The Tipping Point? The beginning stages of a high-traffic website (with graphs) Justin Hartfield
The site in question is www.PrometheusInstitute.net, a libertarian think tank based out of Orange County, CA. The traffic was generated without the use of any paid advertising. The site was marketed via submitting articles to user driven news-sites. Our largest total traffic days, however, were by submissions from individuals not affiliated with the website, e.g. the traffic spike generated in September is almost entirely a product of viral marketing. Graphs shown below are courtesy of the aptly named Awstats. Hopefully these charts will provide valuable information which will help you build your own high traffic website.
September was a particularly notable month as the article Five Keys to Increasing Your Likeability was featured on several extremely high traffic websites. It was on CNETs news.com, front-page on reddit.com, fark.com, and lifehacker.com, and the most popular bookmark on del.icio.us for several hours. Interestingly enough, the article was a departure from the politically-based pieces which are most represented on the website.
Breakdown of the month of September:
Summary from Jan 1, 2006- Oct 1, 2006:
Almost 15,00 bookmarks in 10 months. 80 people have also signed up for the newsletter.
