SHGA Web Site Usage Statistics

[SHGA Communications]

From Ken Andrews' report to the BOD:

Here are some highlights from the usage statistics of our website:

* There were 128,500 hits in the month of June (178 per hour). A
"hit" is any file fetched (page fragments such as the title bar,
images, text, menu buttons, etc. all count)
* There were 3662 visits in June (122 per day). This is an estimate
of the number of different people that look at our website each day.
* The busiest hours are 3 PM through 7 PM. The quietest hours are 7
AM through noon. There is a surprisingly large amount of traffic
between midnight and 5 AM, which might be traffic from Europe and
Australia? [Referrals from www.Ozreport.com]
* By far the most popular items are the home page and the pilot
forum, followed by the current issue of High Times, and the Weather
page, in that order.
* Particularly busy days were Thursday 6/1, Thursday 6/8, Sunday
6/11, Sunday 6/18, Friday 6/23, Friday 6/30, and Thursday 7/6
(statistics aren't available after July 9 yet). Many of these
correspond to the day the email blast went out, or the following day
when the email blast was sent in the evening.

[WingNutz]

Thanks, Ken, for doing all this work for the Club.

This seems to show the wisdom of Christian Williams strategy to steer members to the website via email blasts.

Larry

[Chip]

Driving those web statistics takes a lot more than email blasts! There's a lot of people making this communication happen.

Most of all Chris Smith that help create such a good and well designed web presense.

Santa Barbara recently took down their forum because they couldn't monitor it or keep it from getting spammed. It takes a team of dedicated people to make this all work. Let's not forget .........

[Christian]

Chip and Ken bust their humpers on this site, and the track was laid by others before them in a history not quite written yet, and I sure can't figure it out, but when it is written it'll have more laughs than tears I'll wager.

Fact: There's a guy in Taiwan who checks shga.com every week. We're read in the Ukraine, Australia, and Devon, where butter comes from. A fellow in New Zealand read a story I wrote in "High Times" two years ago. (That was Jim Rooney, who had nothing better to do so he clicked the the "High Times archives" tab on his laptop, 12000 miles away.)

The harness-problem stories, the Hurricane reports, Jose and Cludy's wedding too--they're of interest to people far, far away. Why? It's southern Cal, hang gliding got a big start here, our Web site says we're the hang-gliding capital of the world. And the information's free.

Hang gliding's dying, so they say. The USHGA magazine is full of paragliders and the next generation of brave young people are playing internet poker with one hand and sitting on the other. But you wouldnt know it under our gazebo, hang gliding's not dying under our gazebo, it could be 1974-84-94-2004 any day of the week, new guys coming in and old guys still trying to show them up.

We're not part of the funeral. We're alive and so's the mountain. We're in it together, like the condors, it's our habitat, and nobody's taking it away without a fight. And we're not alone, the world is watching.

Phill and Chip could have left that Sylmar video in a drawer, next to their porno collections.

What's new is that they shared it with the world.

[JT]

I was just wondering... don't websites make money by posting ads for companies that want the exposure? If we're getting all these "hits" couldn't that generate a little more revenue for the club? Could we offer this up to companies such as Moyes and Flytec.? They seem to have a budget for advertising that keeps them in the USHPA magazine.

What is wrong with this thought? I really don't know that much about how this is done and you all must know some reason for not investigating this.

[Christian]

It's a good thought. It seems to me that the value for us of offering ad space would be to help our friends--the Forest Service, The Sylmar Council, a company that loans us a bulldozer. Our way of saying thanks and giving them a little exposure. (The Oz Report does have some paying ads, but many of them are barter. )

[JT]

Actually, I was just thinking about the money but you're right. This would be a way of showing a little gratitude to the organizations you mentioned and it would cost the club nothing. BOD: is anybody out there listening?

[Lynn McLaughlin]

I'm listening...

I think this is a very interesting idea and worth discussion. Perhaps this can be added as an agenda item for the next meeting. BTW, All members are welcome to attend the monthly BOD meetings and especially encouraged to do so when you have ideas for improving the Club.

Personally, I don't know what would be involved for us to offer space/links on our website for SHGA friends. I also don't know if it would expose us to unwanted traffic or liabilities. One of our more web savvy members may be able to enlighten us.

[Ken Andrews]

This is an interesting suggestion, but I have several concerns with it.

Our website is intended primarily as a service to SHGA members. It's not clear to me that banner ads would be a benefit to members. The website already contains an extensive list of hang gliding equipment manufacturers, retailers, schools, and such, all carefully sorted and alphabetized, at http://www.shga.com/links.asp. Thanks to Lisa, the page has been updated regularly, with every link verified.

As a possible source of revenue, I don't think banner ads would yield much on our site. Banner ads have proven to be very ineffective advertizing, so don't pay much at best. In addition, while we have a good many hits for a hang gliding website, most are repeat visits from the same small group of people.

As a possible service to our friends, it's not clear to me how the Sylmar Neighborhood Council, or the Burbank airport control tower, or the Forest Service, for example, would benefit from banner ads on our website. Club members who genuinely want to help these friends could attend the Neighborhood Council meetings, purchase a Zaon MRX portable collision avoidance system ( http://www.zaonflight.com/mrx.html ) and evaluate it for hang glider use, and participate in (or coordinate) volunteer efforts to clean up the Forest roads.

If your thoughts on this matter differ, I'd be interested to hear them.

And yes, the BOD is always listening.