1000+% Traffic Growth Year over Year? Summary Says So.

Thanks to some experimenting with a new Web log analysis tool, called Summary, I've downloaded all my Web log files and can run all sorts of reports to see where Web traffic is coming from, what pages are being read, and how that compares to last week, last month or last year. While SiteMeter does a great job covering cumulative data and most specifically for the last 4,000 visitors, there's something to be said for taking a walk back in time.

While this site isn't really intended to be a world beater in terms of traffic, as evidenced by the fact I barely make a blip on Alexa's statistics, growth is good as far as I'm concerned.

For me, the most important metric isn't total number of users or hits, but instead the page view - for now. I tend to get a lot of traffic from Google Images and Athletics Nation to download the ANtics comics, so I have to filter out those who have siphoned off the graphics without reading the context. You'd be surprised how many places I've found the ANtics all over MySpace and other forums...

Looking at page views, April 2007 reportedly had more than 99,000 in the 30 day period. In April of 2006, that number was less than 9,000. March 2007 comes in second place, with 82,000 page views. March of 2006 clocked in at less than 8,000. Both months show growth of about 1000% year over year.

Summary also offers a metric called "Total View Time", which I can only assume tries to add visitor time spent on the site in aggregate. I guess in this case I'd be given more credit if I had slow readers, but regardless, April checked in with "72 days" worth of Total View Time. That number is trailed by March's 63 days, February's 30 days and January's 24 1/3 days. April of 2006 had less than 5 days worth of traffic, meaning total view time was up nearly 1500% in this metric.

As I've continued to post on the blog with solid frequency day in and day out, the total number of pages available for visitors and search engines alike is growing. As any SEO specialist will tell you, the more content available, the better Google, Yahoo! and the rest like your site. As a result, the numbers there are startling.

Visitors coming from search engines to louisgray.com numbered nearly 10,000 in April, up from 5,500 in March and 2,700 in February. In April of last year, I had even less than 300 visits from search engines, less than 3% of today's activity. To be honest, a significant amount of that traffic has come looking for R-rated material, but they're most likely disappointed when they find out how boring I am.

Summary, despite being a robot, also tries to offer up analytic detail.



For instance:

On 04/23/07. There was a spike in visits, about 4,906 extra visits or 266% above average. Bytes (+733.36M/+458%), hits (+60,198/+1,200%), pages (+9,349/+936%), downloads (+200/+2,857%), errors (+589/+316%), unique hosts (+4,315/+388%), 1 page visits (+4,547/+1,040%), robot visits (+1,254/+269%), and total view time (+279,152/+402%) also spiked. Possibly related to referring domains 'digg.com' (+2,511/+251,100%), 'techmeme.com' (+374/+18,700%), and 'doggdot.us' (+160/+16,000%) based on visits. Possibly related to request '/live/2007/04/googles-earth-day-logo-makes-splash.html' (+153.08M/+4,880%) based on bytes. Possibly related to request '/live/2007/04/googles-earth-day-logo-makes-splash.html' (+3,904/+4,880%) based on pages. Possibly related to requests '/files/lgraycom_widget.zip' (+140/+1,272%) and '/files/antics07_bg.pdf' (+51/+1,700%) based on downloads.

It's not quite the Queen's English, but it's close. I was particularly amused by the fact it said it was possibly due to the jump from Digg, TechMeme and DoggDot, who checked in above 15,000% of normal. Yeah, that's a spike.



It's just fun with numbers. For a stat geek like me, I like diving into the reports and seeing what, if any sense I can make of things. If you run Mac OS X, and want to take a run at your own stats, give Summary a spin. As for me, I'll be seeing what other tricks I can pull off to push us up another 1000% by April of 2008.

This Week's External Blogging Contributions

At times, I feel guilty that I simply don't have enough time to devote to additional blogging activities outside of louisgray.com. For The Apple Blog, Athletics Nation and Sactown Royalty, I play a supoprting role on each - happy to help whenever possible, but without the full devotion the site owners need. Yet over the last few days, I've found some time to contribute.

At Sactown Royalty, the season's over, but the off-season, which could be just as busy, is just getting started. The Kings have fired their coach and the fans aren't happy with the players who are left. Yesterday I asked, if you could run the team for a day, who should stay and who should go? So far, after 42 comments, the consensus is that Kevin Martin is a must and some of the youngest players are probable. Everyone else can be kicked to the curb as far as the fans are concerned.

On Athletics Nation, baseballgirl called me up this evening and asked me to step in to run the recap. Of course, it would be my luck that the A's DH and big name free agent acquisition in the off-season, Mike Piazza, was injured, and looks to be out as much as 4-6 weeks. Ouch. Meanwhile, the team made three errors which gave the Red Sox the margin of victory. This is noted in the game summary: "DE-FENSE! (Clap! Clap!) DE-FEN... Uhoh"

Meanwhile, off of sports and back to tech, Apple's Steve Jobs looks like he's getting the hang of this blogging phenomenon. Following his "Thoughts on Music", which reset the labels' expectations on DRM, he posts a note on "A Greener Apple", stating Apple's efforts to promote a clean environment, including increased recycling and fewer chemicals. I wrapped his note up for The Apple Blog in "Apple Gets the Lead Out".

Ballhype's First Two-Time Golden Picks Winner Is...

Given how I'm not even on the leaderboard for this week's contest (it's early!), I almost regret mentioning it, but through sheer luck and occasional flukiness, I managed to come in first place in Ballhype's Golden Picks contest last week, making it my second win in the four weeks the contest has been running. I also finished third the prior week and, as you recall, I won the first time the contest was held. It's yet again, one of those talents that has just about zero application to the real world. There's no money to be made from random sports outcome guesses on this here Internet.

Meanwhile, Ballhype is growing by leaps and bounds. Rarely does a day go by when I don't find a new feature on the site. Jason and Erin, the husband and wife combo behind the magic, are rapidly building out a solid site that is my go to for breaking sports news and scoreboard watching. ESPN.com and MLB.com are no longer a destination for me, except in those rare opportunities when Ballhype and Sports Blogs Nation let me down.

Of course, as they add features and users, the likelihood that I can extend my winning streak will rapidly go away. There are always more people out there with more free time than me who will take to the site and make me an afterthought. At least we've had fun when the site was getting off the ground!

Recent features are highlighted on the Ballhype blog. Go check it out!

Unpopular Opinion: Digg Revolt Is a Bad Precedent

Unless you've been away from the computer for the last 24 hours, you are likely familiar with yesterday's amazing mob-like takeover of the Digg site by its users, angry about the site's removal of a submitted story which offered up a code removing copy protection from HD-DVDs on Linux. While the crack itself was esoteric, and probably didn't mean a hill of beans to the vast majority of the site's users, the ensuing take-down was the effect of yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, spawning hundreds and hundreds of follow-on submissions that swamped the front page, even leading to the eventual, short-term shutdown of the site late yesterday.

Amid the din, Digg tried to explain its stance, saying they had to comply with copyright owners. But that just fanned the flames, and eventually, Digg founder Kevin Rose capitulated, saying "Today was an insane day" and added "We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code..."

The inmates had taken over the asylum.

Response to the melee is a lot like rubbernecking on the freeway. Everybody, jaws agape, had something to say on the subject, from TechCrunch and Mashable!, to parislemon to Digg competitor Slashdot. Many are cheering on the user base. Others are wondering if the takedown notice was even valid in the first place. But to me, as fun as it is to watch the mob, I absolutely see where Digg was coming from, and the response, to give the users what they want, is in dangerous territory.

Yesterday's explosion was around a code most of us would never use. But what is to stop the next round of Digg mobbery from promoting software piracy as Microsoft Windows Vista registration codes are passed around, or the latest TV shows and films are posted to BitTorrent? As Digg had first said yesterday, "We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights." But the sheer volume of users took over, and changed the rules. If enough of the mob decides tomorrow that leaking a DIVX copy of the new Simpsons movie online is the topic du jour of the day, they could again revolt against Digg and make sure that Digg's hands are tied. Now, there's precedent that Digg will walk away from a tough fight, when it threatens to cripple the popular site.

There is a population on the Web all too happy to find new ways to get something for free - whether they be film and TV downloads or MP3 files, software or pornography. Now that Digg has shown it can be used for nefarious methods, another barrier has been taken down between the Internet's dark side and those who have always followed the rules.