AboveTopSecret.com Traffic From April, 2007 to April, 2009

reply to post by Springer


The dip seems rather more severe 08-09 than 07-08, but thats hardly much of a statistical comparison.

I'd agree with you but this isn;t a physical place people ahve to slog to get to, it's an internet forum, which takes a few clicks, and can be done practically anywhere with net access.

I'm just saying that seems a hell of a dip for people visting family, but then also, two years worth of data isn't enough to make proper comment. I look forward to further years data for comparsion to hopefuly identify and explain more trends ...

Originally posted by Vector J
The dip seems rather more severe 08-09 than 07-08, but thats hardly much of a statistical comparison.

Good point... so I went back to August 2006 (our first full-month on Google Analytics), and ran the following numbers against weekly visits...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/de085e07ad7d.jpg[/atsimg]
(full-size version)

It looks like a similar percentage drop each year, just that once the numbers get larger, the same percentage gives the appearance of a larger-dip.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks for the expanded info SO, I can see the dip trend indeed, but I still am at a loss to truely understand the root cause.

When I've got some time to sit down and do some calculations I'm going to have a bit of a look at the trends as I can see 'em, as much as I detest statistics, they are fascinating. Certainly ATS has been expanding at an impressive pace and it would be nice to get a proper feeling of the eb and flow of posters over a year, disregarding the year on year increase.

It would be very illuminating to see if there is a trend in posting beyond major events and general increase in members that can be seen and understood.

Once agin, thank you for posting the rest of the info you have to hand SO!...

Originally posted by Vector J
When I've got some time to sit down and do some calculations I'm going to have a bit of a look at the trends as I can see 'em, as much as I detest statistics, they are fascinating.

Well... major portions of my professional life have-been/are heavily influenced by metrics and statistics.

I've been involved in seasonal e-commerce sites, non-seasonal e-commerce sites, healthcare sites, online brokers, public utilities, and more. The seasonal dip we see here on ATS in November-December has its roots in a number of factors.

Lots of people take vacations... if you're in the business world in the US, you know that it's nearly impossible to get anything dome from Thanksgiving through New Years.

Online usage patterns shift slightly from pastime sites and more toward shopping sites.

Patterns of usage at work shift, as the people not on vacation typically have a higher workload.

People are doing more, shopping, visiting relatives, etc.


There are similar trends every weekday... we can rely on a sudden increase in traffic at noon on the east coast of the US, and similar rises as each time zone experiences lunch. A women's fashion e-commerce site I designed long ago typically saw now daily sales... until noon EST, then traffic and sales spiked.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks Skeptic I apreciate your analysis But I still hope to look into it myself sometime...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Well, it looks like Google is going to have buy ATS.
Google bought youtube.
It's worth about $1.2 Billion easy.
Go ATS!

Great news about the traffic to this site.

Can't wait for more from this site

I tend to link out to this site on many boards, usually when talking about alternative topics. Keep up the good work