I’m a total geek for charts, rankings and the like. I regularly go to BoxOfficeMojo for box office results. Zap2It for TV ratings. Comichron for comic book sales. So now that I have my own blogs, I’m looking at the results. I'm sharing the total page views, but I thought that it might be cool to share more for any other geeks like myself. I liked when Joe would occasionally post his top posts, so I've done that and more.
Of course the numbers are low, but they’re much higher than I expected. I never knew how many guys were reading my stories before, but I figured it was 10-20 guys. Now, I see page views and comments. Anyone with a calculator can see I'm averaging about 400 page views per day between the two blogs. I don’t see unique visitors, but I’m making some guesses based on my lowest viewed stories that it's still a pretty decent number.
In these monthly results, there is an inherent bias against older stories that I've re-posted, as The Cave stories get about 60% of the views of the posts on New Stories. As well, recently posted stories have had less time to gain page views, but most of the page views and comments happen within the first week, so these are pretty good rankings.
So, here are the results for Feb/March, my first month of operation …
#1 Reviews (1 @ New Stories)
#2 Route 69 (3 @ New Stories + 3 @ The Cave)
#3 Superheroes (1 @ Cave)
#3 Superheroes (1 @ Cave)
#4 The Cave (3 @ New Stories + 9 @ The Cave)
#5 AWL (3 @ The Cave)
The Cave: Top Stars by Average Page Views
#1 Danny Chase (1 story)
#2 Cody (7)
#3 Ryan (4)
#4 Colt Hill (2)
#5 Ben (5)
Alex Miller New Stories: Top Stars by Average Page Views
#1 Ben (3 stories)
#2 Dylan (2)
#3 Jeff (2)
#4 Jae (3)
The Cave: Top 5 Stories/Posts
Alex Miller New Stories: Top 5 Stories/Posts
Top 5 Traffic Sources (both blogs combined) – THANKS!
So that’s the tale of the tape for March. Once I get a larger sample, I think it’ll be more interesting (for me, at least) on the character/franchise side. I’m interested to see if I can determine elements that drive popularity and repeat readership.
If you have a comment, please feel free to post it. If this is just interesting for me and my OCD, that’s okay, too.
Alex
Going into it, I didn't think looking at the stats would become so addicting. That addiction eventually tapered off, though... like, two years later! It's still pretty cool to see where visitors are coming in from, and I do spot visits coming from your blogs to mine from time to time. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you're having such great success so early. I'm quite sure it'll grow steadily from there -- your work certainly deserves it!
Thanks! It's miniscule compared to your million plus, but my expectations were so low. Like embarrassingly low. I'm sure my addiction will wane, but for now, when small bursts can change everything, it's cool.
DeleteI also do think it'll help with better content. Knowing that Superhero and Review posts are popular makes me want to do more of them. I wasn't sure if they would be, especially the Review. And the casting posts are doing well, so I'm already thinking on more of those.
Special thanks for all the traffic you've driven here. I really appreciate it.
That million took so long to hit, especially compared to some other art blogs I've seen that have been around in less time.
DeleteI'd absolutely love another superhero tale from you. :D But only if it's something you're feeling up for making.
You're welcome, man. :) I appreciate the mentions here, too.
P.S. -- Like Alex R said below, you could sign up for Google Analytics and embed it in the settings area of your blog for more data. It's non-identifying and something I use to help me get a feel for what people are interested in. It takes about a day for it to start collecting enough data to report. I've gotten in the routine of letting mine aggregate for a month and checking it all at the beginning of the new month.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it.
DeleteAwesome to see how great your blog's doing! Stats are fun, but I always end up thinking things like, "No way, Colt Hill and Jeff should have been MUCH more popular!" :)
ReplyDeleteWell, the popularity is also driven by the need/desire to re-read the stories. And they're really all so close. Since I posted this, Toledo has passed my review again, so many of the results are fluid.
DeleteHowever, I will say that Pete is the only charcater who really doesn't seem to be at all popular, as The Cave 4 and 8 are the lowest viewed stories, which tells me they're not being re-read. He's coming up in a new story, so that'll be his final test.
La Sustancia P is honored to contribute!
ReplyDeleteI love the stories, but I definitely need to catch up with them, though. It's quite difficult for me to finish them in one reading (if you know what i mean)!
Love hearing that! Thanks for the support!
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