)
And, as always, I am open to any suggestions people out there might have to make the blog look better.
As for my predictions for 2010, I'm choosing to keep them modest. As I said, I might be posting a little less, plus with people using Facebook and feed services, I'm not sure if the current growth rate for the blog is sustainable. So for 2010 I'm predicting 105,000 page loads, 85,000 unique visitors and 42,000 return visitors. That's still up a lot from 2009, but not the usual 20-30% traffic growth I've usually been seeing.
It's not a huge traffic blog. There are certainly ones in Newfoundland, like Ed's, who draw a lot more traffic than I do. But it's nice to see those numbers. Thanks for swinging by in 2009 and I hope most of you show up in 2010 and drag a few new ones along for the ride.
Last Five
1. Get back change - Ron Hynes*
2. Peace of mind - Grapes of Wrath
3. Born to run - Bruce Springsteen
4. Black heart - Hey Rosetta!
5. You like me too much - The Beatles
8 comments:
Interesting. My numbers are just about the same: they rise in August and climb throughout the fall and winter, going flat in the spring and summer.
I don't know why this is. I wonder if it's just an extra click-through in the winter: are people who usually get my posts in a reader or on Facebook more likely to click the link in the winter? My site stats only go back a year, so I can't tell if I'm losing readers in the spring or gaining them in the fall. Not that it would really make a difference in the sort of blog I run, but it would be nice to know.
I also get a lot of Google traffic that skews my numbers. I don't think of those people as readers: they show up, read one post (usually about David Hasselhoff or grammar) and leave. I haven't posted to my Blogger blog in over a year, but it gets over 1000 page views a month, almost all through Google.
Ah, you're the king. Very entertaining blog...I only wish statcounter would show half of that for my blog!!
tara
I'd love to have numbers like those! Excellent showing!
In other news, just popped by to let you know that voting is now open for the NL Bloggers Choice Award on the NL BlogRoll. You blog is one of the choices, so be sure to let your visitors know to vote for you.
Good luck!
Nice stats! I've only cracked 6000 page loads a couple of times for my Way Way Up blog and that was awhile ago now. I don't expect to get anywhere close to those numbers on my new blog since it's a different flavour of blog entirely. While the two months I got over 6000 hits happened in the fall, my numbers tend to spike in March to May, mainly due to there being more light so I was outside much more and there are of course all sorts of cultural events on the go.
Wow, my numbers are sad and pathetic compared to those! I'm impressed. Just an FYI, if you put 'Network blogs' application through facebook it will redirect your readers to your actual blog instead of just a note. That way they will reflect in statcounter. I don't know if you use notes or not but thought I'd let you know.
Dude, thanks for the vote of confidence :) Let's hope you like the finished product (Empire Avenue) and take it on, you know I'm going to ask you :)
Congrats on the numbers, those are impressive. Very impressive.
Cheers
Dups
hey -
I pretty much always read you through the notes on FB now, but will come to your actual blog once a month to see what the walruses are up to.
Seriously.
Move the boys on to a new banner aready, would ya? It's already the 5th.
OM
ps - toying with the idea of reviving my own blog.
Well, there you go...the boys have a new banner...assuming they live. Pesky land sharks.
And yeah, I'd love to see you blog again. Oh, and I owe you a call...probably this weekend or something.
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