Djrobblog’s First Anniversary – Key Stats and Facts

This weekend marks the first anniversary of djrobblog.  It’s been a great first year and I’m certainly looking forward to blogging for many more to come.

And I could not have sustained it without the love and support of family and friends who are truly my biggest sources of inspiration, and without God Who gave me the talent and the passion for both music and writing to want to do this in the first place.

Through the help of my “jetpack” stat tracker, I’ve been able to check the progress of the blog site and the various articles I’ve written this past year.  As would be expected, some articles did better than others.  Some resonated with readers, while others landed with a thud.

To commemorate this anniversary, I thought I’d give some statistics about the site.  So what follows are those key stats and fun facts about djrobblog’s first year.

In all, I’ve posted 66 articles (not including this one).  The most clicked/read articles to date, according to stat tracker, have been:

1. “Janet’s Black Eagle Descends on the Windy City“ (1093 clicks)

2. “Janet Jackson Release Week” (950)

3. “The 30 Greatest Blue-Eyed Soul Singers – the Men” (928)

4. “Fifteen Great Songs You Missed in 2015” (750)

5. “20 Greatest Black Music Producers/Songwriters” (712)

Janet Jackson’s 2015 comeback has clearly been the big attention getter for djrobblog so far, with four related articles (including the top two above) accounting for about 2500 clicks.  So I guess I need to thank Janet and her diehard fans as well!

Thank you, Ms. Jackson.  And thanks to her many fans (you can definitely count me among you).

In addition to the articles above, I’m happy to say that the majority of those I’ve published have had triple-digit reads (hey, it’s baby steps folks).  The most recent to join the club is the one at #4 above, “Fifteen Great Songs You Missed in 2015.”  That article was just published last week and continues to average about 100 reads a day.  At its current pace, it’ll likely surpass the two Janet articles to become the most read one by the end of the month.

The success of that article tells me that, while you appreciate chart facts and figures, sometimes good old-fashioned opinion-based blogging is what people really want to see.

Articles with the most stamina

There are three surprising older articles that have increased their readership each month for the past half-year or so: “The 30 Greatest Blue-Eyed Soul Singers – the Men” (published in May), “20 Greatest Black Music Producers/Songwriters” (June), and “A History of Black-Owned Record Labels – Part II” – an article published in February and inspired by the success of the TV series Empire.

All three of those articles were published before July and now get over 100 reads per month (none of them registered more than 37 total clicks in the month of July).  The Blue-Eyed Soul list will likely join the 1000-click club by mid-February.

The continued interest in those stories demonstrates that, while it may be universal, people still like to categorize music by race – or at least know how the black and white color lines are drawn in music trivia and history.

Another older article has rejoined the 100-reads-per-month club after having been published more than four months ago: “The Best Falsetto Singers – A Men Only Club.”  It was first published in August and has totaled 699 clicks, with 106 of those coming this month (so far).

The least-read articles

With every success there are also some failures along the way.  Djrobblog is no exception to that rule.  Some of my articles have yet to register more than 25 reads since the stat tracker began monitoring the site in April.  Of the 66 I’ve posted, 14 fell in this unfortunate category.

Of those 14, the five biggest duds are:

1. “Super Bowl Number Ones” (published last February; two clicks since April)

2. “Random Music-Related Thoughts About Nothing” (published in response to Wale’s album inspired by the TV show Seinfeld; three clicks since April)

3. “Tidal – Why All The Fuss?” (published on April 3 about Jay Z’s streaming service launch, three weeks before the stat tracker was activated; only four clicks since then.)

4. “Not-So-Blurred Lines – Why Pharrell Lost” (published about a month before the stat tracker was enabled; only five clicks since then)

5. “Grammys and Records and Songs and Charts” (published in February; only five reads since April).

It’s understandable that some of these articles have had no activity since April since they were inspired by current events whose shelf lives expired within a few days or weeks of them occurring.

Or maybe they were just bad articles (although you know I don’t want to believe that, right?).

Either way, as we are about to approach the next Super Bowl – and a milestone one at that – I plan to update and rerun the “Super Bowl Number Ones” article in the week leading up to this year’s game to give it another chance.  What will be this year’s #1 song when either the Patriots, the Broncos, the Panthers or the Cardinals take the Lombardi in two weeks?  And how will that song compare to the previous 49 #1 Super Bowl hits?  Stay tuned to find out.

DJROBBLOG Worldwide

Since the stat tracker started keeping data on April 23, there’ve been nearly 18,000 clicks on djrobblog, with the majority (83%) occurring in the U.S.  However, as with all websites, this blog can be accessed from anywhere with worldwide web access.

From April 23 – December 31, 2015, the blog’s readership reached 110 different countries.  So far in just the first three weeks of 2016, djrobblog has been accessed in 62 countries.

Aside from the U.S., the top five countries since April have been:

1. United Kingdom (682 clicks)
2. Canada (570)
3. Brazil (179)
4. Australia (115)
5. Poland (110)

And speaking of the U.K., the blog’s proudest moment was earlier this month when one of my articles (the tribute to Natalie Cole) got picked up by a British online rock magazine called Rockshot.  You can access that magazine by clicking this address: http://rockshot.co.uk/dir/18230/natalie-cole-unpredictable-unforgettable/.

In Memoriam/ Social media

While I rely on the stat tracker to give metrics on popular articles, another measure is social media.  I use Facebook to advertise each article through my blog’s page.  The article that has received the most likes, clicks, shares and comments by far has been this month’s tribute to the late Natalie Cole with over 1400 Facebook likes (and 87 comments).

It is trailed in social media activity by a related follow-up article about the loss of “elegance” in music, which has 1100 likes and 81 comments.  It also registered 1299 post clicks, easily the most registered via Facebook.

Third is this month’s tribute to the late David Bowie, who passed only ten days after Cole.  His article has over 1000 FB likes and 41 comments.

Given that all three of those articles were published this month, it’s easy to see that January 2016 has been the biggest (and saddest) month for djrobblog so far.  Of this month’s 3200-plus clicks (the highest monthly sum yet, with 8 days still remaining), about half were for the three articles related to Cole and Bowie, clearly showing that the sudden passing of music legends will always be an alluring topic for readers.

The deaths of legends like Bowie and Cole – as well as Eagles‘ founder Glenn Frey last Sunday – have been reminders that life is short and tomorrow is not promised.  They’ve also reminded me that, while we are here and still can, we should follow our dreams and passions while we still have them.

It’s my passion for music that drives me each week, and it’s the support of readers like you that keep me searching for that next article topic.

So I once again thank you for all your support of djrobblog and hope that you continue to read it (so it really blows up and I can start getting paid!).

Just kidding.  I’d keep doing it anyway!

DJRob