My how time flies. SHS has been one of the First Things blogs for a year now, and so I thought I’d analyze how it’s going.
I accepted the offer to switch to FT because I thought it would improve my numbers–then growing nicely–and my breadth of penetration into the blogosphere. The latter hope has been more than fulfilled. I have noticed since the switch a greater diversity of readers to the blog, and the resulting interesting interactions in the comments. Being with FT has also resulted in Google and other search engines placing my posts prominently, bringing new readers and new perspectives.
As to numbers, in the first FT year, SHS enjoyed about 425,000 visits. Not bad, but I admit that I thought it would be higher. At the time of the switch, SHS on Blogger had grown from very little to about 45,000-50,000 visits a month. After the change, that number dropped, a surprise given the automatic forwarding to the new site from the old address. Part of that decline was the summer doldrums that hit every year. But not all of it. I am not sure why people would read SHS as an independent blog but wouldn’t as an FT blog, for that seems to be what happened. The good news is that since last summer, the numbers have rebounded to the point that they are now restored to about what they were a year ago, and seem to be growing steadily. So, onward and upward.
I am thrilled to be part of the First Things family. I think Joseph Bottum is doing a magnificent job bringing the magazine and the site forward after the death of founder Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. I think First Things is a core of intellectual rigor and integrity. Joe Carter has been wonderful in supporting the blog technically and being a benevolent presence in the event of problems.
Most of all, I thank SHSers for reading the blog, engaging the issues, and introducing yourselves when I am out and about giving speeches and otherwise engaging in general rabble rousing. Tell your friends to drop on by. In many ways, human exceptionalism is the key question of the century. Let’s keep talking.
June 1st, 2010 | 12:41 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vince Humphreys and Stand In The Gap, Wesley J. Smith. Wesley J. Smith said: One Year Anniversary of SHS at First Things » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog http://shar.es/mJDxd [...]
June 1st, 2010 | 2:12 pm
Theory as to why your numbers temporarily dropped: Despite the automatic forwarding, people (including me) like to have a direct URL that they can easily remember. The FT URL for SHS is cumbersome, because it has the whole FT url first, followed by Secondhandsmoke, etc. Automatic forwarding also takes a few more seconds. Faced by the slight cognitive dissonance of not being sure that you are remembering the url correctly and just not feeling like sitting through an automatic forwarding process, one might well come to SHS somewhat less often at first. What has happened now is that my browser has the new URL in as a default, and all I have to do is start typing “Firstthings.”
It would be nice if FT could find some way to make the URLs simpler and to put the name of the individual blog in a more prominent position in the URL.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 4:03 pm
my old http://www.wesleyjsmith.com still works as it forwards right to the new site. Thanks.
June 1st, 2010 | 3:45 pm
Wesley, “hits” are a very hard thing to measure properly and it may be you’re comparing apples and oranges from one website to the other. There’s “hits” which even changing the format of the blog can change the number of (since one page load can be multiple hits). There’s “pages”, which in theory should be more apples to apples but I’ve got two tools that measure traffic on my blog and even though they both claim to measure “pages” they get vastly different numbers, one 3x the other. Then there are the even more dubious “views” or “visitors” which try to exclude repeat visits by the same person or use other filtering techniques to get a more “intelligent” number.
What I’m trying to say is it’s very unlikely that the numbers you’re comparing are really equivalents. About the only comparison point is to use the same tool on the same site over time to see if the numbers are going up or down.
Personally, I liked your independent site better as I felt there were less “drive by” commentary from people who hate FT and just want to be a thorn in the writer’s side. If you haven’t noticed, people on the old blog treated you more as an individual where more comments here treat you as part of the “evil conservative tea party machine” (or something like that). It’s a shame because you’re nothing of the sort.
In any case, you’re writing is always good and it’ll keep me coming back no matter where your blog is hosted. Keep up the good work.
June 1st, 2010 | 3:50 pm
Your move to FT has been to my benefit too. Starting with your writings on Animal Rights and your blog RatPigDogBoy, I found SHS, which led me to FT where I have found many articles (including yours) that are thought provoking and challenging.
June 1st, 2010 | 6:13 pm
Oh, one more thing: If readers read many FT blogs, their browsers will save all of those URLs as frequent “go to” urls. Hence, when they want to go to SHS, they have to choose from among those from the options suggested by the browser–a kind of competition for easy access.
June 2nd, 2010 | 5:45 am
Secondhand Smoke is the first thing I read each morning, every morning. I read First Things cover to cover as soon as it arrives each month. Naturally, I followed you from indie blogger to FT. Now, I slide over to the Anchoress, Spengler and Postmodern conservative before I drain my first cup of tea.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:29 am
Wow, Jim Ross. Thanks.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact