16 Month Statistics for Epic Edits
Photonovice.net is running a BLOG STATISTICS PROJECT (deadline is May 9), so I figured it would be a good opportunity to actually look at my stats. Yep, you heard me — I don't check my stats too often. After a while, it all starts to look the same and no amount of staring at the graphs will make them get any taller.
I hope I don't come off as “beating my chest” with this post — they're just numbers, and there are plenty of other bloggers out there with more impressive numbers. The one number you should pay attention to is “16” — as in 16 months of constant blogging, relationship building, project participating, commenting, emailing, writing, posting, and everything else that goes along with the territory. It's not a quick or easy process.
So if you're new around here, the top articles are a good place to start checking out. Those same articles are also listed in my sidebar and are typically updated every month or so. If you're running your own blog, the top sources ought to tell you which services and websites are worth paying attention to (and participating in).
TOP 10 ARTICLES OF ALL TIME
In nearly 16 months of publishing, we've had approximately 1,400,000 pageviews… 850,000 visits… and 720,000 unique visitors. We also have over 500 published posts containing 340,000 words and 3800 comments containing 185,000 words! Here are 10 of the best performing articles.
16 Inspirational Portrait Photography Techniques
324,596 Views and 67 Comments
87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds
110,673 Views and 90 Comments
28 Ways To Interpret A Photo
109,007 Views and 167 Comments
Warning: These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result In Great Photos
108,674 Views and 25 Comments
7 Bad Habits of Digital Photographers (a big thanks to Antoine!)
85,089 Views and 48 Comments
60% of Photoshop Users are PIRATES!
80,851 Views and 71 Comments
Five Fantastic Flickr Photographers
41,740 Views and 43 Comments
How To Create Photoshop Actions
12,699 Views and 9 Comments
Creative Commons: A Great Concept I’ll Continue to Employ
11,631 Views and 44 Comments
So You Think You Know What An F-Number Is
11,293 Views and 8 Comments
TOP 10 TRAFFIC SOURCES
Over 5000 sources have sent people to the Epic Edits Weblog from 6 continents, 198 countries (US being the most popular), and 16,344 cities (London being the most popular by far). Here are the top 10 contributors of incoming traffic.
StumbleUpon
221,461 Visits
Digg
215,450 Visits
Direct Traffic
97,455 Visits
Google Search
89,745 Visits
Google Referral (mostly Google Reader)
18,641 Visits
del.icio.us
11,813 Visits
DIYPhotography.net — Udi, you rock!
10,040 Visits
digital Photography School — Thanks Darren & Neil!
9,792 Visits
PhotographyVoter
9,002 Visits
Yahoo Search
8,306 Visits
And just for kicks, here's a graph of the feed subscription growth. Subscribe here if you want to keep up to date with the latest articles.
I don't keep track of numbers on my Flickr account, but I do keep a collection of my most popular photos based on various things such as interestingness, views, comments, and faves. I find that it's kind of good to keep an eye on what's working and what's not when it comes to photography — especially for those of us who are still finding our way.
[VISIT THE PROJECT HOMEPAGE] So if you have a blog of your own, dig into your stats and whip up a post about your most popular articles or photos. Remember, the project deadline is May 9 — so hurry up before it's too late!
Chris/Aperture Image
May 4, 2008Hi Brian; it can be seen from your graphs that it took a while for EE’s viewing figures to take off, what do you think was the defining moment?
Brian Auer
May 4, 2008Chris, I think a lot of things were just coming together in the September/October timeframe of last year. I started posting on a strict schedule with different type of content each day. We had the “edit my photo” project going on. I think my first digg was around that time frame. And most importantly, I had just been around long enough that traffic was starting to pick up on its own.
I think the 6 to 12 month timeframe (or longer) is typical before blogs start gaining more significant exposure. When I first started blogging, I was told the same thing by many other bloggers — it’s funny how right they were.
the_wolf_brigade
May 4, 2008I remember that Digg spike 😀
Brian Auer
May 4, 2008The chart I show doesn’t do the Digg spikes any justice… What you see on this page are monthly numbers. If I were to show the daily charts, you’d see a few extremely skinny spikes and the rest of the chart basically at zero. The biggest Digg (photoshop pirates) caused over 80,000 visitors in two days. Digg is a neat ride, but it doesn’t last very long. It DOES, however, cause a long-tail effect due to a bunch of other sites and social media scenes picking up the article.
Ryan G
May 4, 2008Brian,
Its great to see your maniacal dedication pay off! I have never undestood where you find the time! Great work!!!
Brian Auer
May 4, 2008Yeah, I don’t know man. Time is something I’d definitely like to have more of. If I could start to make a few bucks with this thing, I’d like to cut back on my other job and start transitioning. I envy David Hobby for taking the plunge that he did last year — and it’s certainly paid off for him.
the_wolf_brigade
May 4, 2008Ah. I thought the Digg spike on the graph might have been when the blog went down.
Brian Auer
May 4, 2008Nah, the one that took out the site way back when didn’t even really register on the stats — I got almost no traffic out of that one. That was before I switched hosts too.
Richard Wong
May 4, 2008Those are very impressive stats Brian, looks like traffic has really taken off for you this year. Just from that list alone it seems like more than 850,000 visits. You have definetely put a lot of work into this as your site looks as professional as many magazine website.
Richard Wong
May 4, 2008btw, I think the Strobist gets a lot of his money from teaching workshops and speaking seminars. Probably has some equipment vendors paying for ad space as well though I haven’t looked at his site in a while. It’s hard to model a business after someone else’s since there are always different circumstances at play but it is good to see what works for others and determine where you fit in.
Brian Auer
May 4, 2008Thanks Richard — good point about David Hobby. He always seems to be busy with seminars and whatnot. Year after year I’ll be trying to add sites and services to my arsenal — this year being the photoblog, and I’ve got some ideas cooking for next year.
I’m beginning to see just how much work it would be to make a living via online publishing and photography both. I have a lot of respect for people who do it well.
the_wolf_brigade
May 5, 2008Just a thought, but perhaps you could look into a guest spot at a local college based on some of your projects? Kind of like a presentation of the Adobe image management series. I’m not sure whether you could get money out of it, but perhaps it might get you name out there?
Brian Auer
May 5, 2008Hey… not a bad idea! Might be a good project for the fall semester classes. We’ve got plenty of colleges around here; I’ll have to look into which ones have a photography program.
Susheel Chandradhas
May 6, 2008Brian, I’m right with Ryan G on this…
You just seem to have and endless supply of time to help others find some quality content relating to photography with your social media submissions! I envy your time management skills.
Unfortunately my current state of affairs does not allow me more than around 30 minutes for social media and around the same for my feeds. I’m looking forward to a time when this opens up a bit.
Cheers on the stats! Your work and dedication is certainly paying off in visitors!
ravi karandeekar
May 11, 2008Congrats! I follow you on Twitter. I love your photos. You are great.
Lisa
May 12, 2008That’s just amazing. Well-deserved, too. Congrats from me and Jeff, Brian!