by Robert Wilkinson
6 years ago today I signed up for site meter to track my visits and page views.
First, a little backstory on these numbers. I began this blog at Salon.com in late April 2004. (Yes, we'll celebrate the 7th anniversary of launching the Aquarius Papers in a few weeks!) I moved over to the Typepad blogware I now use in August 2005, as the Salon.com blogware was a joke.
From the beginning in Spring 2004, I noted that the Salon.com page view counter tended to be inconsistent, but it served a valuable search engine need in those ancient times even though it tended to undercount page views. By February 2005 I found site meter, and started its counter at 0 while linking it to the Salon.com site counter to measure the inconsistencies.
As of today, the Salon.com counter shows about 4,426,000 page views (since April 2004), a far cry from the current site meter total of 6,545,000 which started 9 months after I began the blog on Salon.
That said, even the current internal site meter tallies are inconsistent. For example, the front page counter at the bottom right of the site shows the total I put in the headline, though when you click on that link it takes you to a page showing about 35,000 fewer visits. Then there have been the inevitable times when the site meter counter malfunctioned for various amounts of time, which I estimate would boost the total visits up about 40,000 more and the page views up about 180,000.
Anyway, it's now been six years of tracking hits using site meter, and it's been a true joy to work with the Typepad blogware (which has its own counter, showing 5,600,000 page views since August 2005.) Which brings up one last thing. Why do these numbers matter?
As a long time blogger who has known a LOT of other bloggers using various types of blogware, I will leave you with the thought that there are many tracking and counting systems out there, and none of them agree with the others. Each has their own way of counting, and the reason they exist is that with more traffic, blogs can supposedly get more advertising revenue.
Since blog ads drive the revenue stream in almost all commercial blogs, it's to a blogger's advantage to have high numbers of visitors. Here's the rub:
I've heard more than a few people proclaim their relatively new blogs as "in the top 100," or "in the top 1000" of all blogs and websites on Earth in traffic to their site. I've heard people who have been blogging for a relatively few weeks tell me their blog has very high search engine rank, with thousands suddenly finding and consistently coming to their relatively new site.
Most of this is a fiction created by web developers and SEO providers cheerleading people into believing they do, or can, have more traffic than they do. From years of experience, it is only possible to have that much traffic a short time after startup if you
a) get extremely lucky via something you put on YouTube going viral,
b) are flacking for a major media corporation, or other global player (google, facebook, yahoo, msnbc, etc.),
c) create a search engine or and/or blogware that catches on,
d) somehow jump into the controversy du jour on a hugely trafficked site like Daily Kos (happened to me during my Political Physics days, when two articles I wrote there drove about 50,000 people to my site in a week),
e) dabble in porn,
f) start intensively blogging about a movie or music star shortly before they become hot nationally or globally,
or g) get lucky and create an innovative technology site where you and thousands of techheads can swap knowledge and feedback about "the 10,000 things."
(There may be others I've overlooked, but you get the picture. While it is possible to find "lightning in a bottle" it's very rare.)
So that's why numbers of visitors matter to most bloggers and websites. As I don't take advertising (but do accept "Site Sponsors" when appropriate) the quantity of hits really don't matter at this site, except to let me know how many of you out there are stopping by the Cosmic Cantina for information, conversation, and community.
And that's a good thing! Glad to know there are so many who enjoy this place. Just figured you'd like to know there are at least a few hundred thousand out there who also feel the way you do!
© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson
Robert, I think that's fantastic! Congratulations! I know from slowly doing my own podcasts that having that kind of feedback helps provide the energy to keep writing, keep creating. Continued blessings!
-Dina
Posted by: Dina | February 25, 2011 at 10:50 AM
Hi all - I found a little more. From Alexa, "The site has a relatively good traffic rank in the cities of Austin (#6,314), Montreal (#8,430), and Seattle-Tacoma (#12,472)." Also, It seems I'm #74,037 for all US sites, and am highly ranked in Israel, Turkey, and India. From a diversity standpoint, we really are all part of a global community around here!
Posted by: Robert | February 25, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Congratulations, Robert. Your integrity and your consistency always shine through. The Aquarius Papers are indeed a beacon that is shining light and illuminating these incredible times that we live in. Thank you so much for the dedication that you continue to show for The Great Work. Namaskarams to you.
Posted by: dcu | February 25, 2011 at 04:26 PM
I'm glad you managed to get off that old Salon system, it was doomed. It was a product called "Radio" and I paid good money for it too (if you didn't get a free Salon blog, you had to pay to use the company's home servers). It was a nightmare, and so was the company. I used to operate one of the top blogs on the Radio system, until their server went down for a week on the exact day I intended to release a huge story that I'd been hyping for weeks. My audience never did recover.
Anyway, I will add to the chorus of congratulations. You mentioned the ways to get large hit counts. Everyone tries SEO tomfoolery like viral stunts or splitting up a long story into 10 pages so you get 10 hits on 10 different ads. That alienates readers and drives them away. But you're doing it the right way, the only proper way: you are writing tons of compelling content that draws an audience by word of mouth. That takes talent, a rare commodity these days. I don't know how you have the time to write as much as you do, and as well as you do.
Posted by: Charles | February 25, 2011 at 08:10 PM
Congratulations! From the 13 years you've been doing my charts, I can see why your Blog has attracted so many devoted readers. We love Aquarius Papers! Thanks a gazillion Robert!!
Posted by: rebekka | February 25, 2011 at 10:06 PM
Congratulations and many more happy returns!
Posted by: Phileas Fogg | February 25, 2011 at 10:12 PM
I'm glad to know this online community that I belong to is so expansive as well as so deep! Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Sara | February 25, 2011 at 10:32 PM
Good number Robert.
Your work is meaningful to many. I am sure that to many more than those who know about the existance of the site. That would be a nice goal, to let other potential people that could benefit from it know that the Aquarius papers exist!
That being said, it is not all about numbers. If you made a difference in just another persons life, you made a good life. You have done so with more than one.
Keep the good work up and again, Congrats.
Posted by: Nicolas | February 26, 2011 at 03:53 AM
Congratulations - if all internet blogs could shed so much light, wisdom & hope - humanity's true destiny would be so close at hand. Whenever I travel to places without a spiritual community (such as now), I am ever so grateful for this site, your ever-so-eloquent musings & astrological teachings. I find that I get less upset or unbalanced in the world, as I have a place to tap into, which puts events in perspective, allows a smile & moves me back into compassion from anger, fear or frustration. You serve up a slice of enlightenment every time! thanks.
Posted by: Donna H. | February 26, 2011 at 10:36 AM
I just read a few of the others comments here and well they all said it for me.
So, I am going to say thanks for doing this for us. It is a wonderful site.
I am grateful that I discovered it.
Posted by: Micheline | February 26, 2011 at 05:07 PM
Um, but what else? Your work means a lot to so many people.
Mazol tov, felicidades, congratulations!
Posted by: Warriorlady | February 27, 2011 at 10:35 PM
Heartfelt congratulations!!!!
Keep up the excellent and inspiring work.
Love,
Isabel
Posted by: Isabel Nobre | February 28, 2011 at 08:16 AM
Good for you! You are a inspiration to me. I have been writing about astrology on my own site Celestial Navigation and Examiner.com (Newark Astrology Examiner) for almost a year and am proud to include links to Aquarius Papers. You have so much wisdom and experience to offer. Keep up the good work. Live long and prosper! Namaste! :)
http://www.examiner.com/astrology-in-newark/valerie-morrissey
Posted by: Valerie | February 28, 2011 at 08:32 AM
A wonderful job. Super helpful information.
Posted by: Pait | August 28, 2011 at 09:49 AM