Before You Panic From A Bad Statistical Week…
June 17th, 2007 by CourtThis week was the first week that I wasn’t able to achieve a significant gain in traffic, and I’ve been scrambling like mad to figure out what I did wrong. I was thinking, “Did I write bad posts? Did I offend people or something?”
In 100% honesty I couldn’t really think of anything major that I did wrong, if fact I created some posts that I liked quite a bit. I decided to check into a few sites that I read and compared their traffic to mine for the last few months. Here is a graph that I made using Alexa that represents the traffic of our sites:
I found it really interesting that these three sites, unrelated in every way, follow very similar up and down patterns in traffic. I looked at a total of 10 sites and found similar charts. Internet traffic in general was down this last week. I guess we have to train ourselves mentally for ups and downs, they are just, plain unavoidable.
Was anyone else needlessly worried from bad traffic during this last week?
Save to del.icio.us
Digg This!
Post to Facebook
StumbleItRelated Posts:
June 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Not so much a bad ‘week,’ but I had a really bad ‘day’ on Friday; I was in single digit hits at 10 PM, when I’m usually in the upper 20’s…. I actually finished with my best week ever (cue corny VH1
I suppose I was immune from this dip, as I got an article linked from the Wall Street Journal Online early this week, and that drove my traffic pretty high (for me) for a couple days. Very exciting for me, seeing my blog listed at such a prestigious web site.
June 17th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
err… I was typing ‘(cue corny VH1 guy)’ when it accidentally posted…. my bad…
Contextual ads in comments! I just noticed that, that’s cool!
June 18th, 2007 at 9:52 am
You should be excited Jeremy, that’s freaking awesome!
Congratulations and I hope it sent you a lot of traffic.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
This week was interesting for me. Page views were up dramatically this week, with a peak on Friday of 50% higher than my next highest day yet. Of course, Friday was also just shy of Sat and Sun combined.
Unique visitors has also been growing nicely.
My problem, I think, is stickiness. Prior to Friday, I have had very few return visitors - according to statcounter. I have been running around 5% returns. Friday, I had a solid 10% return visitors. Still going through page viewings to see the traffic patterns, but overall not sure why.
Sat took me back to around a week ago, and Sunday is back to where I was on Thursday. Overall, and interesting roller coaster ride.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Stickiness is one of the hardest things to get results with, but is one of the most important things that will help you to get big!
This business is always going to be a roller coaster ride, I think.
June 17th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
my graph is similar as yours
June 18th, 2007 at 10:22 am
It’s pretty interesting, I have found quite a few more graphs that look very similar to the ones in the picture.
June 17th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
love you blog. i’m a fan! hope your stats go up so i can win the paycheck
June 18th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I hope you can win my paycheck too!
June 17th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
your blog! oops.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Being fathers day, I imagine people spent time with their dad this week. Traffic is always down around holidays.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:24 am
You’re probably right, I bet that contributed to it. At least it wasn’t a major dip, I think I was only down about 5%.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Keeping an eye on stats and always trying to beat your previous best is a real killer. After 10 years, I’ve allowed myself to not stress too much over stats, but just the bottom line. However… keep beating those previous bests!
June 18th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Definitely, hopefully people know that a week that’s down a little bit isn’t always a sign that trouble is ahead. The solution is to keep the ‘mental game’ and continue working like it didn’t happen.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Yes, I was curious as well, but I know from experience that once summer hits, people spend less time in front of the computer (that is good). The problem is that means we make less money (that is bad). Unless we spend some more time outside enjoying the good weather and not worrying about traffic and earnings (thats the clever thing to do).
June 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
So true! It’s been slightly more difficult for me every summer but the fall has always been awesome so everyone should be pretty excited about that!
June 18th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Well, mine was low too. But, it’s gonna rise this week. I am very sure of that
June 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Definitely
June 18th, 2007 at 11:35 am
The way I look at it is that everything goes through cycles, so I don’t plan on the internet being any different. Longer time frames like a month or quarter might be a better indication of whether things are really going up or down.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
So true! Looking at a quarterly report would definitely be a better indicator. Monthly reports are almost always going to be a good indicator as well.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Hi Court,
I guess traffic dips and peaks just depends on promotions you do at the time and if anyother blogs /resources pick up your article along side your usual daily readers. Do you find Alexa ranking stats accurate with your usual stats? What stat programs do you use? Analytics?
Martin
June 18th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
They’re pretty close but definitely not exact! It helps that I have an Alexa widget, that helps them to track my stats better.
If I pull up an Alexa chart the peaks and valleys will look like the peaks and valleys in my stat accounts, but the traffic numbers are somewhat different.
I’ve been using both Statcounter and Google Analytics for a few months and really like them both. I personally like Statcounter a little better, but that’s just my personal preference.
June 18th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
My traffic was really bad on Saturday. It was about half of the traffic compared to last Saturday.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Hey Court, I had some of the same last week…my traffic was down, and my adsense clicks, however my technorati links are shooting through the roof, because of the viral-tag / viral-link programs, going around. Of course I’ve also been working on my design, a bit, so haven’t been able to pop out as many posts, which could be a big part of it.
Last night I popped out 3-4 posts, and my traffic is doing great for this week.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Anyone that got in on ViralTags is pretty happy right now. That thing spread like crazy, wow.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I was lucky to get in on it pretty quickly. As well as the ViralIcons and that 3rd one with Anchor text, a modification of the first one.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Last week was pretty bad and I agree that Friday was the big loser. I am prepared for Summer traffic, weather is nicer people spend less time online but it still bums me out.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Yeah, it definitely takes a lot more work during the summer to grow!
June 19th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
aha..I was also thinking on the same line….traffic in general is down in this month…too bad…i was even thinking of changing the niche…but thanks for the info!
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
I seem to have been bitten (quite hard) the later part of this week (6/17-24). Is this just part of the summer slump? So weird that I experienced my two best days ever, then boom. Bottom fell out.
Anyone else with similar experiences this week?
June 24th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I think that’s pretty normal during the summer Jeremy. Since your site is about consumer products you can look forward to the fall and winter, people really start using the internet more during that time period. I would just market as much as you can until then.
June 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Thank you… I’m trying. It’s rebounded well this weekend. Maybe Fridays just really don’t like me
Funny marketing blunder I’m kicking myself for, but will laugh about if I’m ever successful; I’ve been using the D-List, and commenting, but my url has been going in wrong. I guess I typed it wrong once, and since then I’ve been letting Firefox do auto-fill.. So stupid! (slaps forhead)
June 24th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I’m glad you figured it out! That could have lasted for a really long time - it’s the kind of thing that’s hard to catch.