I was just adding last years stats to my blogs media kit when I realized traffic on the blog this past year had increased tremendously over the previous year. I obviously knew traffic had increased since I monitor the stats on a daily basis but I hadn’t expected this much growth. I had roughly guessed traffic had increased by around 30% but after collecting all the data, it turns out traffic had increased by 56% over the previous year.
Page Views
2012: 3,525,263
2013: 3,089,212
2014: 3,037,706
2015: 4,509,005
Unique Visitors
2012: 2,615,214
2013: 2,289,155
2014: 1,941,236
2015: 2,858,175
What caused the traffic increase?
One theory I have is my content had improved which in return caused more interest. Another theory is that people were coming back to the blog because they were getting bored of instagram or maybe they realized the kind of content I was providing wasn’t available on instagram. Another reason I think is that people today are overwhelmed with content but with my blog I try to limit it to just three posts a day. That makes it easy to follow since I provide curated content instead of quantity. But, whatever the reason may be, the influx of traffic kept this blog alive.
The result?
Only my close friends know this but I was actually considering closing down the blog last February on the blogs 10 year anniversary. Traffic had dropped in 2014 and so I started losing interest in the blog. I tend not to spend a lot of time on projects, I like doing and try a lot of things and I jump from one project to another fairly quickly. Working 10 years on a single project was just incredibly long and if my blog had hit its peak then maybe it was about time I moved and obsessed over something else.
But last January I noticed traffic had started increasing and then when my blogs 10 year anniversary came about, traffic had increased even more. I thought that was an interesting turnaround and so I decided to hold off on closing down the blog just to see where all this was going. Every single month last year ended up performing better than the year before. The resurgence in traffic got me excited again about blogging and I started enjoying it like I did in the old days.
What now?
As long as traffic keeps increasing and as long as I continue to generate income from this blog I’m going to continue blogging.
A lot of people don’t understand the importance of my advertisers. If it wasn’t for my advertisers I would have shut down the blog a long time ago. My advertisers play a big role in keeping this blog alive and so do my readers. If it wasn’t for my readers coming back every day to read what I had to say I would have also shut down the blog a long time ago. I wouldn’t want to write if nobody was reading.
So as long as all the stars continue to align, then this blog will continue to stay up.
39 replies on “248AM in 2015”
Congrats ….. ! And All the Very Best
Did you have an alternative project in mind when you were considering closing down?
nope, figured i’d just move somewhere new and start from scratch.
its awesome to have that ability btw, to just pick up and move anywhere, all the best for an amazing staple of the Kuwait Community.
I cannot say this enough but…It’s good you stuck around to inspire people in your own way!
With great powers come great responsibilities Mark 😀
What were the candidate cities to move to?
Cape Town, Vancouver and LA
2015 is the first full year of me blogging! Perhaps I used many links to 248am and this is why your traffic increased LOOL 😀 😀 Just joking btw
It is great to learn from your Mark… You are a benchmark and you know it 🙂
Hi Mark,
I just wanted to give you an idea of why i check this blog almost daily.
I’m not on social media, and so this is the only place i get my news on Kuwait.
Specifically,
– Things to Do in Kuwait on the Weekends is lovely. I don’t particularly go to the events, but it’s nice to know what to do with visitors etc.
– Upcoming events i hear of from your blog.
– Reviews of restaurants, shops, services are very informative.
– Experience of being a non Kuwaiti is important, and gives an insight to that experience.
– Ask a Lawyer with Fajer is such a great feature.
The only thing that i don’t like is ‘The Kuwait Survival Guide’ description header on a Google Search.
But i’ve been reading you since QHate (hated that title as well hehe)
Your blog is so important.. Don’t ever doubt it.
I reckon it’s the most important one from Kuwait and will go down in history as such.
Good luck, and thanks for all the posts.
hey thanks, i’m actually gonna put up a survey later on today where i ask people what it is they are looking for. haven’t done that in years so its about time i see whats up.
To me the one feature that I like – aside from the contents, was transparency. Ex: you shared that the Vespa guys accepted advertising as a part of the payment for your motorbike. Very rare that type of disclosure. I respect that.
I visit your blog for the comments. If it wasn’t for the comments, I don’t think I would come here. So no matter what you do, don’t disable them.
Keep it rolling Mark!
all the best
Adsense ?
you got alot of visitors.
unless all your readers using adblock 🙁
I started revisiting once I saw content and comment improvement. The comment section turned to shit for a while which made reading the posts and comments an off putting experience.
Well in my honest opinion you’re the one and only news provider in Kuwait, not only news, you inform us about literally everything that’s happening here and that’s why I tend to visit the blog almost everyday. Do NOT shut it down and keep up the good work!
My medication for home sickness go on mark
well done, as usual 🙂
mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com/events FTW, nice details with exact location and GOOGLECAL,Now if only I could add it to my feedly subscription and actully update. but seriously great job you’re doing there mark, keep it up.
hey you can but you won’t get all the events just ones i choose to add to the rss feed its https://248am.com/events/events.xml
You know when you put locations for events on your blog, is there any ways that when i click it, it could direct me to the actual location on google maps where by I could nagigate drectly? As of now, I refer to your location, then separately open google maps to find it and sometimes I have to cross check to see if both match.
click the google logo on the map and it would open it in google maps
And is there a reason why your not adding them all ?
If I add the events on the day I post the things to do list then they don’t get added to the rss feed
There was a time, where I would visit around 6 or 7 local blogs. I personally do not know if they’re still running, but I completely forgot about them. Except this one. The first thing I do, EVERY SINGLE DAY when I open my browser? I head to mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com.
I love your blog, Mark.
Hi Mark,
Just wanted to chk if following your blog through feedly count as a page hit.
Nope, but if u click a post and come to the blog to read the comments then it would be a page hit
Stay right where you are and keep on doing what you’re doing! The only blog I read and the comments are valuable too.
I like your blog but i do believe you generate a sweet salary end of the month. So why act like you wanted to close it end of 2014.
– Classified section moved to buy and sell like the good old days
– Still waiting for your invitation to sit beside you during your Merc AMG 6×6 review
– As a cat lover, I’m deeply offended there’s not a single cat post you’ve got (although I was elated when you posted somewhere that you too have a pet cat)
I don’t have a cat, that post you read was by my brother.
Mabrook Mark !!!
Wishing you the very best…
Strange how these things turn out, one day you’re thinking of calling it quits and then the tables turn.
Great job! and you’re an inspiration to other bloggers…..including myself.
very informative content and easy to read.
Congraaats!! This is the only blog I read don’t leave! I can’t even get good news from the Arab times. And why would advertising be a problem! Just as long as 100000 pop ups don’t spam me every time I get on your blog.
I’d never do pop ups
I moved back to Canada 4 years ago after spending almost 2 years in Kuwait. Your blog is the only remaining connection I have with Kuwait and I read it almost daily. Thanks for carrying on and keeping my wonderful memories of Kuwait alive.
Yey! Another 10 years for 248am… maybe? 🙂
Btw, Congrats Mark, and keep up the good work…
you have done an outstanding job, to be honest you are the person I look up to when it comes to blogging, it is hard to admit it though 😛