"We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge" - Barack Obama (aka President Malaise)
Record Traffic On BVBL
By Greg L | 2 November 2007 | Blogs | 24 Comments
October set another record for BVBL, breaking through the quarter-million page request per-month level that seemed nearly impossible only a few months ago. Here’s the recent traffic snapshot for November 2006 through October 2007:
Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending 01-Nov-2007 06:26.
Successful requests: 7,881,176 (367,675)
Average successful requests per day: 21,831 (52,524)
Successful requests for pages: 1,897,432 (64,760)
Average successful requests for pages per day: 5,256 (9,251)
Distinct files requested: 74,819 (9,256)
Distinct hosts served: 77,389 (6,366)
Data transferred: 142.49 gigabytes (5.68 gigabytes)
Average data transferred per day: 404.18 megabytes (831.06 megabytes)
But the graph of monthly traffic is what really tells the story:
| month | reqs | pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2006 | 85139 | 46716 |   |
| Dec 2006 | 153703 | 71998 |   |
| Jan 2007 | 251054 | 97197 | |
| Feb 2007 | 409022 | 107363 | |
| Mar 2007 | 451614 | 166047 |  |
| Apr 2007 | 425387 | 117522 | |
| May 2007 | 551496 | 157681 | |
| Jun 2007 | 697666 | 195198 | |
| Jul 2007 | 792982 | 199274 | |
| Aug 2007 | 1047563 | 216162 | |
| Sep 2007 | 1296992 | 238304 | |
| Oct 2007 | 1713980 | 282582 |  |
Busiest month: Oct 2007 (282,582 requests for pages).
Each unit () represents 8,000 requests for pages or part thereof.
Last year, when some political strategists were talking about the influence of BVBL on the political scene of the 2006 elections, website traffic was only 16.5% of what it is now. In the aftermath of this election season, I imagine there will be a lot more to said about this. With year-over-year traffic growth of over 600%, even if political blogs still haven’t fully penetrated the electorate as a source of information, the time can’t be very far away when they will at least play a measurable part in the decisions that significant proportions of voters make when casting ballots. It’s not like voters seem to be getting all the information they think they need from the mainstream media, otherwise this kind of traffic growth wouldn’t be happening.
I imagine it’s only a matter of time before local businesses start to recognize the value proposition that local political blogs offer for advertising, although political campaigns have consistently been early adopters given the close relationship between website content and their interests, and usually interested in new, low-cost ways of getting their message out there. Local businesses have generally been slower to discover this opportunity. That could well change in the near future, and when they do that could significantly improve the attraction of making the monumental effort that publishing a website like this requires.
I recall when BVBL topped the 50,000 page views a month benchmark about a year ago, and was shocked that such a huge volume of website traffic could be attained. Out of concern that my rather spartan hardware would at some point be overwhelmed, I upgraded to a dual-core AMD64 box with 2GB of memory, which still may well have less power than some of the desktops being used to access this site right now, and which seems to be happily humming away under the current volume of website traffic. Now the question seems to be what’s going to happen when a million hits a month are coming in. Is a business DSL line at 768k going to keep up with demand? Is FIOS going to show up in time to rescue BVBL from eventual bandwidth constraints? Or is BVBL going to have to migrate from my basement and to a hosting provider that’s going to charge a couple of hundred dollars a month? When that happens, and the certainty of that eventuality continues to solidify at an alarming pace, it’s going to be a painful transition, although readers probably won’t directly be able to observe that pain.
Success is a good thing, but at this rate, managing success is going to be a challenge at some point. Hopefully advertising revenue will continue to grow to the point where cost concerns will start to turn into profitability concerns, something that hasn’t quite happened yet. It’ll be nice to see this become financially viable at some point, although I’m not holding my breath. This is still more of a labor of love, than a labor of entrepreneurship.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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24 Comments
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Congratulations on your success. I’m not in 100% agreement with all your views, but I’m glad your efforts have yielded such impressive growth.
This blog is like watching Maury Povich in a train wreck. I love it.
Even the MJM appear to be regulars to this blog, as the subjects of their articles seem driven by threads here. Very often, I read something here that shows up in the MJM the next day…unfortunately in the case of reporting crimes, it sometimes takes them longer.
The opinion piece in the MJM today, however, is irresponsible and ignores how much Corey Stewart has listened to the citizens and stepped forward with courage. They even blame him that CNN interviewed him for 10 minutes during the 10/16 hearing. They still don’t get how significant is the progress made by PWC on the issue of applying the rule of law to illegal aliens.
Listen up - we have only ourselves to blame if we elect opponents like pandak. Just one short year ago, the following took place in our country and is likely to be repeated here in our neighborhoods, if we resume the former sanctuary policies of our own police dept. leading to the false sense of security illegals enjoyed until now. We must continue to clean up this mess before this comes to your town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78g2Zi696Jc
It’s a good blog. I found it when looking for information on the Illegal Immigration issue and became “hooked”. I don’t agree with everything that appears here; however, we have all been “warned” that it reflects a Conservative perspective. I enjoy the fact that all opinions appear to be welcome.
Keep up the good work!
Greg:
Why not sell “shares” in BVBL to generate some operating capital? Buyers could become limited partners.
Greg, there is numerous websites out there that sell dedicated servers for around 100-200 a month with extremely good connections to web.
BVBL is also daily part of my reading as I check RSS feed every couple of hours to see if anything has been updated. Thanks for all that you do and hopefully you plan on having another get together.
This is a great blog! Oh…http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/11/01/raid_1102.html
We need to start seeing this kind of action in our local town!
Congratulations, Greg, and best wishes for continued success.
BVBL has become a part of my daily routine and I always look
forward to reading some extremely diverse opinions from your
posters. As Forrest Gump would say: “BVBL is like a box of
chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get!”
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=673781
“No exceptions to probable cause”
“Is lacking a valid driver’s license, being unable to speak English and possessing either no valid or counterfeit identification sufficient evidence to justify probable cause for a residency check? If not, what would constitute probable cause?
Should people be immune to this process simply because they happen to be Hispanic? If so, to which other ethnic groups shall we extend this immunity and upon what basis?
To grant Hispanics this immunity is to create a completely separate legal system that places the rights of politically correct interest groups above those of all other citizens. It makes the application of the law subject to the effectiveness of any particular group’s lobbying organizations.
The fact is that the great majority of illegal immigrants are Hispanic. To deny this is to deny reality. Yet that does not mean that merely being Hispanic is probable cause for being subjected to a background check.
Hispanics who have gone through the demanding process of becoming legal citizens have the documentation to prove this. Presenting such authentic documentation to an officer effectively removes probable cause for any further investigation.”
Way to go Greg! I too have become a reader of BVBL on a regular basis and keep up on much of what happens in PW right here. I also feel I have met some good people here. As for this becoming a money maker for you, remember that not much good comes easy.
Example, it was only six months ago that we had the first HSM meeting; when you think about all that has happened in that time, it’s just amazing!
Congratulations and thanks for your blog. It helps to show a better perspective. My head gets a cramp reading the slant of the local papers. Even otherwise reasonable people believe what they get from the news media. I don’t think Nov. 6-7 will be the end of your page request traffic growth.
Great job, Greg! I check the site every day now for up-to-date news. A great way to get things done in the community. Thanks so much!!
This blog is better than reading the newspapers! I love it! I tune in 2 or 3 times to get the updates. I have learned about things that go on in the neighborhoods that I would not have heard about elsewhere.
Thanks for keeping us informed. Keep up the good work and Good Luck!
Greg,
Congratulations. I think the reason for your success is simple. The mainstream media is too liberal so those with views that are not represented in the MSM will seek other outlets for those views. Keep up the good work.
This blog is golden for identifying the right wingnuts who think it’s okay to label Gill as a terrorist. Even more amazing is that the folks who labeled him as such on this very website are suddenly deaf when fliers espousing this trash is left on the voters’ doorsteps. Come forward all of you cowards who argued to “write-in” Gill’s Republican opponent when he was nominated by the party.
“October set another record for BVBL, breaking through the quarter-million page request per-month level that seemed nearly impossible only a few months ago.”
Greg, You do realize this is because you’re now being watched on a daily basis by all the groups who moniter hate-speech and hate-groups, don’t you?
Seriously, for as much traffic as you claim, the comments would be much higher if you were getting hits solely from people who agree with you. There’s nothing but a handful of the same people who comment here all the time, with a few “anons” who pop up. And the “anons” are curiously always against you.
Get a clue.
Anon: “Greg, You do realize this is because you’re now being watched on a daily basis by all the groups who moniter hate-speech and hate-groups, don’t you?”
Fascinating. And the source of that info is what?
ES,
In some ways I do not doubt that. Don’t you know the left the folks who in the 60’s yelled loud and long about freedom of speech, now only wants speech they agree with.
They hate Bush for not being open to ideas that are not his own, yet want to shut down talk radio, because it does not spew the same bs that we read and hear in the MSM.
What is hate to the left is anything they do not agree with.
COM: “In some ways I do not doubt that. Don’t you know the left the folks who in the 60’s yelled loud and long about freedom of speech, now only wants speech they agree with.”
You’re preaching to the choir.
Nonetheless, I’m calling Anon’s bluff. That was a nonsensical statement, in my opinion. However, if he/she can PROVE it, I’ll gladly accept it.
Es,
I’m sure this blog gets many visitors who do not post, and I have no doubt there are those on the left that do monitor it. It just goes to show how effective of a blog it is. Though I agree Anon should pony up some stats.
There are many times I read this blog and never comment on it.
You are doing a great job in your part of the world. All those readers can’t be wrong … it’s a very informative blog. Thanks for your hard work.
I must say that I am disappointed to see that you have terminated the “9500 Liberty” thread comments.
I actually appreciate your views expressed, and your position stated.
It is quite obvious that the posted tape was taken out of context, and therefore presented in the manner they wished it to be.
Good job Greg.
I grew very tired of the attacks on my faith in that thread, many of which readers did not have to endure, and instead of continually babysitting that thread to remove outrageous and bigoted comments, I felt it a better choice to close comments and end that discussion.
Please do not consider this an invitation to reopen that discussion.