HCJ Statistics #3

Over the past couple weeks, more content has been uploaded relating to popular culture (2/12) accompanied by illustrations generously attributed by a media production student at the University of Winchester. Also see the magazines latest article on Synaesthesia, which has brought a lot of traffic to the site, acquiring *148 hits since its upload on 1^st February 2014 (03.01.2014 via Slimstat).

© Illustration By Devan Fulham

These statistical blog posts have acted as a relative "diagnosis" of the website, detailing what should be improved in order to increase pageviews. This can also be demonstrated through the various plug-in "tools" used such as Slimstat and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). My "objectives" overall were outlined in my proposal; in which I am aiming to achieve around *1,000 pageviews per day. 

Circulation figures date from 02.02.2014 via alexa.com. 

WEBSITE NAME	GLOBAL RANK	UK RANK
BA-JOURNALISM.CO.UK	4,735,852	-
NEWPHILOSOPHER.COM	168,583	2,623 (AUS)
PHILOSOPHYNOW.ORG	335,741	166,631 (US)
PHILOSOPHYBITES.COM	1,041,512	419,276 (US)
DIALECTICONLINE.WORDPRESS.COM	14,156,941	-

 
The table above shows that PHILOSOPHYBITES dominates in global rank by approximately *3,694,340 compared to the main BA JOURNALISM site. The website features a range of in-depth interviews with experts in the field which can be accessed through the medium of podcast. This has inspired me to include something similar within the site in regards to a “discussions” tab, which will consist of a range of philosophical debates by students and lecturers alike. 

A scheduled meeting with course tutor Chris Horrie further demonstrated that video would appeal to a wider audience (on an international scale) due its ability to overcome the language barrier. For example, I was shown that the WINCHESTERJOURNALISM YouTube channel received *125 US views compared to *184 in the UK (30.01.2014).

From the UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL stems another interesting philosophy magazine named “Ad Absurdum.” It has a crisp, fresh and clean feel, featuring content which focuses more on history and heritage rather than popular culture. It may benefit to look at some upcoming, topical events to use as a peg for pieces. A section dedicated to audience response has also been constructed, an aspect I feel the HCJ site needs to be more active in promoting; perhaps by linking the new TWITTER feed to the front page. 

Number of pageviews recorded (below) date from 19^th January 2014 to 1^st February 2014 via Slimstat.

DATE	NO. OF PAGEVIEWS (DEC ’13)	NO. OF PAGEVIEWS (JAN ’14)
19 JANUARY 2014	469	519
20 JANUARY 2014	626	966
21 JANUARY 2014	1,081	1,014
22 JANUARY 2014	294	786
23 JANUARY 2014	217	1,159
24 JANUARY 2014	193	684
25 JANUARY 2014	118	319

There has been a general improvement in the consistency of pageviews throughout the week, with the website peaking twice at over *1,000 pageviews compared to December. I believe online promotion has played a huge factor in this. Perhaps more focus on social media over weekends would benefit these figures to a greater extent.

It’s a different story (below) however, with last month’s figures almost halving to *691 on 30^th January 2014 and *713 on 1^st February 2014. I believe this was due to content which had been uploaded towards the end of the week.

DATE	NO. OF PAGEVIEWS (DEC ’13/JAN ’14)	NO. OF PAGEVIEWS (JAN/FEB ’14)
26 JANUARY 2014	208	382
27 JANUARY 2014	554	858
28 JANUARY 2014	831	412
29 JANUARY 2014	232	506
30 JANUARY 2014	1,017	691
31 JANUARY 2014	566	747
1 FEBRUARY 2014	1,041	713

My “hypothesis” is to appeal to a more international audience by perhaps installing a plug-in which would give reader’s the option to translate the site to a language of their choice, or create a new temporary tab to test the theory, which will be translated in person, similar to that of the BBC.