Traffic Calming

Today The Sleaze recorded the worst traffic levels for more than five years. We're not just talking about lower than average page views, but a complete collapse in visitor numbers. There is no reason I can see for this, particularly as yesterday it recorded very good figures. Indeed, today's results were far worse than the site usually records over weekends. I really am growing tired of this daily battle to maintain any kind of consistent traffic to the site. If The Sleaze's tenth anniversary wasn't coming up in a couple of months, I'd give up now. However, out of sheer bloody mindedness, I intend making that milestone. Of course, against this background of piss poor traffic, it becomes increasingly difficult to continue producing material for the site. Not only is it dispiriting, but it means that I have to divert my energies away from actually creating new content, to trying to find ways of shoring up site traffic.

So, where do we go from here? I know I've ranted and moaned about declining traffic before, but today's frankly insulting results have genuinely left me questioning the site's future. Sure, it's only one day's results, but these catastrophic dips in traffic are becoming all too common. I really don't have the energy or, to be honest, the interest to keep coming up with new strategies to build traffic. Honestly, if people don't want to read my stuff any more, then I'll just shut up shop. Ten years is a long time to have been producing any publication, let alone a web site. I've had a good run. Certainly longer than most. Whilst I pride myself on the fact that The Sleaze is an 'underground' publication, and have always eschewed chasing the mass readership, these latest traffic stats show us going so far underground that we might as well be dead and buried. Even 'underground' sites need some visitors, otherwise, what's the point?