 Poster: A snowHead
|
Here's some data extracted from a site called Traffic Estimate this morning. It's obviously a crude analysis, and if anyone has any suggestions for other rankings or methods that would be interesting, but it gives a clue to how various sites are doing.
NB the important Telegraph magazine/show/media doesn't appear here. They appear not to function from a single identifiable site ... though there is www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/telegraph-ski-and-snowboard-magazine and www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/ and http://telegraphevents.co.uk/consumer-events/the-telegraph-ski-and-snowboard-show-london
Source of data and definitions: www.trafficestimate.com
VISITS OVER THE PAST 30 DAYS
j2ski.com: 227,600
snowheads.com: 101,400
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
planetski.eu: 14,100
inthsnow.com: 10,900
winterhighland.info: 10,300
ifyouski.com: "not enough data"
wheretoskiandsnowboard.com: "not enough data"
fall-line.co.uk: "not enough data"
snowindustrynews.com: "not enough data"
Snivel.com: "not enough data"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
snowheads is down by about 1000 a day, Thats what we get for limiting you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
What is J2ski? Interest piqued I went for another look. Seems just to be a screenscraper of resort weather data and resort info. No more interesting than when I last looked at it. So another unique visitor but the stickiness of a poundland plaster.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Hmm. Out of sheer curiosity I popped a model aircraft association site that is written for a niche audience into TE - and I didn't expect it to have enough data. But what I got was that the 'page no longer exists'. It very much does - so it looks like the there is something wrong about the way Traffic Estimate works. The figures for snowheads and the Ski Club look credible, but I am a bit surprised by the J2ski figures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| Quote: |
a bit surprised by the J2ski figures
|
I'd not be surprised if their figures are a bit higher because of their followers on Facebook clicking through to features - they have 2,200 followers there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
J2skis's a site I visit exactly once per year to update the resorts for which I'd like a weekly email about where will be good for snow at the weekend. Except it now typically comes on a Thursday evening, and I need my bags packed, car loaded, and ideally a hotel already booked by Thursday night, if going skiing straight from work on Friday. So subtract 1 for the Sept or Oct figures.
There are better traffic estimators. Some do a scarily interesting job at guesstimating demographic too.
Of those in the list, Id have guessed at least one lower down the list also gathers its click thru figures from facebook clickbait.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think the key thing to note is that the stats are from a site called Traffic Estimate and 'estimate' is probably the key word here. It's hard to imagine how they can get a sample of data representative enough to extrapolate figures without a huge margin of error.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
I'm not sure I see the point in researching traffic estimates for snowsport websites during the summer months anyway.
Still, I suppose Davina has to get her attention fix somehow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not her best work, only 9 replies.
Goes to show how much she padded up her posts.
Fancy ski sites being so quiet with all this amazing snow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| Claude B wrote: |
http://www.statusquo.co.uk/ is surprisingly quiet  |
Maybe it will pick up a bit, Rick's going to have to find something to do with his downtime........
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
| Quote: |
a bit surprised by the J2ski figures
|
I'd not be surprised if their figures are a bit higher because of their followers on Facebook clicking through to features - they have 2,200 followers there. |
Rather doubt that would have much effect tbh - 2k Facebook fans isn't very much really, and given FB's feed algorithms I doubt more than 10% of the followers actually see their posts. They have so much content up I suspect it's more search traffic. Their Alexa ranking is also a lot better than I would have expected...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| rogg wrote: |
| Claude B wrote: |
| http://www.statusquo.co.uk/ is surprisingly quiet |
Maybe it will pick up a bit, Rick's going to have to find something to do with his downtime........ |
I just hope he gets better
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Web traffic stats are poor unless you do it. In a very sophisticated way.
For example, my company with 15 elope on the internet full time looked at what an analytics company could do for our sales focus. It turned out all the data was skewed because ALL our staff have the company as their home page on the computer. So 15 people x 30 browser refreshes x 5 page accesses on average = 2,250/day and approximately 45,000 per month down to our staff only.
PS, think about how you can class as normal. It is the summer and ski sites are slow at this time.
One way to increase traffic massively on snowheads would be to start threads with these key phrases in the title.
"Brexit is good"
"I love corbyn"
"Scotland is in financial ruin"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
| GlasgowCyclops wrote: |
Web traffic stats are poor unless you do it. In a very sophisticated way.
For example, my company with 15 elope on the internet full time looked at what an analytics company could do for our sales focus. It turned out all the data was skewed because ALL our staff have the company as their home page on the computer. So 15 people x 30 browser refreshes x 5 page accesses on average = 2,250/day and approximately 45,000 per month down to our staff only.
|
A very good point and I think the site David posted uses a browser add on to estimate traffic. For the long tail one or two users with this toolbar can make a big difference to traffic estimates.
Still there is no doubt that j2ski gets a lot of traffic. There is a forum in there somewhere.
Some data from Alexa:
How engaged are visitors to j2ski.com?
Bounce Rate
68.40%
Daily Pageviews per Visitor
1.70
Daily Time on Site
1:48
How engaged are visitors to snowheads.com?
Bounce Rate
46.00%
Daily Pageviews per Visitor
7.60
Daily Time on Site
9:19
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/snowheads.com
So (as was said above) snowheads are more engaged on the site, normal, it is a forum. I suspect that j2ski have probably overdone it on the SEO and people find the site in search results, take a look and immediately back out. That said a lot of snowheads visitors are coming from google as the result of a web search, and most people seem to be posting from work  (I'm billing this post as "research" on my timesheet)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
Here's an update to the tablet, thanks to some helpful suggestions:
Snow-forecast, Snow+Rock, Ellis Brigham, Crystal Ski and Inghams have been added ... and Snow-forecast heads the list, by a big margin ... even in high summer ...
snow-forecast.com: 343,000
j2ski.com: 227,600
ellis-brigham.com: 160,700
snowandrock.com: 150.500
crystalski.co.uk: 102,800
snowheads.com: 101,400
inghams.co.uk: 98,700
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
planetski.eu: 14,100
inthsnow.com: 10,900
winterhighland.info: 10,300
ifyouski.com: "not enough data"
wheretoskiandsnowboard.com: "not enough data"
fall-line.co.uk: "not enough data"
snowindustrynews.com: "not enough data"
Snivel.com: "not enough data"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| GlasgowCyclops wrote: |
Web traffic stats are poor unless you do it. In a very sophisticated way.
For example, my company with 15 elope on the internet full time looked at what an analytics company could do for our sales focus. It turned out all the data was skewed because ALL our staff have the company as their home page on the computer. So 15 people x 30 browser refreshes x 5 page accesses on average = 2,250/day and approximately 45,000 per month down to our staff only.
PS, think about how you can class as normal. It is the summer and ski sites are slow at this time.
One way to increase traffic massively on snowheads would be to start threads with these key phrases in the title.
"Brexit is good"
"I love corbyn"
"Scotland is in financial ruin"
|
If you log the IP addresses of your staff then the numbers can be calculated nett of those.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| Claude B wrote: |
| http://www.statusquo.co.uk/ is surprisingly quiet |
yes that site never changes
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
I decided to throw in a 'wild card' - an online ski kit retailer in Hemel Hempstead which has been attracting some attention.
The 'top ten' now reads ...
snow-forecast.com: 343,000
j2ski.com: 227,600
ellis-brigham.com: 160,700
snowandrock.com: 150.500
absolute-snow.co.uk: 126,500
crystalski.co.uk: 102,800
snowheads.com: 101,400
inghams.co.uk: 98,700
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
Any other suggestions for worthy contenders gratefully received !
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
The slump in ski traffic is not good for the UK and European industry.
Some 5 of those top 7 websites are shrinking.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Davina Goldballs wrote: |
I decided to throw in a 'wild card' - an online ski kit retailer in Hemel Hempstead which has been attracting some attention.
The 'top ten' now reads ...
snow-forecast.com: 343,000
j2ski.com: 227,600
ellis-brigham.com: 160,700
snowandrock.com: 150.500
absolute-snow.co.uk: 126,500
crystalski.co.uk: 102,800
snowheads.com: 101,400
inghams.co.uk: 98,700
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
Any other suggestions for worthy contenders gratefully received ! |
Are you willing to pay for analytics?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| GlasgowCyclops wrote: |
Are you willing to pay for analytics? |
Yes, of course !
| Rupert Murdoch wrote: |
Are you willing to pay for journalism? |
That quote's invented, but he'd buy (and sell) it.
| Sir James Goldsmith (no relation) wrote: |
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. |
http://cardinalpointva.typepad.com/inside_out/2007/04/if_you_pay_pean.html
That last quote needs a lot of qualifying ... as anyone who's worked in the voluntary sector will testify. Some of the best people in this country are paid nothing, and naturally expect very high standards in return.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
Like a few have alluded to ski sites do not tend to perform their best in the summer months, what a surprise 
I've just spent the last six weeks on a gradual site redesign for my OH's site and she's spent that time reorganising features / articles and the like, but we know from analytics year on year when the traffic starts to pick up and it's not till the beginning of December, but then it's not a resort focused site more features led. StyleAltitude
According to Site Estimate a Weather Blog site I run for wind and kitesurfers received an estimated 4,900 visits (so at least there was enough data) and here's the analytics for the same period so it's actually estimating more visits. And my traffic is very much affected by how windy it is.
Analytics has a great tool where you can see how many active users are on the site at any one time - so for instance at the weekend if it's windy there can be upwards of 50 people on the site trying to work out if it's worth making a trip to the beach
Sessions
-8.51%
17,844 vs 19,503
Users
-4.67%
4,148 vs 4,351
Pageviews
12.55%
121,729 vs 108,154
Pages / Session
23.02%
6.82 vs 5.55
% New Sessions
2.87%
17.14% vs 16.66%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Two 'ski travel agent' sites to add to the list: igluski.com and skisolutions.com.
'Top twenty' now reads ...
snow-forecast.com: 343,000
j2ski.com: 227,600
ellis-brigham.com: 160,700
snowandrock.com: 150,500
crystalski.co.uk: 102,800
snowheads.com: 101,400
inghams.co.uk: 98,700
igluski.com: 62,200 [was 81,600 when checked yesterday*]
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
skisolutions.com: 21,900
planetski.eu: 14,100
inthsnow.com: 10,900
winterhighland.info: 10,300
ifyouski.com: "not enough data"
wheretoskiandsnowboard.com: "not enough data"
fall-line.co.uk: "not enough data"
snowindustrynews.com: "not enough data"
snowvole.com: "not enough data"
* Can anyone explain that?
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
How can it be the top twenty when 5 sites do not have enough data, plus you've also missed off https://whitelines.com
Great journalism doing this in September
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
But it's not a bad time of year to build a list of sites - that could then be monitored periodically over the whole season. Trends could be interesting, even if absolute levels are distorted by employees etc.
Some sizeable TOs missing: Skiworld, Thomsonski, SkiFrance, Neilson, MarkWarner, ... - although for the last two it may be difficult to identify just the ski offerings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| Davina Goldballs wrote: |
* Can anyone explain that? |
because you are on the long tail of data collection; small things have big effects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| Davina Goldballs wrote: |
I decided to throw in a 'wild card' - an online ski kit retailer in Hemel Hempstead which has been attracting some attention.
The 'top ten' now reads ...
snow-forecast.com: 343,000
j2ski.com: 227,600
ellis-brigham.com: 160,700
snowandrock.com: 150.500
absolute-snow.co.uk: 126,500
crystalski.co.uk: 102,800
snowheads.com: 101,400
inghams.co.uk: 98,700
skiclub.co.uk: 48,600
welove2ski.com: 27,700
natives.co.uk: 26,200
Any other suggestions for worthy contenders gratefully received ! |
goneboarding and snowboardclub would be interesting
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| J2Dave wrote: |
| What is interesting is that the "enthusiast" sites (SF, SH and us) are still significantly more popular than sites that loudly claim otherwise. Like inthesnow, whose recent emails seem to claim they're #1 in everything, ever... |
Oh give them their credit dear boy. Inthesnow are a force to be reckoned with in the British ski industry.
Look at their execution of the hostile takeover of the Birmingham ski show with promises of the greatest show ever to grace this land.
Has anyone in recent years done more to make the Telegraph show look better?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
and J2Ski. J2Ski has a forum but it's on a lot smaller scale than 
