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Mediaite Sees Record Traffic In June; Nearly 3 Million Unique Visitors

by Colby Hall | 1:50 pm, July 1st, 2011

» 36 comments

The month of June was a banner month for Mediaite.com. With our two year anniversary approaching, Mediaite enjoyed nearly 3 Million unique visitors to the site; throw in our syndicated content, and that number jumps to just shy of 6.5 Million unique visitors who viewed branded Mediaite content in the last thirty days. This, in just our 24th month in the marketplace.

Two years ago, when a brand-new competitor entered the super-crowded landscape of media websites, many guffawed, and added some sort of reasonably skeptical comment of “Good luck on that!” But we saw an opening — covering the intersection of media and politics– and remained undeterred by the cynics. Since then, we’ve seen five other sites spawned (Styleite, Geekosystem, SportsGrid, TheMarySue, and Mogulite) each with their own traffic successes to report. While we are at it, we’d like to give GossipCop a shout out for breaking 2 Million uniques as well.

Surely we had a sizable promotional budget for marketing and advertising, right? Well, it is true that we once spent roughly $70 on a targeted Facebook ad experiment back in July of 2009. But that’s pretty much the sum total that we’ve spent in getting our message out there.

Others have the advantage of some sort of institutional investors to provide breathing room, or even better, a partnered marketing relationship with a mothership source of traffic like AOL, MSN or Yahoo! Not us. While we have enjoyed occasional links from some well-trafficked sites (and we appreciate the fine and attractive editors of those most excellent sites.) Almost all of our traffic, however, has been due to original reporting, jumping on a story quickly, or having particularly quotable commentaries. If I may say so myself, the real secret to our success is the hard work, smarts and sense of humor of our very humble staff of six full time editors and writers, and two part-timers. (Plus two invaluable summer interns!)

Most of all, though, thanks to you, dear readers, for continually coming to Mediaite for your media news diet, even those of you who seem to love to do nothing more than hang out in our comments section and throw darts at us. We expect that the looming political season kicking off next fall will spell great things for the future.

In the meantime, I have a site to edit, and some hopefully interesting and/or fun stories to speed up this very slow summer Friday. Thanks again, and remember, that’s M-E-D-I-A-I-T-E.

Colby Hall, Dan Abrams, Mediaite, Traffic

Jaurez

Thanks, Glenn Beck! :)
WCinWI

Where’s the letter to thank Rush? Rush should get a call-out!
TangledThorns

I bet most of it was due to Weiner news.
Newsjunky

Congrats Mediaite!
Nature Freak

Thank you internet bots, I mean “dear readers”.
Moderate

Like the searches for chloroform, I am starting to not trust hit counters. It could be trumped up just to rip off advertisers.
Nature Freak

“even those of you who seem to love to do nothing more than hang out in our comments section and throw darts at us.”

Are you saying us armchair commentators need to get a life?

I know it’s true. I plan on changing my life by winning the Powerball jackpot soon.
Nature Freak

“We expect that the looming political season kicking off next fall will spell great things for the future.”

Mediaite Fight Club will be bursting at the seems.

I still maintain this site needs a virtual reality octagon fighting cage.
Fokker News

What I want to see Colby, is a top 10 breakdown for the month of June, for the number of page views by commenter. In other words, I want to see who the biggest trolls are in the Mediaite comment section.
Paul G

You’re welcome MEDIAite
BatBoy

Are you thanking some of the commenters who Colby is “honestly embarrassed ” about?

Colby Hall, Mediaite Staff says:
June 30, 2011 at 8:36 pm (Quote)

the comments on this post reveal the vast disparity of intelligence between the mediaite staff and its community of commenters. I am honestly embarrassed for some of you (though not all)
Colby Hall

yes – those are the ones BatBoy.
Nature Freak

Fokker News said:
What I want to see Colby, is a top 10 breakdown for the month of June, for the number of page views by commenter. In other words, I want to see who the biggest trolls are in the Mediaite comment section.

I have done my share of bipolar trolling myself.
My trolling tends to be from a liberal perspective, while much of the trolling here leans conservative.

Mediaite is truly about free speech and debate. For that I commend the Mediaite staff. I enjoy the writing by Mediaite as well, whether I agree with a particular viewpoint or not. This website is very catharsis, at least for me.
Nature Freak

WCinWI said:
Where’s the letter to thank Rush? Rush should get a call-out!

Getty Lee rules!

Happy Canada Day everyone!
http://www.sarainitalyblog.blogspot.com/ sarainitaly

we needle because we care. ;O)

congrats mediaite.
Zandandido

Congrats Mediaite.
http://www.squidoo.com/lauriebethsgrotto Laurie Beth

Congratulations! Well deserved.
TillieGlockenspiel

Congratulations to Abrams Media.
Dem4Ever

Mediaite Sees Record Traffic In June; Nearly 3 Million Unique Visitors

On behalf of myself and that of the readers who made this possible…You’re welcome.
J Baustian

Nature Freak said:
I have done my share of bipolar trolling myself.
My trolling tends to be from a liberal perspective, while much of the trolling here leans conservative.

The conservatives tend to be real people who are not being paid per message posted.

My major complaint is not with the articles. Most are pretty bad, but I understand that speed is more important than accuracy. Instead, my complaint is with the titles. It can’t be that hard to come up with a title that accurately describes the subject of the article, without establishing a bias that does not exist in the story.
tiredofbs

Congrat’s due & given
Personally i like the set up of Site. Easy to read
days headlines w/small pics be amused at the same time.
I expect to be annoyed at most headlines ,,
as a Conservative but i have to admit i ‘m pleasantly
surprised at many fair & balanced articles that keep (R)’s
(I)’s & moderates reading & posting.
THAT IS YOUR SECRET FORMULA
If u go far left during the Election season
I will bet you lose 75% traffic.
mitchflorida

Big WEINER did it for you.
Nature Freak

Welcome to the Hotel Mediaite
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel Mediaite
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here.

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the computer
I had to find the link back
To the place I was before
‘Relax,’ said the night man,
‘We are programmed to receive.
You can log out of Mediaite any time you like,
But you can never leave!
WildMan

Congrats, Mediaite…!!!
Nature Freak

J Baustian said:
The conservatives tend to be real people who are not being paid per message posted.

My major complaint is not with the articles. Most are pretty bad, but I understand that speed is more important than accuracy. Instead, my complaint is with the titles. It can’t be that hard to come up with a title that accurately describes the subject of the article, without establishing a bias that does not exist in the story.

J Baustian, Nature Freak is being paid per message. You caught me. Damn!
My troll comment was an attempt to be funny. It was not hostile in any way shape or form. Conservatives have no sense of humor. They do not understand tongue in cheek or irony. I suspect it is their right wing fundamentalist Christian background.

If Mediaite is paying Liberals per message posted or by the word, Mediate is not getting their money’s worth. Conservatives by far outnumber others here on this site. I would not be surprised to find RickyLeaks and his anti Semitic illuminati postings here are more to your liking J.B.

J Baustian, too bad you have no sense of humor. Your miserable pathetic life is poorer for it. At least I laugh on occasion, including at myself. It is healthy.

“My major complaint is not with the articles. Most are pretty bad.”
So why do you post here or bother with this site? Maybe Breitbart pays you J Baustian per message posted.
Conservatives need to laugh at themselves once in awile. It’s good for you. Self reflection is healthy. Laughter is good. So is satire. Lighten up conservative Francis’!

Nature Freak
billyweeds

Congratulations for making the site work against all odds. There are a few things, however, that are desperately in need of repair in order to make the site a real success.

You are in immediate need of a full-time proofreader. The grammar and spelling mistakes on Mediaite are egregious, constant, and constantly embarrassing. Every story has at least one or two howlers. It’s really amateurish and should be remedied. For the record, I am a professional proofreader myself and would be happy to take on the job. But me or whoever–someone needs to get to work on this. Otherwise, the site will remain a shoddy operation.

Second, I don’t know what happened to make this site so overwhelmingly controlled by right-wingers, but any pretense to a balanced viewpoint is ruined by the likes of Frances Martel and her ilk, who can turn any story into a screed for the lunatic wingnut right. She needs to be reined in, and she’s only one of several.

Third–as a result of the Martellian aspects of the site, you have attracted a huge number of loons on the comment board. Don’t know how you can change this other than by balancing your editorial slant, but something should be done. I am almost nauseated by the craziness of 90 percent of your trolls.

But congratulations anyway!
http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

Congrats to Dan & staff.

What’s most impressive is that you draw these numbers through attraction, rather than promotion.

Like they say, “If you build it, they will come”…and apparently that axiom holds true for more than baseball fields.
http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

billyweeds said:
Congratulations for making the site work against all odds. There are a few things, however, that are desperately in need of repair in order to make the site a real success. You are in immediate need of a full-time proofreader. The grammar and spelling mistakes on Mediaite are egregious, constant, and constantly embarrassing. Every story has at least one or two howlers. It’s really amateurish and should be remedied. For the record, I am a professional proofreader myself and would be happy to take on the job. But me or whoever–someone needs to get to work on this. Otherwise, the site will remain a shoddy operation. Second, I don’t know what happened to make this site so overwhelmingly controlled by right-wingers, but any pretense to a balanced viewpoint is ruined by the likes of Frances Martel and her ilk, who can turn any story into a screed for the lunatic wingnut right. She needs to be reined in, and she’s only one of several. Third–as a result of the Martellian aspects of the site, you have attracted a huge number of loons on the comment board. Don’t know how you can change this other than by balancing your editorial slant, but something should be done. I am almost nauseated by the craziness of 90 percent of your trolls. But congratulations anyway!

Now, to address the Media Matters crowd.

Nice back-handed congratulations you offered there, billyboob. It sounded very sincere.
What do you proof-read, The Communist Manifesto?

Francis Martel? Right Wing? Lunatic wingnut?
I don’t know if that’s more ludicrous or laughable.

Just two things:
What site are you on? – and how much is Soros paying you?
Paul G

NORBIT Jr. said:
Now, to address the Media Matters crowd.

Nice back-handed congratulations you offered there, billyboob. It sounded very sincere.
What do you proof-read, The Communist Manifesto?

Francis Martel? Right Wing? Lunatic wingnut?
I don’t know if that’s more ludicrous or laughable.

Just two things:
What site are you on? – and how much is Soros paying you?

Penny a post.
http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

Paul G said:
Penny a post.

Do they get that penny for posting on the CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN’s sites as well…or are they considered “in-house”?
lol
http://www.hamreport.com/ Leo Ham

I love this site, I really do, I’m here everyday. but stop it with the visit counts.
Skippy

Congratulations to all you folks at MediaITE!
news_junkie

Congrats, Dan. Don’t always…ok rarely ever..agree with your politics, but you have a great site. Keep up the good work.
gaoshu777

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

http://tinyurl.com/6bl2yvk/
Joe Plesko

What the hell is a “Unique Visitor” anyway?
Anne 1

Congratulations all .