...where distraction is the main attraction.

Monday, August 17, 2015

200,000+ Views (as per Google Analytics)! Thank you!

Lady and Gentlemen!

This blog somehow just zipped past another nice round-numbered milestone.  Thank You Thank You Thank You to all of my readers no matter how you found this site or how frequently you visit.  I appreciate stealing your attention while you're at work or in bed or on the can.

This second 100K happened much quicker than had been expected thanks to one fateful series of posts written in early January.  What Was the Scotch Whisky Boom series has been viewed 10,000 times (by actual humans).  That number is astounding and frightening and sexually invigorating.  Perhaps the series told people what they already knew or what they wanted to hear or what they already feared.  Whatever the reason, those posts struck some sort of chord and has kept me rechecking my charts out of sheer paranoia that I've gotten something wrong.

While it's now no longer a secret that the so-called-Boom is in the past tense, I still witness so many whisky geeks buying out of scarcity fears.  And I still see prices rising.  Next January, I'll update the spreadsheets and graphs, as long as the figures are still being made public.  At that point I'll also update the pricing spreadsheet and share that with you all as well.  If any one of my beloved readers has access to industry data that is more granular and specific than that released by the SWA, and is willing to provide it anonymously so that I may apply deeper analysis, together we may be able to create something of interest and assistance to many Scotch drinkers.



There were also 90,000 views that weren't connected to the Boom series.  The Top 25 All Time posts hasn't changed a whole lot since last May, so if you want the old long list you can click over there.  But let's see what's happened since then.

Firstly and most importantly, my daughter was born.  Everything else is sorta quiet compared to her.

Also, I went to Japan.  My brother got married.  Mathilda turned one.  I went through a long buying freeze.  I left the dusty hunt.  And this stay at home dad squeezed out over 140 single malt reports whenever his daughter allowed him.

Aside from the Scotch Boom stuff, here are the Top Dozen new posts:
1. A Friendly Reminder to Kill Your Whisky Gods
2. The original Suntory Royal SR review -- okay, so this was posted the month before the 100K marker but the number of clicks this review gets baffles me
3. Grangestone Double Cask review
4. Usquebach Old-Rare review
5. Whisky Observations from Japan (or Where the Hell is the Japanese Whisky?)
6. Glen Scotia 12 year old (old label) review
7. Talisker 25 year old (2012 bottling) review
8. Four Roses Single Barrel OBSK barrel 37-1B review
9. Balcones Rumble, batch R12-3 review
10. Karuizawa Spirit of Asama 48% review
11. R.I.P. Willett 4 year old Family Estate Single Barrel MGP Rye
12. Hello, Loch Dhu and Cu Dubh. Goodbye, 2014.

Some odd ones in there.  Um, Glen Scotia 12?

And the ten countries with the most views were:
1. United States of America, making up 52% of the total views
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. Netherlands
7. India
8. France
9. Sweden
10. Finland

While blend reviews made up 18% of my first 100K posts, they only accounted for 12% of the second 100K. While the big four malts (Macallan, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Glenmorangie) made up 14% of my first 100K, they made up less than 7% of the second 100K.  So even if I discount the Scotch Boom views, it's clear that people are coming to my site for things other than the super popular whiskies.  And if you look at that list of Top Dozen new posts above, readers are clearly going for some of the quirkier things.  And that's great because that's the path I prefer to travel as well!

One final thought regarding the Boom's demise.  If whisky's popularity continues to shrink then will my pageviews -- and those of other whisky bloggers -- do the same?  Probably.  That's how it goes.  As industries contract, so do peripheral businesses.  I guess that's one good thing about running an independent site, I won't be losing revenue.  Can't say the same thing about blogs and publications that directly rely on an expanding industry for financing and content.



This week I'll celebrate this recent milestone with one relevant whisky and one irrelevant whisky and then a WTF? whisky (super irrelevant!).  And the following week will be a whole bunch of stuff that I'm sure will be brilliant.

Thank you!