Posts Tagged ‘traffic’

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TRAFFIC

by Tom on January 11, 2010 at 7:13 am
Posted In: Blog
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I don't really look at my site traffic like I used to. I used to be quite obsessed with it.

I suppose it's a good thing that I don't look at it much anymore because I think if you put too much emphasis on it, then you might not be doing the work for the right reasons. Clearly, after nearly 8 years in the game, it should be evident that Theater Hopper is a labor of love.

But at the same time, because I love what I do, I want other people to love what I do. I won't deny that it's an ego boost to know people are reading and enjoying your work.

So it bummed me out a little yesterday when I looked at my traffic statistics and read the monthly averages by year since 2002.

Theater Hopper's boom years were 2004 - 2006. These days, I probably see a third of the traffic I saw back then. Obviously my life is much different these days. I have two kids, I'm taking night classes for my Master's degree. I'm a pretty busy guy. I don't have the time to promote the comic like I used to or brainstorm ideas on how to market it.

I think part of the traffic decline can also be attributed to the sheer sizes of the archives. If I were a new reader, I don't know if I could stand to read through 1,000+ comics.

Certainly you don't NEED to read through the archive to "get" what Theater Hopper is about. I think the topical nature of the comic sees to that. But, still... It's daunting. So I'm always impressed when I hear from new readers who invest the time to check out the history of the comic.

But I think my biggest problem is that I don't advertise the site. Like, at all. I've never been very good about advertising Theater Hopper. I've always relied on the relationships I've established with other creators and the fan base to establish word-of-mouth. So, I suppose by those standards, Theater Hopper is very successful!

I don't think it would hurt for me to advertise the comic a little bit, though. But the reason I haven't done it in the past is because I'm terrible at designing ads for my site and I am awful at deciding which sites to put them on.

Some of this should be obvious. "Advertise with other web comics. Advertise with movie blogs." But when you start talking about popular web comics and movie blogs, advertising costs an arm and a leg and I psych myself out of doing it because I'm not confident that the banner ads I've designed will attract new readers.

I've been thinking about designing banner ads that parody popular movie posters. Tom holding up a piece of soap that says "Theater Hopper" instead of "Fight Club." That kind of thing. Designing a bunch of those kind of ads would certainly keep me busy. But beyond that, I'm lost. I feel like I need to talk to a consultant, or something.

Does anyone out there have web site marketing experience? Even if you're not a paid professional, what would you do in my situation? I need to step outside of my own head a little bit. Maybe there is a very obvious solution that I'm overlooking.

Just trying to stir up a little discussion. Please leave your comments below. Thanks

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TALES FROM THE REFERRAL LOGS

by Tom on February 6, 2009 at 2:30 pm
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I love checking my referral logs hourly from time to time because sometimes the results turn up some doozies.

For example, during my last exploration, I found the following phrases people used to find my site:

  • gay wolf
  • geriatric homicide

Should I be at all concerned that these search phrases were back to back?

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NOT TRYING TO BRAG, BUT…

by Tom on December 1, 2004 at 12:00 am
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This isn't me trying to be a big shot or anything. I just like celebrating milestones.

I checked Theater Hopper's statistics for the month of November and we posted our biggest number of unique visitors in the history of the site - 170,124.

This blows my mind. It breaks our previous record by about 10,000 hits.

Like I said, this isn't me trying to brag. And really, when you compare those numbers to some of the other web comics out there - several that even started after Theater Hopper - there's not a lot of reason to call attention to it. Most sites wouldn't want to tell you the traffic they do because it might make them look "weak" in face of the "competition."

I don't feel that way. I'm only in competition with myself and my prize - my validation - is to make the best comic I can. Of course I want to share my passion with others, so if there's an audience for it, why not put it out there?

I sometimes think it's easy to overlook exactly what those numbers mean. Frankly, I'm stunned that there is anyone out there interested enough in what I'm doing not only to visit once, but keep coming back or even mention it to their friends. Theater Hopper is growing because of the dedication and support you've shown and I just wanted to thank you for it.

All 170,124 of you.

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TRAFFIC PATTERNS

by Tom on July 28, 2004 at 12:00 am
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This is not me bragging. This is me sharing one of those "I am flabbergasted and alarmed" kind of moments.

In some weird quark of fate, Theater Hopper racked up 14,889 unique hits yesterday. I'm not sure what that means. Because on a normal day, we see maybe 4,000 uniques.

To help shape your perspective, that's more hits in one day than Theater Hopper saw in the entire MONTH of December 2002. True, we were only 4 months old at the time, but that's a pretty wide gap.

Checking the registry, I was seeing a lot of hits from the PVP Forums and the forums over at Super Hero Hype. Who ever is linking me up in those places... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!

I suppose now would also be a good time to mention that I have some advertising spots opening up soon. If you're interested in reaching a lot of people for a little bit of expense, our extraordinarily fair rates and advertising packages are listed here.

Man, I'm sleazy!

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THAT’S A LOTTA HITS

by Tom on July 10, 2004 at 12:00 am
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I don't know if it was because we were celebrating our 300th strip, or if it was just some fluke in the traffic pattern, but I checked my stats for Friday and saw 8552 of you visited the site that day. That's a very high number for us. It's actually twice what we usually see. Actually, I think that's the largest number of unique visitors that have EVER come to the site in one day.

In any case, I wanted to thank everyone for closing out their week by visiting us and to commemorate it here in the blog. It's quite a validation. Thank you!

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FAR AND AWAY

by Tom on April 14, 2003 at 12:00 am
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If you own a web site and you keep track of your traffic statistics, sometimes you come across some pretty weird details. Certainly some of the phrases use to find the site provide entertainment (although there is often more searches for "Marina Sirtis naked" than I would like) but in this case, it's the countries that people are checking the site from.

For example, one person from Saint Kitss and Nevis has checked the site. Apparently, our cultural differences prevented this person from ever returning. But how do you explain the TWO hits I received from the United Arab Emirates?! Pretty cool, huh?

Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Uruguay, American Samoa, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Chile, Greece, Iceland, Trinidad and Tobago, Luxembourg and Christmas Island are but a small sample of the countries in which Theater Hopper has been seen.

The internet is truly a wonderful place.

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LANDMARK

by Tom on September 25, 2002 at 12:00 am
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At some point last night, Theater Hopper crossed the threshold of 5,000 unique hits to the site. This blows my friggin' mind.

Right now, we're averaging about 100 unique hits a day. This number is well beyond the realm of friends and relatives looking at the site. To be aware that so many people have made the site a regular stop is really cool.

It some circles, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I find it very note-worthy. Let's put it in perspective: Theater Hopper has only be operating for a little less than 2 months and has racked up over 5,000 unique hits. My other site has been around for a year this October and is still hovering around 4,500. Wow.

Sometimes it's hard to guess just how many people are out there looking at what you do. I worry about people getting the jokes or thinking what I'm doing is lame. But to have a readership that is not only stable, but growing - well, I just wanted to say "thank you" for validating what I do.

I know I've talked about it in the past, but reaching this landmark has really inspired me to get working on the Bonus Materials section. If you'd like to give me some feedback on what materials to make available to the fans, please head into the forums where we can discuss it.

Once again, thanks. I'm having a blast doing this and I can't tell you how much it pleases me to know others are along for the ride!

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