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(Vocus/PRWEB ) May 13, 2010 -- The largest and most popular web site for "alternative topics," AboveTopSecret.com, announced today that it reached a record number of people in April of 2010. During that month 4.2 million visitors viewed 17.4 million pages of content, reaching people in 225 countries. With nearly 50% of those visitors representing "absolute unique" users, the number of regular repeat readers is also at its highest point ever.
Started in 1997, AboveTopSecret.com has become the largest source of content on what the company terms, "alternative topics," which represents a broad spectrum of issues that include UFO sightings, government scandals, political conspiracies, and related subjects. The popular web site boasts more than 1.8 million pages of content on over 500,000 topics, and in April of 2010, 365,735 distinct pages were discovered by people using more than 580,000 different search terms, also the highest numbers ever recorded by the site.
Bill Irvine, CEO of The Above Network, LLC, owners of the web site, classifies the recent increase in activity this way, "With the rise in confusing or stressful news and current events, more and more people are looking for answers to questions that aren't being addressed by mainstream media and news." AboveTopSecret.com's primary source of content is from thousands of astute members who research and speculate on the "behind the scenes" motivations and causes of current events. "This just shows us that more and more people are leery about the information they receive from traditional sources," Irvine continues. "And they're looking for answers from ordinary people who very often can be more worthy of trust than contemporary news sources."
The content model employed by AboveTopSecret.com is commonly known of as user-generated content, where registered members initiate new topics and solicit collaborative responses from other users. AboveTopSecret.com seeks to differentiate itself from similar user-generated sites through their reasonably strict rules of decorum and civility, which is a clear strategy to ensure discussions remain on-point. Mark Allin, COO, attributes this to their success, "When people stop bickering about each other and actually focus on important topics, that's when the magic happens. These traffic numbers prove it's working, lots of people are realizing our members have unique and valuable insights on the long list of perplexing issues keeping the world up at night."
"This isn't an anomaly of April," adds Irvine. "Over the past five years, we've been experiencing month-over-month traffic growth because of the compelling, and often provocative topics our members discuss." Three years ago, the company received their first round of "angel" financing to fund the expansion of operations, and monthly traffic has grown 400% since. "I'd like to say the future looks bright," comments Allin, "but the topics that become popular are often very troubling. However, at least more and more people are finding solace and answers in each other on our site, and that's definitely not a bad thing."