The Club Jade 2010 traffic report

So it came, the time of year when we look back upon our stats for last year… This is my first time doing this publicly, and if you don’t run a fan site they might be terribly boring, but what the hell, right?

For a mid-sized fansite, our numbers are pretty decent. In 2010 we received 229,841 visits and 349,364 pageviews, according to Google Analytics. (That makes an average of 630 visitors and 957 pageviews a day.) Our most popular page, the book release schedule, had 11,272 pageviews. Fanfic, our second most popular page, got 5,810 pageviews despite not being updated in (quite literally) years.

In overall gains, the numbers aren’t particularly impressive, at least compared to 2009. In fact, we’re down almost 20% in visits, and 22% in pageviews. And 2009 had some significant traffic spikes that we just didn’t match in 2010. (Our 2009 April Fools gag, let’s face it, was much better than 2010‘s, and received more hits overall.)

The numbers on returning visitors – our regular readers – rose in 2010. New visitors dropped. While I can’t say for sure, I strongly suspect this is due to less posts overall, and much less non-Star Wars content. (While negligible for our regular readers, they can drive a lot of hits from Google and other search engines – where 33% of our traffic this year originated.)

And yes, there are less posts now than in the past. (Life happens, you know? Also, Twitter.) But we have no ads – trust me, no one is paying any of us to do this – and this whole thing is purely a hobby. So I’m okay with it.

But enough about the boring stuff that only other website folks really care about: Here are 2010’s most popular posts:

1. Back to basics with Lucasbook’s new youth project. (Dunc, April 1, 2010; 2,403 pageviews.)
2. Nitpicking the Star Wars novel covers. (Dunc, February 22nd; 1,789 pageviews.)
3. Back off, guys: It’s our turn. (Erika, November 10th; 1,725 pageviews.)
4. A better look at Ahsoka’s new outfit. (Dunc, November 16th; 1,264 pageviews.)
5. Avatar and The Clone Wars: ‘Trespass.’ (JawaJames, January 23rd; 1,147 pageviews.)
6. The Clone Wars: What’s coming in season 3? (JawaJames, August 24th; 971 pageviews.)
7. Is this Ahsoka’s new look? (Dunc, October 25th; 736 pageviews.)
8. Batten down the hatches, it’s Star Wars sequel trilogy rumor time yet again (Dunc, October 23rd; 690 pageviews.)
9. Today’s awful thing: The ‘sexy’ Chewbacca (Dunc, October 7th; 686 pageviews.)
10. TIE: Review: Christie Golden’s Fate of the Jedi: Allies (Erika, June 2nd; 674 pageviews) and Sansweet: 28,000 attendees at Celebration V (Dunc, August 22nd; 674 pageviews)

The lessons here? Clearly, original content gets the most foothold. Also, The Clone Wars. And snark. Note to self: Insult Florida more often. (Factoid: We had 7,756 visits from Florida. The biggest state? California with 22,034. ROCK IT, CALI.)

And our biggest referrals:

1. Twitter (@ClubJade, @DarthVader, @StarWars and many more)
2. Wookieepedia
3. Facebook (!!!)
4. TheForce.Net
5. Google
6. The official Star Wars Blog
7. Bastion Polskich (Polish fan site)
8. EU Cantina
9. Star Wars Union (German fan site)
10. And, um, my LiveJournal (This feels weird. Sorry.)

Thanks everyone! If you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them in the comments.