The Museum Turns 3 Years Old, Part 1: SIte Statistics

Another year has passed in my blogging world, and what a year it has been. Site traffic is way up, I've met some great new people, and the blog has become what many say is the best tap handle resource on the Internet. While I wish I could devote more time to the Museum and post more often, I'm still pleased with how it has evolved. As I did in the first two years, I'd like to present some statistics that show the current state of the site. This is the first part in a week-long series of events centered around the third anniversary of the Museum's creation.

Click through to see the numbers...

The first stats I'll look at is the number of taps posted:

There is definitely a trend downward; this years' posts average 1 tap profile every 3 days. However, I thought I'd look at another statistic that might be more revealing: the number of breweries that were profiled:

In comparing the two graphs, you can see that in the first graph, although the # of taps posted is down quite a bit (50% from Year 1), the second graph shows that the number of breweries profiled is only 25% from Year 1 and only very slightly down from Year 2. I feel pretty good about that, as brewery profiles take a significant amount of time to research and write (many of the early entries are somewhat lacking). Add in the hi-res photo editing, and updating of older posts (photos & brewery history re-writes), and I believe I've maintained, if not increased, the amount of work I've put in to the Museum.

The next area of interest is tap acquisitions:

I'm amazed at this number. Despite a number of financial setbacks, I've managed to acquire more taps this year than in any other. I do hope I can increase this number in Year 4.

Finally, a look at site traffic:

Year 2 saw a 340% increase in page views over Year 1, and my goal for Year 3 was a 300% increase over Year 2. Actual result: 299%. That's incredible! I'd like to thank you all for helping me to achieve these numbers. With increased exposure comes bigger and better things, but I'll save that topic for later.

Part 2 will explore individual posts, and Part 3 will talk about my goals and future plans. The subjects of Parts 4 and 5 will be revealed later this week...