and more statistics . . .
It’s been 8 years, almost to the day, since I started CabbieBlog with the first post given the prosaic title: Make a Cuppa and do The Knowledge. From its early formative years, the blog has transmogrified into an eclectic mix of tips, tours, trivia and tripe. This item in what’s becoming an annual posting on the anniversary date is a little like the State of the National address from the Oval Office.
[N]ow I’m working part-time this has meant less Stars in the Seat, but hopefully my posts, now I have more time, will be more considered, not that A blow job is that cerebral.
In April I managed to ‘lose’ all my statistics and followers (apologies to those who didn’t receive an email update for 5 months), but those clever people at WordPress have restored my data enabling me now to give you what must be the most riveting read, not to say enlightening post, from your humble scribe this year.
So here we go, I don’t write the blog’s narrative with keywords to be picked up by Google’s algorithms, nor do I follow the current discussion to be found in cyberspace. As a consequence, the figures have plateaued out and with many of you reading from various feeds, I don’t see a sharp rise in page views anytime soon.
Anyhow enough of my ramblings, all you want to do is get on with digesting the figures from last year. As before, with the data amassed over the last year, I’ve broken it down to bite-sized chunks with comparable figures for the previous year.
I would have stopped a nascent CabbieBlog back in January 2009 if nobody clicked onto the site. The numbers of visitors and page views have increased slightly. This year although visitor views have increased those willing to loiter around CabbieBlog have decreased proportionately, indicating that I need to make the site more interesting.
2015
Visitors – 28,813
Page views – 55,126
2016
Visitors – 33,072
Page views – 56,276
Many of you might not be foreign, but simply ex-pats longing to reminisce of the good times spent sitting in the back of a London cab. The different countries whose residents have viewed CabbieBlog includes Jersey and Guernsey as if they were sovereign countries and curiously the European Union with 308 visits, first it isn’t a country and WordPress haven’t given it a flag. Could Brexit have something to do with this anomaly?
2015 – 136
2016 – 133
The yardstick of a blog must be how many of its readers decided to metaphysically put pen to paper and comment. To all of you, a huge thank you for your encouragement or discouragement. Your comments keep me submitting posts for your perusal. Although Brian Wright was this year’s top commentator, comments are diminishing year-on-year seemingly diverted to Twitter, Facebook or whatever community you lot spend all your time chattering in these days. But at least what comments remain are intelligent, relevant and insightful. I’m delighted, obviously.
2015 – 87
2016 – 29
It would appear that this year a couple of you have taken to the cyberverse to mark your approval of CabbieBlog, a huge thank you.
2015 – 0
2016 – 2
For those of you who can’t be bothered or don’t have the time, to check out my missives, you lot would have signed-up for regular e-mail updates or get a heads up from a RSS feed, Bloglovin’ or WordPress, whose simplicity allows thousands to read this blog without ever visiting it. As far as you’re concerned I’m no longer writing a continuous story, I’m generating atomised blogposts – which makes a complete mockery of attempting to count visitor numbers accurately anyway. I can’t calculate how many times you have taken the trouble to follow these notifications and read my rantings, but thanks for following CabbieBlog.
2015 – 130
2016 – 174
This should be posts published rather than posts written, as sometimes (about one a month) a Guest Post has been uploaded, and it would be appear some of these guest posts have the correct keywords for Google’s algorithms to find. Last year’s most read post ‘10 Surprising Facts about the London Black Cab’ was one such guest post.
2015 – 128
2016 – 105
I has to be said that some subjects take on a life of their own while others just sit in cyberspace minding their own business. At the bottom of the table lie many posts with only one view a year, and some I suspect just sit there patiently waiting to be noticed.
2016
Highest post
Ten cheap alternatives to Uber – 1,174
Lowest Post
Dear Diary . . . – 1
Highest page
Green cab shelters – 4,405
Lowest page
Pundon Calling – 4
2017
Highest post
Ten Surprising Facts about the London Black Cab – 1,575
Lowest Post
A Sign of the Times – 1
Highest page
Green cab shelters – 3,997
Lowest page
National Geo – 3
Once in a while I’ll get round to writing a page that remains visible permanently and not buried below the three weekly posts. Here are the number pages I’ve been bothered to write recently.
2015 – 4
2016 – 2
I endeavour to keep posts down to 500 words, this I usually manage to achieve, unless I come over all animated about the article’s subject matter, which usually is something connected to the diminishing cab trade.
2015
Words – 57,033
Characters – 330,413
2016
Words – 64,792
Characters – 375,629
If you ignore the search engines (with Google clocking up an impressive 23,573 hits). The next highest referrers are Twitter at 1,793 and considering I’m not linked into the behemoth, Facebook recorded no less than 1,319 hits. The figures below are far more interesting for me, being from other sources of London information to be found out there in cyberspace.
2015
Londontopia – 483
Taxileaks – 408
2016
Londontopia – 373
Ian Visits – 267
I devote a page of CabbieBlog to my bums on seats and in the past, I’ve enjoyed the company, among others, of John Hurt and Barbara Winsor. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recognise most sportsmen, or women, so they are not so faithfully recorded – although I did once see Boris Becker in the back. Because we have seen an exponentially large increase in the number of private hire licenses issues (over 20,000 since the current Mayor of London was elected) there have been less’ bums on seats’ and this is reflected here.
2015
Andrew Wilson (author and journalist, better known as A. N. Wilson)
Adam Boulton (journalist – Sky’s heavyweight)
2016
Nobody of note
I’ll keep a better lookout next year
This past year has seen the demise of some great London blogs: Three Days in London, The Londoneer, and my all time favourite The Accidental Londoner. I suppose the hay day of blogging has past and many writers now have other commitments. The latest generation now emerging onto London’s scene regard a long read as passé preferring selfies or publishing their missives in 140 words or less.
As CabbieBlog enters its ninth year I’m very excited by the weekly London Trivia that commenced on 1st January and will continue to be published every Sunday. This feature will increase the word count next year (I’ve written over 90,000 words), although I am doubtful that it is likely to increase CabbieBlog’s footfall.
Thank you for continuing to support CabbieBlog and for having the tenacity to reach the end of what must be the year’s most tedious post.
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But, as a bonus, I’ve written Pootling around London: Manor House to Gibson Square, a travelogue about riding around London exploring the Capital’s traditions, tripe and trivia, whilst undertaking The Knowledge. Chapters are soon to be published fortnightly available only to Patreon subscribers donating $1 a month. Every 2 weeks the long-form post will include an in-depth article about a single ‘run’ on The Knowledge: the journey; notes and observations from the present; and historical accounts of places on the route.
CabbieBlog 