My Stats

Visits to my portfolio per week.

According to Site Stats, my portfolio’s week-by-week performance has been pretty uneven since its launch. Some weeks I did well, reaching up to 50 pageviews. On my worst-performing week, I had 4 views. As you can see in the chart above, it looks like I’ve dropped the ball a few times in the past couple of months. However, the stats also show that lately, I’ve been doing pretty well at keeping traffic up. I’m not sure what I’m doing right, although I have updated it a few times since the site launched.

My Top 5 Posts and Pages (All-Time): Before I talk about which pages and posts got the most views, I just want to say that I am skeptical of these results. I preview constantly when I update the site (which I did a few times in the past couple of months) and sometimes, I use other browsers to see how it all looks. I know that WordPress doesn’t count views made by me, but I think it might be registering views from the other browsers I’m using.

Anyway, here’s the list:

  1. My home page – When the site launched, I spread the word using Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I haven’t really promoted it since then but the I did include the URL in the bio section of all the social media tools I use (LinkedIn, and about.me in addition to the ones I just mentioned). I also include a link to my portfolio in the signature of my email address.
  2. Bio – The “About” section of my Tumblr site links to here.
  3. Resume – I think this made top 3 because I obsessively perfect my resumes and want to make sure it’s working across different browsers.
  4. “Fashion Discussion Dissection: Diversity in Fashion” – This is an old post (from 2008) so there was definitely no social media promotion. At first, I had no idea how this got so many hits. Then I checked what searched terms led to my site…
  5. “Capturing Emotions in Little Egypt” – No promotion for this one either, but it was the first featured story on my home page for a while, so that might have helped it. The currency of the post might have also played a part.

Top 5 Search Terms (Past 30 Days):

  1. journalism dissection articles
  2. reasons for the lack of diversity in the
  3. black girl lisha
  4. education lacks diversity in fashion
  5. lack of diversity in fashion

I have no idea why these terms led to my site, but I now understand how “Fashion Discussion Dissection: Diversity in Fashion” became the 4th most viewed post.

Top 5 Referrers (Past 30 Days):

  1. “About” page in Tumblr (now deleted – using the template’s “about” section instead)
  2. Facebook
  3. Twitter
  4. Google
  5. LinkedIn

Top 5 “Clicks” (Past 30 Days):

  1. My LinkedIn page
  2. The fashion blog post
  3. My story on WNYC about PCB cleanup in public schools
  4. My story in the Mott Haven Herald about the closing of a Catholic high school
  5. My Tumblr

Social Media

My Twitter stats for the month of April

I decided to analyze my Twitter account and used TweetStats to get my monthly stats. According to TweetStats, I sent 3.9 tweets a day, or 106 tweets overall, last month. Most of my tweets were sent on a Monday.

I couldn’t find a tool – or at least a free one – to help me monitor my weekly Twitter activity, so I decided to use May’s stats instead (it’s almost been a week…). According to TweetStats, I’ve sent about 74 tweets this month already, or 18.5 tweets per day. That figure’s a little skewed though — Osama bin Laden’s capture/death occurred May 1st and I was tweeting more than usual. However, the stats did also indicate that I tweeted significantly more in the evening, which was consistent with data from the other months.

The Takeaway:

Analyzing these stats helped me realize how powerful social networks could be. I knew that sharing links on Twitter and Facebook were helpful, but I was impressed with how much traffic they actually brought in. Even though I think the numbers are a little higher than they should be, I still had more views than expected (after I guestimated how many of those views belonged to me).

I also realized that I need to expand my Twitter network. According to TweetStats, the people I replied to the most, and the people who replied to me and retweeted me the most, were personal friends of mine. That’s not a bad thing, but it does mean that I’m probably not using Twitter as professionally as I intended to.

About Lisha Arino

Contact Lisha Arino at arino@motthavenherald.com
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