Monthly Review: January 2017

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A Month Like No Other

The month of January surpassed all records for XBOP as shown in the large percentage increases in the above table. In the included screenshot, that is the daily trend which shows the 10-11 day period where each day in excess of 2000 views were recorded. Peaking on January 9, a massive 9000+ views were made on that single day by 2700+ visitors.

Let us try to put these numbers in perspective. The month of January received more visitors than the cumulative total of XBOP, effectively doubling the 19441 visitors to date that had been recorded for the period June 2013 to December 2016. One month = 43 months cumulatively! Before January 2017, the total number of views recorded at XBOP across that same 43-month period was 29000+. The entire traffic, as measured by unique views or page clicks, has been tripled. Interestingly, given the proportion of views/visitors, our views per visitor metric has recorded a doubling from the previous month – effectively all our 1000s of visitors have spent twice as much time visiting XBOP and reading the content.

The month of January now claims nearly all statistical records that our reporting tracks. In fact there are only two records which were not claimed by January 2017, which I will list out here so the complete list of records is provided:

Visitor Related Records & Milestones

  • Highest number of monthly visitors, ever (19,990 with the next best 1,505 set back in October 2014)
  • Highest number of monthly visitors for 2017
  • Achieved the 20,000 visitors milestone
  • Achieved the 30,000 visitors milestone (currently 39,431)
  • Best monthly growth (1537% outperforms the previous record of 470% set in October 2014)
  • Second-best year-on-year growth (3004% versus record 3728% held by November 2014)
  • Best three-month-moving average, ever (7337.7 versus 1232.0 set in December 2014)
  • Best three-month-moving average for 2017
  • Best three-month-moving average growth (662% versus 193% set previously in October 2014)
  • Doubled entire accumulative site visitors in one month

View Related Records & Milestones

  • Highest number of monthly views, ever (71,236 compared to 2,148 received in the previous month – December 2016)
  • Highest number of monthly views for 2017
  • Achieved the 30,000 views milestone
  • Achieved the 50,000 views milestone
  • Achieved the 100,000 views milestone (100,600 views in total)
  • Best monthly growth (3216% versus 357% set in October 2014)
  • Best year-on-year growth (5807% versus record 3873% held by November 2014)
  • Best three-month-moving average, ever (24,865.7 versus 1534.3 set in December 2014)
  • Best three-month-moving average for 2017
  • Best three-month-moving average growth (1454% versus 137% set previously in October 2014)
  • More than doubled entire accumulative site viewership in on month

Over half the visitor traffic (53%) for the month of January was accumulated over the duration 8 – 12 January, where each day had over 2000 visitors. The viewership traffic was more spread out over a 12-day period where each day had over 1000 views and collectively 89% of the traffic was registered.

A Day Like No Other

At the peak of 9 January, XBOP received 9000+ views and 2700+ visitors for that one day alone. That single 24-hour period was surrounded by other out-performing days, but for this reporting section, our focus is on the isolated period that was 9 January. That one day of traffic was the equivalent of:

  • 2734 visitors:
    • The first 17-months of XBOP from June 2013 through to September 2014, where the accumulative traffic was 3151 visitors (crossed the 2700 mark somewhere during that 17th month)
    • The first five months of 2017 accumulated 2593 visitors
  • 9080 views:
    • The first 21-months of XBOP from June 2013 through to February 2015, with total accumulative views was 9813.
    • The first 10-months of 2017 accumulated 9452 views

Understanding the Traffic Drivers

According to the statistical monitoring provided by WordPress and JetPack, some 40% of views originated from search engine and defined referrers. Whilst the way Google masks search terms, the search terms that are identified mainly revolve around Lifeline Whiteout and my walk-throughs. During the early period of January, I did use this traffic driver as motivation to releasing the next two chapters of the walk-through, but then the Australian Open fortnight of tennis kicked in and has since “distracted” me.

Whilst the search engines are the top referrer group, the next defined referrer is a website 4kira.tistory.com which is a Korean website. Fortunately, Google Chrome provides a translation of the webpage which enabled me to read and see that around the period 7-9 January, the author/blogger had linked to XBOP and to my Lifeline Whiteout Walk-Through landing page.

The other interesting find with the list of defined referrers is AppleVIS which is a website empowering blind and low-vision users of Apple products and related apps. Amongst the discussion and comments, some of the members had also provided a link to XBOP back in early December. As the following screenshot shows, somehow my desire to write up the game walk-through in a pure text fashion has inadvertently tapped into this user base and provided them with an invaluable resource. Their appreciation encouraged me to release the next two chapters, and now that the Australian Open focus has passed, I intend to push on and complete the game walk-through.

Forward to February

In this way, February aims to focus on completing the unfinished work with Lifeline Whiteout chapter walk-throughs. The Timothy Group homework will also be a constant content source and driver. Other ideas percolate and are yet to land – some relate to Clayton Church directions and the journey that God has me following. This last theme aligns with the journey of discovery that Clayton Church is now pursuing in extrapolating out our vision:

To build disciples who represent Jesus to everyone, everywhere, with everything.

XBOP has evolved over the last year+ whereby previous ambitions have been tempered and I try to avoid over-commiting myself to XBOP content delivery cycles. The underlying desire remains to be posting regularly but exactly how frequent that looks like remains to be seen, given my busyness. Given the traffic trend that was January, it is highly unlikely that February will be able to compete statistically, unless another wave of interest piques the interest of the above-mentioned viewers.