As promised, here is the “state of the Sloganeering.Org” report that we’ve compiled, using server data and responses to the 2009 Readers’ Survey.

Survey Results:

We only managed to pull two respondents to the survey page, both choosing to remain anonymous. This is not a statistically significant number, but we’re able to draw a few provisional conclusions from the data we’ve received.

First of all, Sloganeering.Org seems to have some rather serious opportunities for improvement. People do not seem to like the layout very much, for one thing (and we completely agree with that sentiment); secondly, the comments/discussion aspects of the site are quite lacking (also something that we agree with).

This translates into two practical results: First, you might have noticed, we’ve changed the site’s layout around a little bit. While it may not seem like much, it is something of a launching point for further revisions. We have made the template a bit more flexible, so that additional changes can be made later, without the fuss that they’ve required in the past. Also, we’re trying to get the site to validate with the W3C tool. It doesn’t do that, currently, but we’re on our way to fixing it, once we get a little help.

As far as the comments/discussion thing — we’re trying to figure that out, as well. It may be that the lack of comments and discussion is the main problem here, which is a function of our low readership. Additionally, some folks may be having problems leaving comments for technical reasons. (If this has happened to you, please email editor(at)sloganeering.org, and we’ll look into it.)

Further issues might stem from the unappealing, or downright illegible nature of the comment layout form. We are not yet talented enough to merge functionality with aesthetic quality, so we tend to focus on the usability side of things. We’ve failed quite badly, in this regard, and we’ll try to make things better. During February, we’ve added the ability to respond directly to individual comments, nesting them up to two layers deep, but we’ll see how that pans out.

As always, we’re very interested in your suggestions. You can leave them in the comments, or email us at editor(AT)sloganeering.org.

Site Statistics:

In an average thirty-day period, Sloganeering.Org receives about 150 visits, from anywhere around 10 to 20 unique visitors. Daily, we usually get about five or ten visits (at least on weekdays). The vast majority of our traffic comes from direct browsing (that is, when somebody types our URL into their browser, or clicks on a bookmark).

The rest of our traffic comes from search engines (and they usually bounce after less than a minute, indicating that people are not finding what they’re looking for on our site), and the rest comes from referrals from other websites (that is, sites that link to us).

The practical upshot of all of this, after doing a little math, is that we’ve got about six regular readers that use browsers, and about two more who use RSS readers.

What this all means:

Now, let me tell you why these numbers are good for us.

Back in the day, when I used to maintain a blog called “I Am Uninformed”, I had reached a peak of about 50 visits per day. At which point I freaked the hell out. I changed the URL, redesigned the site, and felt a tremendous amount of pressure to be entertaining, every single day. After flipping all the switches on the site, I managed to get the readership down to about one person, not counting myself.

At lot of that was the result of being linked-to by Gawker. Which is fine, and all, but I’ve discovered that single posts that get linked on popular sites, or “dugg” by social aggregators tend not to attract people who might become regular readers, but rather, a cadre of Internet wiseguys. Which is also fine, in its own way, but I don’t have advertisers whose desperate quest for eyeballs I’m a part of. It’s just me, here. I have certain obligations to the regulars who read this blog, and to myself of course, but not to anyone else. I frankly don’t give much of a crap about building the readership — at least, it’s not my primary concern. I’d rather spend my time worrying about whether or not the regulars I’ve got are having a good time.

What’s not going to change:

Sloganeering.Org is still the blog that does everything wrong. I don’t post many graphics. I don’t write short, pithy posts that often. I update infrequently. I don’t try to draw more readers here by engaging with all the latest social media websites. Nor do I advertise or make pointless, bullshit comments on other blogs just to get my URL out there. What this means, of course, is that the six to eight of you out there aren’t likely to have many more peers to engage with on this site, and I’m sorry about that. On the other hand, I will try to do a better job of giving the few of you that do visit this site my undivided attention. Don’t get me wrong: I’d be sitting here, happily typing away to myself even if no one ever visited this site. But you’ve been kind enough to stick around, to comment, and in some cases, to email me, and I think you deserve to be taken seriously.

Thank you, and I’m sorry:

One last thing: I want to let everybody know that I sincerely appreciate you all. I don’t thank you enough for stopping by — I’m not even sure that I can thank you enough. Thank you for reading.