Editor’s Note: The information below breaks down data such as website traffic, demographics, posts, obituaries, and shows. We do this every year in the first week of January. One is for transparency and the other is because he’s always kinda fun looking back at the year. I’m not entirely sure why other news outlets don’t give their numbers out to their readers (although there are some speculations), but it’s what they do every year. fun!
Introduction
When I started DrydenWire.com in the fall of 2015, I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of traffic and visitor numbers to our website. I still remember a day in January 2016, just four months after our launch. The article went “viral” (or at least that’s what I called it at the time), resulting in over 500 visits to our website. Pageviews for the day. I remember thinking how awesome it would be if we could average 500 pageviews every day. I remember thinking this was not possible or even realistic as it would be over 180,000 pageviews per year. It was a number that I thought was impossible. “No chance,” I thought.
Fast forward seven years. For the fourth year in a row, DrydenWire.com has surpassed his 5,000,000 pageviews (or over 14,000 per day for him!) What a trip, man. For a local digital news outlet, it’s not too bad. In fact, in early 2022, Wisconsin Right Now reported that DrydenWire was the most read independent digital news media in all of Wisconsin.
Before I get into the numbers, a quick word on pageviews.
Pageviews aren’t the holy grail of website metrics (far from it), but they’re easy to track, explain, and can be used to compare one traffic to another. A pageview is defined as the view of a page on a website. If the user clicks reload after reaching the page, it counts as an additional pageview. A second pageview is also recorded if the user navigates to another page and then returns to the original page.
To better understand the other metrics, here’s a quick 411 for users, sessions, and unique pageviews.
In addition to pageviews, we track many other metrics such as users, unique pageviews, and sessions. Each has a different meaning. If you’re familiar with Google Analytics, you know that it can be a rabbit hole. Simply put, a user is an individual who visits our website and a session represents his one visit to the external site. So if one visits her once or many times, it doesn’t increase the number of “users”, but it does increase the number of sessions. Think of a user as the number of unique visitors she has. Once visited, it will not be counted again unless you visit on a new device or clear your cookies. Sessions are the number of times your site has been visited by both new and returning users. Unique Pageview represents the number of sessions in which the page was viewed at least once by her.
website traffic
Annual total for 2022
- Users: 1,455,196
- Sessions: 2,862,175
- U/pageviews: 4,360,348
- Pageviews: 5,185,040
2022 monthly average
- Users: 121,266
- Sessions: 238,515
- U/pageviews: 363,362
- Pageviews: 432,087
Well, if you’re really interested, here’s a breakdown of each month, along with notes on the “worst” and “best” three months.
Monthly breakdown
Note: If this isn’t to your liking and you just want bullet points, you can scroll through this part and move on to the next section.
Red cells show the three months with the lowest total users. The green cells show the three months with the highest number of total users. Below is an overview of those six months.
- February: February has the fewest days of any month (which certainly played a small part in the low numbers), but the reality is that there aren’t many “big” stories to push those numbers up. bottom. No kidding, our February numbers may be low by our standards, but other news sites (or other websites for that matter) in our area put those numbers up. I wouldn’t be surprised if our February “low” numbers were close to the annual totals for other years. Still low for us. it is what it is. Not all months are great.
- April: April marked the highest number of users on our website. However, many of these numbers (including about 40,000 pageviews) are from one random article (further down the page), so removing the tracking metric from that one post would actually result in April is considered a great month, but it’s not. Our #January.
- August: Well, this is when we launched “Insider” (readers need a subscription to read certain article posts). We didn’t launch until a little past the middle of the month. Still good, but low for us. At launch he expected a drop of 10-15%, so it was expected. If he gave something for free for seven years, coupled with people generally unwilling to change, he had no choice but to weather the storm.
- September: The impact of launching “Insider” in August is still there. I didn’t really care. That said, two consecutive monthly lows this year? Eek. But I kept telling myself that this was a process, and that 30 days and he was a three-year plan, not a three-month plan. ok i a bit Concerned. Thankfully we had a good her October and recovered so it was a very welcome relief.
- November: November showed that October’s recovery month was no fluke. He had the third highest number of users for the year. “Insider” membership also started to grow a bit more, as readers began to realize its value. Pageviews remained low (because of “insiders”), but it’s great to see the number of users so high.
- December: We ended the year with the second highest number of total users for any month in 2022. Also, the question “How do I sign up for Insider?” I noticed that it was in contrast to In terms of website traffic, December was a great month to end his year and gave us a lot of enthusiasm for 2023.
demographics
Year
I always like to ask people which demographic they think is higher for DrydenWire, 18-24 or 65+. 9 times out of 10 they will choose 18-24. People think we have to cater to “young” people because we are a digital media outlet focused on mobile layouts and social media usage. Which demographic are you most surprised by?
sex
Female viewers outnumber male viewers for the seventh year in a row. However, this has slowly (over the years) trended toward 50/50. I don’t understand why.
device
Mobile continues to see content with 3 out of 4 people using a mobile device (no significant change from last year). This year we have seen an increase in desktop/laptop users (also my preferred way to view DrydenWire).
- Mobile: 76%
- Desktop: 20%
- Tablets: 4%
published post
We published over 2,000 posts this year. By 2023, he hopes to bring this number closer to 2,500. Ultimately, this accounts for 80% of the traffic.
- Year Total: 2,160
- Average per month: 180
- Weekly average: 42
published obituary
We post obituaries for free on DrydenWire in six county coverage areas.In fact, not only do we charge people and families to post obituaries in northwest Wisconsin, is the only media outlet that doesn’t charge a fee to display obituaries.
- Year Total: 1,536
- Average per month: 128
- Weekly average: 30
Fun facts: Our obituary homepage is the second most frequently visited page on our website. In 2022, the homepage (excluding each obituary itself) recorded over 500,000 pageviews for him (over 1,300 per day!).
Combining article submission and obituary
In total, 3,696 posts were published in 2022 for article posts and obituaries. This is broken down into an average of 71 posts published each week.
Combined
- Year Total: 3,696
- Average per month: 308
- Weekly average: 71
Can you imagine a weekly newspaper? Yes, it would be thick, but the ink and paper costs a lot (not even including advertisers and live show transcripts), so a ridiculous amount of money per issue. had to claim. It’s a difficult pass. We stick to digital.
Top 3 viewed articles
99 times out of 100, you can predict what your story will be (learn a thing or two after publishing nearly 20,000 posts in 7 years). As I mentioned in her April breakdown above, occasionally random article posts get an unexpectedly high amount of traffic. The third most viewed article this year was that random article (a news release from DNR). The second most viewed was his December Insider article (good to see) just this month. However, the most viewed news release was still random-looking (this time from his DATCP). Go to Figure.
- Warning: Your Friend Isn’t Pitching You For Grants Scams On Facebook (66,643 Views)
- Criminal Charges Filed in Barnett County Against Contractors (44,570 views)
- DNR Announces Northern Wisconsin Walleye Regulation Changes for 2022 Fishing Season (36,165 views)
Note: This does not include weekly articles such as weekly prison appointment reports, disposition reports, morning headlines, etc.
live show
2022 has the most shows in a year so far. We were doing an average of 10 shows a month (which, frankly, was a lot).
- Total shows: 120
- Live shows: 100
- Number of recorded programs: 20
The 20 shows recorded were from the 20-part series “The Brian Cole Story.” Recorded like it was live, but without editing, he aired it on 20 consecutive Sundays.
Of the 100 live shows, 67 were from two recurring shows. and “Breakfast with Tiffany” (monthly).
- 45 ‘Positive Tuesday w/ Ben & Fitzy’
- 12 ‘Breakfast w/ Tiffany’ (monthly show featuring Congressman Tom Tiffany)
Frequent guests on our show include former Wisconsin Senator Patti Schachtner. Former Wisconsin Rep. Adam Jerkow, former Wisconsin Rep. (now senator), and Romain Quinn. Mike Schafer, CEO of Spooner Health. Here are a few things that I’m sure we’re contractually obligated to include.
The rest of the show were mostly candidates running for election (re-election). Too many to name here, but here’s a playlist for them.
Advertiser
Most of our advertising partners have been with us for at least two years, dating back to 2016. We offer short-term advertising, but our next advertiser wants to stay with us for years and give a special shoutout.
- Spooner health
- Indian Head Credit Union
- river street dental
- Barnett Medical Center
- Bush & Jill Furniture
- cola physical therapy
- Dan King Agencies
- fray financial
- heartwood journeys
- Ignite Dispensary
- industrial safety
- Yaco method
- big rock miracle
- Northlakes Community Clinic
- Northwood Technical College
- professional exterior and interior
- Romaine Quinn (Real Estate Solutions)
- schmitz economart
- spooner block party
- The Body Shop (fitness center)
- Tim Reedy (State Farm Agent)
it’s over
Of course, all of these numbers aren’t just numbers on your page, they represent you, your readers, your audience, your followers. It is the kindness, support and encouragement you continue to show us every day. thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope we’ve earned your respect and trust over the years (and had a few laughs along the way).It’s an honor to bring you this news in 2022. It was a privilege.
Yes, 2022 was a good year. It was fun looking back. Now is the time to turn our attention to He 2023 to make it even better.
Last updated: Jan 9, 2023 5:30 AM CST
