January In Review

I had the goal to increase readership in 2009 and to that end I tried three things.

1) One Thousandth Post Contest - I figured people like free stuff, and as word of mouth passed around about the 100 million ISK worth of prizes more people would drop by and a few might even stay after seeing what was going on here.

2) More Commenting on Other Blogs - I tend to be shy but I decided it would help generate traffic to my sight by leaving useful or supportive comments on other sites. Build up the community and all that.

3) More In Depth Posts - Posts like "Eve Masterclass" series and more thinking about game mechanics and ships to attract the readership with less interest in my current meanderings through the cluster and more interest in analysis.

Coupled on top of that effort was the unexpected and completely fortuitous nomination in the E-ON magazine awards directing some traffic here from the official Eve forums. So let's see how the numbers shaped up, shall we?

Month	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Jan 2009	5,772	4,013	2,597	1,416
Dec 2008	3,647	2,655	1,563	1,092
Nov 2008	3,461	2,564	1,664	900
Oct 2008	5,443	3,898	2,380	1,518

Wow, two thousand more page loads and over 4 thousand unique visitors which breaks a record. Busiest days were the 22nd, 27th, and 29th with 325 page loads each. Busiest day for unique visitors was the 27th. Hmmm, that was the day after my Wormholes Unveiled post. Most popular page after my root URL was my post about the stalker I have with 47 loads which goes to show people like the creepy when its not happening to them.

In January I spent some time getting to know the Sansha NPCs in Providence as well as helping out where I can with the current war with Incarnation of Evil. Sadly I haven't gotten any war target kills despite a few efforts. I finally completed my skill training for the Ninveah carrier (woot!) and I'm currently working on tech II heavy drones and a host of other support skills for the winter, with an eye towards a new ship type in the summer (which one depends on my mood that day).