Numbers don’t lie.
Oh, we’d like them to alright...and I have a feeling many reading this today will agree with that.
You see, things are not going too well for many of our Montana writers.
It’s their product.
People aren’t that interested.
We take a look at these rankings quite often and that’s why we can say this – we have the ability to compare.
We get this information from Alexa.
No, not the Amazon thingy…though the company is now owned by Amazon (something I mentioned last time).
And about that last time.
The last time we took a look at Montana website rankings was on February 10 and the time before that was October 27.
Both posts are good for comparing how these sites are doing over time.
If you want more, take a look at the work we did in August. That’s as far back as we can go to compare.
So how have things changed over the past 6 weeks since our last rankings post?
Let’s take a look.
First off, here are the most popular websites in the world:
- Google: #1
- YouTube: #2
- Facebook: #3
- Amazon: #4
- Reddit: #5
- Wikipedia: #6
- Yahoo: #7
- Twitter: #8
- eBay: #9
- Netflix: #10
- Imgur: #11
- LinkedIn: #12
- Instagram: #13
- Craigslist: #14
- Porn Hub: #21
- Pinterest: #27
- NY Times: #32
- WordPress: #37
- Washington Post: #42
- AOL: #73
I always get a kick out of a porn site getting more traffic than two of the major American newspapers.
Now let’s take a look at Montana newspapers:
- Billings Gazette: #12,260
- Missoulian: #15,729
- Helena IR: #30,589
- GF Trib: #31,957
- MT Standard: #42,420
- Flathead Beacon: #91,169
- Missoula Indy: #112,500
Most of the state newspapers have improved their ranking, which means they’re getting more traffic.
That’s good, well, at least for the people living out of state that take all those profits.
But that’s not quite accurate. Back in August when we looked at rankings those newspapers were doing about 3,000 to 5,000 ranks better.
The Flathead Beacon has fallen about 20,000 ranks, however.
For many of the others sites, I just didn’t get the information a couple months ago so we can't compare.
Now, onto the blogs:
- MT Cowgirl: #96,731
- Last Best News: #240,873
- Intelligent Discontent: #313,790
- Big Sky Words: #371,130
- Missoula Current: #378,796
- Flathead Memo: #8.9 million
- Logicosity: No Ranking
- Reptile Dysfunction: No Ranking
- Western Word: No Ranking
Those last three sites are just spinning their tires in the mud. James Conner is about to join them.
No one cares what those people say.
If they did then the sites would have more visitors.
The problem is their product.
No one wants it.
If I were those three writers I’d take a hard look at myself so as to figure out why.
When it comes to Cowgirl/boy, the site has actually improved in traffic.
I’m amazed!
I’ve seen their Facebook likes steadily decline since Eric Stern stopped writing it and the new anonymous writer(s) took over.
Remember, Eric Stern got kicked over to the governor’s office after his old boss lost her job. That’s when the current anonymous writer took over.
Anyways, they’ve improved by a few thousand ranks, and since last year have gained about 10,000.
At the other Dem mouthpiece blog – ID – we see that they’re doing better. Since August they’ve doubled their traffic, and they’ve improved about 200,000 ranks since February.
Last Best News is doing terrible.
They had #96,000 in August and in February they were at #311,000. Today they have #240,000.
So I guess you can say they’re doing better than last month, but compared to last summer they’ve really fallen far.
What happened?
Again, it’s the product.
No one wants it.
The Missoula Current is suffering the same fate as Last Best News.
Back in August he was at #411,000 and then last month he was at #192,000. Today he’s sitting at #378,000.
Maybe those two sites shouldn’t be so tied-at-the-hip, huh?
I’ve told them before that posting duplicate content is a very bad idea. Google tells us this.
Despite that, those two sites continue to copy/paste their articles from one site to the other.
That’s just ignorance.
I guess we should expect that from people that rose up in the newspaper days and not in the internet days, however.
Good luck telling that to ‘em – they’ll label you a troll and hope to hell you stop ‘bothering’ them.
Anyways, Martin Kidston has got serious problems. I knew this a few days back when the email sign-up and donation pop-ups began to appear on Missoula Current.
He’s getting desperate.
Alas, desperation is no way to grow a website.
I wish him luck, as well as those two chaps in Billings.
They’ll need it…or at least more of your money.
And what about my site?
I’ll tell you right now that I’ll never assault you with pop-ups or requests for money.
Sometimes I mention my books, and if you’d like to buy one, that’s fine. If not, I can live with it.
I’ll get another job (I have two part-time ones now) before I ever grovel to you for money.
Big Sky Words was at #447,000 in October and #354,000 in February. Today I’m at #371,000.
I think that’s interesting.
Clearly my traffic has fallen.
I guess my product must not be very good.
Or maybe there’s not much of it.
How often you post is a big determiner in how much people visit your site.
Despite that, we know that doesn’t always hold true.
The Missoula Current is a fine example. They put up about 2 to 3 new articles a day on that site, yet their traffic continues to go down.
It’s the same story on Last Best News.
Maybe quantity isn’t always the best substitute for quality.
Or maybe it’s just the product.
I really do think it is.
But we get set in our ways and we don’t like to change. Older writers are especially bad in this regard.
So I expect these trends to remain the same. The next time we look at rankings I’m sure that I can leave the blogs in the same order they’re in now.
These sites aren’t going to change.
What will change is how many of them are.
Remember Montana Free Press?
Probably not – it had a ranking of #7 million in October…5 months after it stopped putting up content.
Its writer – former GF Trib reporter John Adams – is now working for a water company in Wisconsin.
Things change, and people come and go.
Which Montana site will be the next to go?
Stay tuned…you know I’ll be here to fill you in.
