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Traffic Trends

Moe’s already discussed this, but I think it bears more scrutiny.

My four year registration anniversary is coming up next month, so I remember when RedState was a tiny site. It felt like there were only a handful of us commenters, and we all knew each other. Of course this was long before I was an editor.

There were so few of us that the war against Daily Kos trolls felt like a war of survival. There was a reason for that: If the communities from similar sites on the left piled on over here, they’d overwhelm us. Their traffic was so far out of our league that the sites barely seemed comparable.

Not so today.

Take MyDD. According to compete.com, a year ago they were ‘down to’ getting 25% more visitors than we had. Now? We’ve increased our traffic 150%, while they’ve lost almost 50%, leaving us with nearly 150% the traffic they get.

But they split, you say? Fair enough, Let’s add in Talk Left. A year ago they, too, were getting 25% more traffic than we were, so combined the sites were getting 250% the traffic we were. Now? We’re getting the same number of visitors that both sites combined were getting a year ago, 50% above their current total. RedState now has the combined weight of Talk Left and MyDD before the election, while they’re both losing readers by the month.

They’re not the only sites cratering while we’re growing, either. Look at “Screw ‘em” Kos’s site. Year-to-Year they’re down 12%. We’re still up 150%. What was once a 9:1 advantage is now a 3:1 advantage.

We’re no longer at risk of being squashed when they roll over. If President Obama keeps embarrassing himself and his nation whilst betraying the Netroots, we just might hit parity. They know it, too. That’s why threw a royal flaming tantrum at Moe’s post, and I’m daring them to do the same now.

You are crumbling, Netroots. We are rising. Stay the course, RedStaters. 2010 beckons.

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COMMENTS

  • http://www.publiusforum.com Warner Todd Huston

    That’s some great info there. I am just glad I wasn’t here for the KozKidz inundation! It would probably have made me quit coming here!

  • smagar

    Strength and honor, y’all!

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Those were the days when Nick Danger, Macho Nachos, Moe Lane, streiff, and Thomas were booting trolls with wit and style.

    Now Moe’s still at it, and we still get a streiff shot now and then, but I can’t touch Nick Danger, Thomas, and Leon. They’re the great ones and I’m the pretender!

  • StandardCandle

    such as…

    are we counting “moby” signups?

    and…

    The ratio of the average IQ of a nutroot, to a redstater…

    I mean that must be what they’re really roiling about, its one thing to have more lemmings… its another to be up against a large group with a higher IQ….

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    These are visitors. So a moby who’s one-and-done barely registers.

  • SoFiMil

    Thanks to you, Erick, and all the others for your great work. I’ve been a long-time reader/lurker, and a great site has continued to get even better. I especially appreciate RedState’s language requirements. On the lefty sites, virtually 100% of the commentators are potty-mouths. While it’s important to know what they enemy is thinking, it’s painful reading.

  • bs

    that have made it a much more appealing place to be, and you, Mr. Stevens, are key to many of them. Site design, site infrastructure, tweaks to registration process (the 24-hr waiting period), and you and the rest of the moderators’ diligence in keeping the riff-raff down…have all contributed to the attraction to our brethren, IMHO.

    Well done.

  • janis

    thought that the old ease of RedState 2.0 would return, but it has and it works wonderfully well, thanks to Neil primarily. The only quibble I have is that pesky recommend button……….

  • penguin2

    but I have reaped the incredible rewards of reading and even participating on a site like Redstate. My family is amazed, knowing mom didn’t care much for “machines” (I’m a book fiend), but the election of last year has brought out a side of me I had forgotten about. Standing up and out for what is right, and fighting to save my country. I constantly share with others the wealth of information and intelligence mined from Redstate.

    To me, one of the most important features, is the adherence to civil discourse. The use, by the virulent left and others, of trash language, only reinforces the cultural degradation our country has and is offensive to many. Manners can promote respect, very important for a civilized society.

    I didn’t mean to get long winded, but it is hard to simply articulate the good Redstate is doing. It is an anchor in these times. Thanks to all of you .

  • WarEagle01

    I think best thing we can do is to keep telling people about this site and others like it. You would be amazed at how many people on our side still aren’t in the loop. I mentioned Redstate to a friend of mine who was one of the Tea Party organizers here in Montgomery. He had never been to the site before, which surprised me. BTW, I also plug the site whenever I call in to our local conservative talk radio program, which just went statewide on FM.

  • rick554

    If it means anything, I turned my Mom onto REDSTATE and she loves it!
    Keep up the good work!

  • smitch61

    Congrats on the traffic increase. I found this site in October and I am now a daily reader. I believe many Americans are on to the press and seeking other avenues to get the real stories.

  • observant

    as a late arrival, is there an archive feature planned?

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • TNJim

    but I’m actually speaking for myself, perhaps a way to search for past diaries.
    Perhaps searchable by author, topic, date, and/or tag. Maybe a last week’s section, last month’s, etc. I do know that there is a way to look for the last 20 or so diaries by an author by clicking on his/her name in a diary entry. It might be interesting to look back to see what was being said a year or two ago here to see how it compares to what’s being said today along the same subject. Yeah, I know such things require the bandwidth and server capacity, but if you have that already it might be useful to a newbie such as myself. It might be interesting to read Moe’s or Erick’s thoughts or whoever else was around when this site was gearing up. Of course, those diaries may already be gone, due to upgrades over the years.

    I do thank all of you for a great repository of conservative thought. Keep up the good work and God bless you all.

  • pac_NY

    Having been a member for a few years, I have the highest regards for the consistent integrity of RedState.

    Kudos surely to those who have dedicated their time to maintaining this site’s quality standard certainly not generally seen on the Left.

    I continue to be impressed with the thoughtful as well as thorough commentary by the many regular contributors on RS, and not to leave out those here who often write with rapier wit and accuracy.

    May RedState’s excellence continue.

  • http://brockwayfamily.spaces.live.com/ Erick Brockway

    I found if I moosh it repeatedly eventually it unsticks and the recommend goes thru.
    Helps also to squirt a lil’ WD-40 on your screen where the button resides ;-)

  • http://brockwayfamily.spaces.live.com/ Erick Brockway

    Several years ago I had something I downloaded to my phone primarily to read RSS feeds. One site included with the default ones was Red State, and I was hooked.
    I quit using the RSS reader and Oct or Nov finally registered, but still take time to check out the latest via cellphone, using Opera mini. I WAS using the wap site, but the database says “not found” today.
    Be nice to see the RedState Mobile finally go wheels and flaps up.

  • techsan

    Beyond an agreement with the viewpoints here in general…the key features of value to me…well-sourced articles, well-reasoned posts, respectful dialog (provided the posts start with a respectful tone…and even sometimes when they don’t)…and, well, content, content, content! In the end, there’s a lot of eye-candy and syrup on many sites. That gets old in about a day. Content is king, and I appreciate the effort put in by many on this site. A big “Thank you ” to all content-contributors, front-pagers as well as diary-writers.

  • techsan

    When I’m digging around for an article or comment, I generally use Google’s advanced search feature. If you include “site:redstate.com” in your search criteria, Google filters down to this site….and you can use other advanced Google search features to narrow down by time, if that helps. My assumption is the content is perpetual? Am I missing something?

  • bs

    use Google. When you formulate your search argument, to search just on www.redstate.com, put “site:www.redstate.com” in your search arguments. To search both the current RS site AND the old 2.0 and 3.0 sites, use “site:redstate.com”. It sometimes doesn’t catch the most recent day or two, but is OK beyond that.

  • Darin_H

    even though my posting has gone way down since the birth of my son 3 months ago, at least I’m still able to read pretty much daily.

    I’m just thankful there are no 500 Errors anymore

    and Neil, I’ve always got you beat by 6 months :)

  • givemeliberty

    I came by last summer after Glenn Beck mentioned the site on his radio show. I am now a daily reader. You guys do a fantastic job and I would be far less informed if not for Redstate. Keep up the good work.

  • Finrod

    .

  • conservativemusician

    Even though I’m more of a lurker than a poster here most of the time (I often find that others post what I’m thinking before I can respond, so I choose not to waste the bandwidth since I’d be saying basically the same thing).

    Thanks for a great site – by far one of the best conservative sites on the web.

    Regards, CM

    P.S. If I could make a small suggestion, it would be helpful to have more tools readily available when leaving comments (like bolding and all the advanced features many other posters here use). Have you thought about doing this for the less computer literate schlubs like me? :-) Is there a place where I can get this info? Please advise.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    WP doesn’t make it easy to add the buttons for comment layout though.

  • Flagstaff

    The whole thing is obviously addicting.

    Does that membership timer go all the way back to Redstate 1.0?

  • Flagstaff

    creative pseudonyms.

    “Nick Danger” was great in all respects.

  • JadedByPolitics

    I used to throw up a birthday cake but I still haven’t gotten the swing of how to do pictures etc very quickly on the new RS so close your eyes and envision a cake and blow out the candles :-)

  • MrsNachos

    Back when Neil thought I was a troll. ;) I remember them well. Sweet post, Neil. It was worth taking the time to log in to read it.

  • Flagstaff

    Even if it were only easy to bold and italicize, that would help a lot in comments.

    And I used to have a template to help me do links and indents the snazzy way, but I’ve lost it.

    Somebody mentioned a Firefox toolbar, but I haven’t found it, either.

  • Jack_Savage

    And has Mr. Nachos been subjected to any testing related to your field of study?

  • Flagstaff

    [b]Let’s[/b][i] try[/i] [u]it[/u] out.

    or

    Let’s try it out.

    I didn’t know whether to us BB or HTML.

  • Flagstaff
  • TNJim

    Works pretty good, although an onsite searchable archive would be nice, too.

    But those Google tips do ok.

  • mbecker908

    that can be found here. It’s the one referred to below. It’s really easy to use and a great add on, you just push the buttons on the tool bar and you get HTML or BBCode (RS uses HTML). I think it’s indispensable. Oh, and Firefox has a built in spell checker. :-)

    If you’re using IE, switch to Firefox. It’s light years better and the add ons make it very functional for the stuff YOU care about.

  • mbecker908

    the above is for you…

  • 6eorge Jetson

    6eorge Jetson
    Registered: 4 months, 6 days.

    Conservative since birth.
    Vocal conservative since ~last September
    (Dems duck any and all responsibility for credit crunch and use it to advance a leftist agenda.)

    I suspect I’m not the only one.

  • TNJim

    For some reason it’s still version 0.1.4.7 on Firefox.s add-ons page but the developer’s site has version 0.1.4.10. If anyone else is looking for it go here.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

    I’m pretty sure that is her field of study! Which explains a lot if you think about it :-)

  • TNJim

    Didn’t realize you already posted the link. But going to Firefox’s ad-ons site gives an older version. For the latest go to the developer’s site. See my reply to Flagstaff above

  • HappyBunny

    And thanks for the new link.

  • Jack_Savage

    She has ample case studies here. : )

  • papalee

    He had wonderful things to say about the writers and the accuracy of the information. And, no surprise, he was right.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    Direct email communications… it would be nice if RS had a email redirect system so each user had an Email of their Userid@redstate.com so we can communicate minor disagreements, Local Activism arrangements, and/or sharing Personal information, behind the scenes and not in Public/Open-diary. We can only communicate with a few of you RS Leaders and you with any all of us, but we can’t communicate with each other. A behind the scene email to clarify things is sometimes helpful so they DO NOT develop into Open Diary challenges and later to GRUDGES and/or open warfare in Diaries.

  • Flagstaff

    I used your link to find the darned thing. I still don’t understand web talk, so I have to take a lot of stuff on faith. I trusted your recommendation. The info at the site didn’t even confirm to me that it would work on my Mac, but it seems to be fine.

  • TNJim

    and I’ve not had any problems with it yet.