Reader Stats

Jkandra · Post by **Jkandra** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 12:43 pm

So I've been doing this comic strip for six months now. My long dormant pen and ink skills are coming back. My writing is a little tighter. My characters are starting to jell. And the reader stats are a little more each month.

But.

Just what do the stats say? Do I look at look at the unique URL numbers? Do I pay attention to Page Views? How do you (other cartoonists) measure your readership? What do you pay attention to? And does anybody know what kinds of numbers are good? We all do these comics in a vacuum to some extent. My quest is to try to understand how big my vacuum is.

Thanks,

Joe

Starline · Post by **Starline** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:03 pm

Visits. That's what you pay attention to know how many unique vistors are going to your site everyday.

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:43 pm

Yeah, what the bubblegum girl said.

Sasjhwa · Post by **Sasjhwa** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 2:29 pm

I look at both visits and hits. Hits represent every spam bot, search engine, visitor, etc. If mine is really high and visits are low I know something is out of wack.

The thing I really pay attention to is the list of webpages that people have followed links to find me. This tells me where my visitors are coming from and if advertisements are working. It also tells me when someone posts a review of my comic or links to me but doesn't tell me. Last month I got a ton of visits from a livejournal review of my website even though the guy hated it. It let me go to his review and leave a reply thanking him for the review even though it was bad. That got me even more visits and a couple of emails from people telling me I dealt with the situation in a classy manner. Good impression

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 2:39 pm

Visits compared to total pages viewed. If you have about ...5 pages or so per visitor, then they're looking. If it's one page per visitor you can never be sure if their readers, unless they are checking updates.

However, the higher the visits usual signifies the best readership. Mind you, your visits to your own site are also recorded.

I find Sitemeter is the best recorder aside from the CG stats. You have more of a solid breakdown with it and you can block your own browser from being recorded.

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:00 pm

A linky that says what everyone else was saying.

No matter how good your comic is, yu won't get readers unless you get linked. People need to FIND it. So don't be discouraged if yours are somewhat lower than you expected, just go pimp out your stuff.

Sasjhwa · Post by **Sasjhwa** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:13 pm

Black Sparrow wrote:A linky that says what everyone else was saying.

No matter how good your comic is, yu won't get readers unless you get linked. People need to FIND it. So don't be discouraged if yours are somewhat lower than you expected, just go pimp out your stuff.

I absolutely agree. For example, in September 2006 in spite of very regular updating I had 186 visitors, but I had done almost no promotion. Not bad, but not where I wanted.

Then I started doing link exchanges, fan art, and added my link to my signature on several boards and my email. I also sent an email to a bunch of the creators I really admire telling them how much I loved their work. I didn't mention my own site much beyond my signature. But lots visited and sent me really good feedback.

In November I had risen to 664 visitors even though I switched from 5 days a week to 2 days a week. Through today I am on target to smash that for December.

These numbers are certainly not world shattering and a lot of comics are higher, but I'm really happy. I can see that my efforts are having a far greater effect than when I did nothing. It has been a lot of work, but as the man says, "Pimpin' ain't easy."

Dragonkingdoms · Post by **Dragonkingdoms** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:37 pm

My highest month was July of this year, where I got 3,261 visits. However, only 4,460 pages were loaded, which makes me think a large amount of that was from spambots. November saw 1,096 visits, with 1,935 pages loaded, or just under two pages per visit.

So far in December, I've had 395 visits, and 1,076 pages loaded. Just under three pages each! Wow! (Though my tracking software says 348 visits between here AND DD... hmm.)

EDIT: #620 on the CG List? I'm surprised I'm even ON the CG List!

EvilChihuahua · Post by **EvilChihuahua** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:58 pm

I generally like to look at my hits rather than visits, since the higher number makes me feel good about myself, but I still got 2027 visits last month, which is around ten times what I got in March, so WHOOHOO!

This month, I've already got 703 visits, with 2966 pages loaded.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:17 pm

I just checked my tutorial site and found I had a thousand visits last month. Given the intended audience is comic writers, I was quite impressed.

- Joel Fagin

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:38 pm

I just look at my numbers and check to see that they're maintaining the same values each month or getting a little stronger. I'm generally only looking at the visits too.

I think I'm maintaining 80 a day and pushing towards 90 a day. Did have 100 a day for one month recently, but it's levelled itself out again.

Legendary · Post by **Legendary** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:39 pm

Um... 7784 visits, 55225 pages, 161026 hits for the month of December.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:59 pm

All important things being said already, I always look at visits (when I have a comic )

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:01 pm

For a long time I just figured that if my stats (hits, pages, visits, etc) were going up that was good. And if they were going down that was not good.

Then they went all schizo on me and my visits went up while my hits were going down.

So now I generally go by visits. Not really sure what that means as regards actual reader eyeballs 'though: I get so many visits, on average, per day, but only update three out of every seven days and, and of course most people aren't going to come back for every update... so I don't think the exact number reflects the number of people who read my comic.

Cortland · Post by **Cortland** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:20 pm

Now watch as the thread becomes one big whip-it-out fest.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:27 pm

*whips it out at Cortland*

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:31 pm

*Whips it out too.*

How do I shot web?

Doublemint · Post by **Doublemint** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:18 pm

Did somebody call for a plumber?

*whips it out*

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:30 pm

cortland wrote:Now watch as the thread becomes one big whip-it-out fest.

I will personally kill each and every person who does so after this post. No one cares and generally the people who really DO get good numbers, I've found, never post them.

The question was asked, the question was answered, move on.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:39 pm

Mercury Hat wrote:
cortland wrote:Now watch as the thread becomes one big whip-it-out fest.
I will personally kill each and every person who does so after this post. No one cares and generally the people who really DO get good numbers, I've found, never post them.

The question was asked, the question was answered, move on.

But I want to brag about my power level being one million!

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