According to Google Analytics, Intheboatshed attracted 690,595 pageviews during the year (468,612 uniques) – and the most popular posts and pages were those offering free plans. Free stuff is usually popular, I guess.
Next in popularity after the plans posts comes David Dimbleby’s TV show about sailing his Heard 28 named Rocket to various ports and some of the interesting things he and his researchers found for us to learn about. The story turned out to be more controversial than expected (check the comments), but hopefully the interest this one received also demonstrates what the BBC series Coast showed some years ago – that the British public continues to be fascinated by its coasts and perhaps also in sailing.
What comes next is perhaps more surprising – it’s the Songs tunes and videos page. I had thought that this was an eccentric enthusiasm just of my own and a few pals, but this result is a wakeup call. I will – I must – remember to put up more of this kind of stuff in the coming year.
The underwater shots of the Titanic I posted years ago still get a good level of interest, as does Cheris Perkins’ prize-winning sailing canoe Scotch Mist constructed to Iain Oughtred’s Macgregor design. It is good to know that great photos and boatbuilding are still important topics for this weblog – and they’re definitely not going away, so long as my cherished readers keep sending in their stories!
In other news, just over half way through the year we changed internet service provider, which has meant that the site is now easier to find – sadly the previous (very well known) ISP was delivering a terribly slow service, which was causing Google to rank Intheboatshed.net further and further down in its searches. I don’t think we’re back to where we were yet in Google’s rankings, but our rather less well known new ISP has proved cheaper and much faster.
And in the coming year? I’ll still be here if you are. Here’s to a great year for all of us – better boating weather, more fascinating boats and bits of history, and more good company – not forgetting the odd glass accompanied by a song or a story.