There’s a flattering story in today’s P-I about local blogs and how Slog leads the pack.
Sure, it was built on the success of Seattle’s popular alternative weekly, but Slog, chatty little sister to The Stranger, stands on its own as one of the most popular blogs in the city, with 3,000 RSS subscribers and 725,000 page views in March alone. Thirty-five regular contributors cover political scandals, nuggets of neighborhood silliness and what went down on “The Colbert Report” last night in the snarky, racy tone that has made parents steer tykes away from The Stranger’s newsstands since 1991. Always good for a smirk, the two-year-old Slog picked up street cred among local news outlets with its insider coverage of last year’s Capitol Hill massacre. The diversity of topics and seemingly incessant posting—five per hour is not unheard of—gets readers checking back.
I gave the reporter our readership numbers and hoped to get a peek at the same stats from other local blogs in return (finally! a hard indicator of how we’re doing versus our peers), but Slog’s were the only numbers that made it into the piece.
Slog’s birth and healthy adolescence resulted from relentless efforts by dozens of brave and prolific writers. Self-congratulation is frowned upon here (thank Savage and his Catholic upbringing), but dammit, I’m proud of us.
And of course, a blog with no readers is pretty much impotent—it’s you all that have made this blog such a success. Thank you for reading, for adding your comments, and for tolerating the disgusting stuff, the softcore porn, the petty whining, the narcissism, and that Donnie Davies period. We’re grateful for every one of you (except Shoshana).
You deserve the accolades. It's an addicting blog. Thank you!
Heckuva job, SLOGgie...
Slog is the best! I stare at a computer screen all day long...I like that you update a million times a day. It keeps me from going completely insane...Seriously, good job.
Good job! Monica Guzman's blog at the PI is AWESOME. I think it's the 2nd best blog in Seattle. She's done some great blog reporting -- she did a very good story about sexism at Chop Suey a month or so ago that I wish other outlets picked up.
Also, I know this isn't what you are looking for, but compete.com is fun to compare traffic numbers. Note the nosedive in traffic for seattleweekly.com starting Jan '07.
This is a dangerous place for anyone who spends a lot of time at the computer and is inclined to procrastinate.
To some it may be dangerous, but to others it's frackin' paradise.
SLOG is a wonderful diversion for anyone with ADD, too!
@5 Jamier OF COURSE the Stranger has way more traffic. It's not even a contest at all! The Weekly website is blatantly inferior. I didn't even know they had a blog. But you have make sure we all see the numbers. Didn't I just read that "self-congratulation is frowned upon here"? Why the constant paranoia?
So I'm looking at the chart. Didn't the Stranger have a bigger nosedive in January?
Does this mean you're taking ownership of the Slog contents now? Will you be held liable for anything Stranger staffers post on the Slog? Just wondering.
And since when do you frown on self-congratulations? Eli and Josh must be receiving RSI treatment from throwing bouquets at themselves on a weekly basis.
Kleenex?
The Weekly blog blows. It seems like the music section is either all about Modest Mouse or Sub Pop records. The sports section focuses on the team nobody in Seattle cares about--the Sonics.
If Slog posts five times an hour, the Weekly is lucky to post five times a day--and never on the weekend.
We'll throw down. 18,963 PV in March. Boo yaah. Slog got 39.5507x more traffic.
On more important note, Monica asked a few of us what's up with Seattle's blog "community." I said there wasn't really one but the leader of the pack is the Slog. I'm guessing a few others said the same thing. The Slog is a great voice for the city.
"I said there wasn't really one but the leader of the pack is the Slog."
and our leader of the leader of the pack is...
FNARF
Slog is my little bit of home that I can access anywhere.
As a representative of "people in jobs that mostly involve sitting in a cubicle with nothing to do, but are blocked from games or streaming video," I'm very grateful for the Slog. Even though I live in DC and have never been to Seattle, I was practically biting my nails over the viaduct vote. (And I watch the Youtube links when I go home.)
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That reporter greatly impressed me a few weeks ago with an article about myspace/internet predator hysteria in the press and telling people to chill out and give kids some credit. Great to see something like that in the PI!