Welcome to the August monthly report. If you're a returning visitor than you are probably aware that I've been way off of my game this month. I'm not feeling particularly more 'Caitlinesque' today but I still wanted to put these out on a regular basis. Numbers are Numbers so I'll be able to share those, but I won't go into as much detail on why I liked particular things. Oh... and sorry for not bringing this out on the first of the month... Saturday's in fall are for football I was sitting happily on my couch watching the college action from 9am until midnight.
August's big numbers:
- Total Page Views: 109,060/157,048
- Total Visits: 32,875 (Averaging 4.78 views per visit)
- 28,886 Visits were from refferals
- 4,116 from worldoftg.com
- 1,970 from blogger.com
- 1,795 from Smitty's TG Caps
- 1,068 from Jennifer's TG Caps of Defiance
- 1,045 from TG Comics
- 2,538 Visits were direct traffic
- 1,451 found their way here via search
At 109k views, this is the first time since April that I dipped below my February highs of 112k in 2011 and 116k in 2012. What's really significant is that although I only had 15 posts, I still did 84% more traffic than I did in March when I posted 12 times. I imagine that's simply a matter of me going completely dark in March for the first three weeks.
This month's highest viewed caps were:
- Working Off A Debt - 6,403
- Learning to be a Real Man - 5,899
- Sensitivity Training - 4,167
- Keeping Up with the Changes - 3,372
- I Dare You... - 1,948
It's odd to see that 'Working Off A Debt' got so many page views, as I was (and still am) very unsatisfied with that cap. But I guess it hit that sweet spot of being a 'dirty' caption which garnered a lot of views for it's smuttyness' and also garnered a lot of comments/discussion. I AM very happy to see that one of the collaborations got into the top five.
I normally would list my favorite captions of the month... but honestly right now I'm not happy with anything that I created. I'm sure when I made them, I was happy with several, but not only is the mood to 'create' caps gone, the mood to read them is gone as well.
I WILL say that I did enjoy working on the collaborations. Not only did I get to read many takes on a single image, but I got to see how several people fleshed out my own basic idea. That's more than likely where I will begin my 'return'... by working on the stories submitted to my second collaboration idea.
The month started off a little strange, with several comments and questions from a person claiming to be my number one admirer. While this didn't exactly help put me in the mood to create, I can't say that it killed off my mood for the month. And sadly I can't say that he stopped either. I had to delete several of his comments through the month, and read several questions sent in to me as well.
I'm hoping that September will be a good month all around. If last year is any indication it should be. Not only did I start capping more last September, but I also started playing around with new designs... that ended up being my current go to layouts. You never know... maybe when I 'come back' I'll have a whole new bag of tricks.
While your numbers may be down do to inactivity think about how many other cappers would love to have that kind of following on their blog. Since I Dare You... was our collaboration and hit the top five I'd like to say go team but also point out it was the last post you did before this one so I'm sure that it was more because it was your last cap then because it was so much better then the others. If Voices, Holiday Experimentation or any of the others was the last post I'm sure they would have garnered the higher numbers.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, with all my rambling over I'd like to say that while I hope you get back to capping for us soon that only time will tell when those creative juices will start to flow again.
Hope you are enjoying the start of the football season,
Jane
DeleteJane,
You're right in thinking that being the last new post before a big drop off will give a cap a slight edge. But in this case I think the higher page views have more to do with the cap itself. The combination of the short visceral story and the bright saturated design work together to bring more people back for a second viewing.
As of this morning here are how the 'collaboration' caps are doing:
I Dare You... 2,702
Holiday Experimentation 1,416
How will I tell you all Apart? 1,086
Voices 1,024
And the collaboration pages themselves:
Collaboration 1 1,155
Collaboration 2 1,521
These are all fair numbers. Not great, but good. As for saying a cap is 'good' or 'better' than the other... well I don't like to get into that type of comparison. Each story is unique and will hit a different audience. I'm sure if these caps were on a different blog they would garner different page views simply because of the different audience. But that wouldn't make any of them 'better' than the others.
I too hope that my muse will return. I normally spend a lot of time each day as Caitlyn and lately I've haven't been able to get into that mindset, so my days are frankly empty. Being football season helps, but as a fan of the Michigan Wolverines Saturday was a little hard to swallow.
Well, hush my mouth. I had no idea so many people went to a page Caitlyn. I mean, that is amazing! And you had a down month? I'd take it. How long have you been blogging?
ReplyDeleteCongrats,
Leeanne
Leanne,
DeleteI've been blogging since November 28, 2010. If I had to guess, I'd say my numbers are just above average for a TG capping blog. I know some artists who's page views make mine look infantile. But I shouldn't complain. I'm not really 'down' about the page views... I'm just down because I'm not feeling very cappy lately.
And this is only a 'down' month since I had a spike in views this spring. For references sake, here are my monthly page views according to blogger:
2010
November: 597
December: 63,413
2011:
January: 85,058
February: 112,323
March: 74,121
April: 75,935
May: 91,354
June: 85,232
July: 66,043
August: 80,129
September: 64,051
October: 61,536
November: 65,102
December: 91,959
2012
January: 106,249
February: 116,461
March: 59,051
April: 166,567
May: 156,125
June: 129,691
July: 122,338
August: 109,060
I was absent for almost the entire month of March this year. If I wasn't, I think you'd see a steady rise up from November (65K) to April (166k) followed by the steady decline. Unless this month turns around, there will be a steep drop off as I'm just not producing.
I hadn't realized that your blog was so young. I saw in your recent post that you've only had it up for 3 1/2 months and that you were only now approaching 100 followers. Considering that I've been reading your stories on fictionmania for years, I just assumed that you'd been blogging for nearly as long and that I just hadn't seen your blog before!
Caitlyn was a woman of the realm of dreams. She lived, breathed, and *giggle* did other really hot, steamy...fun...things, in a world of fantasy. She moved through her realm with witches, and warlocks (who were also witches sometimes)...with aliens, and hot sexy bitches. In this world, where men and women (and those of us somewhere between)would pop in to to see, and for a moment live the life that is unseen, Caitlyn spun her enchantment like a whimsical queen. There are mistresses here and arcane spells, and even masters if you fancy a belt. There is wickedness here to put a smile on your face, but this wickedness now here has no carnal embrace. Caitlyn it seems, has been locked away in a tower. How long before this fairy tale princess is freed from her cell? Not even the magic of this realm can tell...but I, like many others seek her return, with nothing to do but await that fanciful hour...and dream.
ReplyDeleteCould have been better written, but the "real" world is closing in on me and I have to go. xoxo
ReplyDeleteWow. Thank you jenna! That's a lovely inspirational story!
ReplyDelete