Blog for Iowa Hits Nearly Half a Million Page Views in First Year
by Linda Thieman

Yes, dear readers, Blog for Iowa is one year old today!  I remember a year ago this past week when I was looking for an online blog host – there were a few to choose from and it looked like BlogHarbor had excellent support materials and great customer service – and they’ve lived up to every expectation I had for them.

Blog for Iowa went up on the evening of April 1, 2004.  That first month, we averaged 94 readers (distinct hosts served) per day and had a total of 7,362 page views (hits).  This past month (March, 2005) we have averaged 1300 readers per day with a total of just over 66,000 page views.  This is the first time that we topped 60,000 page views in one month.  It’s also the first time we topped 40,000 distinct hosts served in one month.

I tallied up the number of page views (hits) we’ve scored over the past year and was nothing short of astonished to discover that we landed very near the half million mark – 481,786 page views to be more precise.  No wonder we had to upgrade to the professional package!  To tell you the truth, the professional package didn’t even exist when we first joined BlogHarbor.  No one needed it!  Kind of puts the whole thing into perspective, doesn’t it?  (And thanks to Dr. Alta Price of Bettendorf for footing the bill!)


TOP CATEGORIES

I thought you might be interested in which categories of articles are the most popular on Blog for Iowa.  (You can view and click on the list of categories on the right sidebar.)  Without fail, Iowa in the News is always number one, month after month.  Here are the top 15 categories for March, 2005:

1)    Iowa in the News
2)    Calls to Action
3)    Candidates
4)    National News
5)    GOP

6)    Environment
7)    Democrats
8)    How You Can Help
9)    Dean News
10)   Local Events

11)   Economy/Jobs
12)   Progressive Community
13)   GLBT
14)   Health Care & Medicare
15)   Farming


NEW CONTRIBUTORS

Blog for Iowa has also added additional contributing posters these past few months.  We are graced by a weekly political column (Tuesdays) from John Drury, former mayor of Swaledale and Democratic candidate for Iowa Senate from District 6 in 2004, and a weekly environmental column (Sundays) from Molly Regan, Scott County Soil and Water Commissioner.  Chad Thompson, Johnston, whom we stole away from the excellent (now defunct) blog Iowa Populist, adds his sharp analysis of Iowa and national events, and Caroline Vernon (DFQC) is in the process of joining us as a regular poster.  We are also extremely lucky to have Trish Nelson, Iowa City, working the blog for us.  Trish, the Co-coordinator of Rapid Response – Iowa, is our media bias go-to gal, our poster of calls to action, and our de facto assistant editor.  In other words, Blog for Iowa would have collapsed without her hard work and great enthusiasm.

I'd like to thank the many, many folks who have contributed to the success of Blog for Iowa.  Here's to another year of growth.

Linda Thieman
Editor, Blog for Iowa