The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Monday, August 24, 2009

some fun stats (for me at least)















I mentioned in a post back around Aug. 1 the value of a domain name like "sturgis.com". Well, it becomes somewhat more valuable when it's built around the biggest tourist event on the planet. The pertinent stat here is "pages," as in "page views." The chart shows that in August of 2009, the site "sturgis.com" has received 13.1 million page views.

It always spikes immediately after the Rally, naturally, since BlackHills.com, the parent site and company (and my current employer), has several photographers putting free content (about 80000 photos, now) up during and after the Rally. This year, the spike is a little higher than normal, attributable to the 19000 photos at sturgis.com of riders in Spearfish Canyon.

This spectacular page-view stat is part of what we offer as a venue for advertisers, especially Black Hills tourist-oriented advertisers. Not that I'm the horn-blowing sort. I'm just a common criminal, according to Sen. Adelstein. What would I know?

2 comments:

Bill Fleming said...

So where's the link to the ad rates, Bob?

Bob Newland said...

Well, I've been tryin' to get around to putting up a page somewhere that explains the ad rates and touts the advantages.

If you go to blackhills.com, and then go to any of the pages linked to that page, you'll see banner ads and nearly-square ads. Those ads cost $200 per year, and are a benefit of being a bh.com "member." They can appear on any page within bh.com or any of the associated pages, and they rotate. Every time the page is opened or cycled, new ads appear.

A bh.com membership also gets you rotating ads on the "lodging" pages at sturgis.com.

Ads on other pages on Sturgis.com come at a higher price, and are essentially sold out for several years to come. This was something I didn't know when I posted the topic.

However, a "typical" tourist looking to plan a vacation from Germany, for example, is much more likely to arrive at blackhills.com, where he can look for tourist events, tourist accommodations and sights to see. At $200 per year, being listed as a tourist-oriented business in a virtual mall and virtual phonebook as well as having random pop-ups is, I believe, a bargain.

A look at the stats for the sites of "members" who are hosted at blackhills.com bears that supposition out. The click-throughs from bh.com ads are impressive.

One does not have to have one's site hosted at bh.com to be a member and get the click-through benefits.