Mercury One charity hits the $1m-raised mark for Oklahoma Tornado relief

Watch Live: Second House Hearing on IRS Scandal

Media

TheBlaze hits traffic milestone with nine million visitors in August!

Sep. 8, 2012 5:05pm Scott Baker

We are kicking off the third year of TheBlaze with a quick look at how we finished year two.

With a 9-million visitor bang.

Before we explain that news…a brief reminder of how we got here.

And it starts with a bad prediction. We launched TheBlaze on a Monday night — August 30, 2010.

We had a staff of four people.

I had predicted that we would see 2-4 million page views in the first month.

It wasn’t a random guess. I knew from my involvement in other popular news sites what kind of traffic we might expect. I knew the impact of, say, Glenn Beck mentioning a story on radio or TV (or linking to it in his email newsletter).

I believed if we worked hard me might be averaging 8-10 million pages views after a year.

But I was wildly wrong.

Instead of two million page views in the first month — we did closer to two million page views on the first day. And the traffic just never stopped. By the end of September we were getting close to 40 million page views. Most readers won’t care too much about “absolute unique” visitors. But it’s an important figure in the web world. We topped 2.2 million unique visitors (Google Analytics) that first month. About what the Daily Beast was doing after their first year — only we had a fraction of their staff and budget. Probably a single digit fraction.

We’ve chugged along pretty quickly since then. We ended year two with 17 people on our editorial staff.

Hitting nine million “absolute unique visitors” (Omniture) this past month was a great milestone. To us it’s not just matter of numbers, it’s a sign that you are finding value in each visit to TheBlaze. The Google metrics show that you are reading lots of stories and spending tons of time on the site (an average visit duration of over 11 minutes).

Having more than quadrupled our audience in just two years (comScore shows us to be far larger than long established news sites like RealClearPolitics or The Hill), gives us terrific momentum to expand the range and energy of our coverage.

I should note that these numbers do not yet include the enormous traffic to TheBlaze TV (the former GBTV). The brand merger will only turbocharge our acceleration. The coming launch of TheBlaze Radio Network will also be a force multiplier for us.

The growth of TheBlaze Magazine and our e-book initiatives will continue to expand our publishing impact.

We saw tremendous traffic surges during our in-depth coverage of both conventions — we take that as a sign of your trust that more and more TheBlaze is where you turn for the important and breaking news each day. We’re humbled by the enormous support we have seen for TheBlaze since day one.

And we’re just getting started.

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (27)

annie1948
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 6:24pm
So sorry I did that to you… I have over 2000 Facebook friends and have been sharing your stories all over the place, then they share, and then… well, now you have too many hits? Want me to stop?

Report this comment
Buchanan16
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 11:22am
Usually I prioritize my tabs from left to right, left being the most important, right being least important, and TheBlaze is always on my left most tab! Great job guys, you really deserve it. Thank God Glenn turned the site into a convenient hub with everything I need from Mercury.
Thank you.

Report this comment
SweetLiberties
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:31am
Congratulations! Affirmation of your continued growth is greatly comforting since I am also a happy daily visitor and am proud to say so. :)

Report this comment
bpodlesnik
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:10am
Congratulations to all the hard workers who make TheBlaze and TheBlazeTV happen. I come here daily to read, and other than talk radio (Rush, Savage, Miller, Levin, etc) it’s where I rely on getting my information. I think Real News does a phenomenal job. Will, S.E., Buck, Amy, and whoever is the 5th person that night, you guys rock. I have learned a tremendous amount about political issues, what’s happening inside the U.S.A and also what’s happening outside of the U.S.A, I am hopeful that you continue to grow and are able to hire more and expand to reach more people across the nation.

Report this comment
karencole
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:08am
I’m on it all day, I hit refresh at least 20 times a day. Great job Glenn!!

Report this comment
Bri_Ann
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 6:53am
Congratulations and keep up the good work! We are out there!

Report this comment
FreedomCat
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:15am
I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already. Love the Blaze and Blaze TV. Great job Glenn and all of his associates!

Report this comment
NeptunusRex
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 11:27pm
The Blaze Radio Network?? More info please!!!

Report this comment
Cosmos102
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 11:20pm
I depend on the Blaze. Congrats and my sincere thanks.

Report this comment
Annika2011
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 11:04pm
Congratulations Glenn, Scott, and everyone at the Blaze!
I read about a dozen news sites every day but,
I begin and end with the Blaze.
Thank you.

Report this comment
otisfam
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 10:50pm
Congratulations on the success! I visit The Blaze every day for my news fix and I enjoy the variety of stories from hard hitting news to fun and silly stuff. I think variety is important! I love The Blaze TV but I agree that there are some viewing issues. I have a Roku device and sometimes cannot view shows and have to go get my ipad or laptop. I wish you guys were on Direct TV!

Great quality writing and I also LOVE The Real News. Sometimes when I only have time for one show at night I watch it over Glenn’s show. (Shhh.)

Will Cain has McDreamy ****.. LOL my husband even thinks so. Quote “wow that guy has some ****”. In all seriousness the whole Real News team is smart, fun to watch and dynamic.

Looking forward to watching and reading The Blaze and seeing how you continue to grow!

Report this comment
Wool-Free Vision
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 9:47pm
Congratulations, and thanks for 2 great years of dependable content that fits my interests perfectly.

Also, your efforts at achieving a higher standard of quality in the proofreading department have not gone unnoticed and are much appreciated.

One request: If possible, I would love to be able to access a more comprehensive list of my own comments from my user profile. A ten comment history is certainly helpful and appreciated, but a hundred would be ten times better, and a complete list would be absolutely awesome.

Thanks again for all the work you all put into my favorite website. Here’s hoping for many more years of The Blaze exceptionalism!

Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 9:15pm
YAY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chpGM5gHCxI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Report this comment
AllAmericanGirl22
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 8:50pm
Congrats Blaze, you all have an awesome sight. This is the only news sight I go to (except for FOX and Drudge occasionally) But The Blaze is the BEST!

Report this comment
Annika2011
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 8:35pm
Congratulations Glenn, Scott, and everyone at the Blaze!
I visit about a dozen news sites every day but,
I begin and end my news with you.
Thank you.

Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 8:28pm
This is good. Glad to have been a pencil in part of it.

Report this comment
Comeandtakeit
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 8:10pm
I don’t have the first clue about how computer thingys work but I know enough to click on The Blaze and enjoy and become informed about the latest news several times a day. You are doing a wonderful job of keeping us informed and I love coming here to read your information

Report this comment
No Grass
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 6:33pm
(continued)
C) You are grounded in Americana and traditions (a good thing). It is so important to maintain a social connection and commonality to your audience.
D) Keep up the good work!

Report this comment
WireWizard
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 6:30pm
The Blaze is the only news site I visit, other than linked stories.
When someone shows me a wild story, I check The Blaze. If it isn’t on The Blaze, it didn’t happen

Report this comment
- USALOVER2011
  Posted on September 8, 2012 at 7:35pm
  Hahahaha, yeah I know right? I do the same thing…The Blaze is the BEST news site ever created. When I tell my friends about a breaking news, they would ask me where I heard the news from. So again, I would tell them it’s on the Blaze “look it up”. I am so proud to be one of those nine million visitors.
  Congratulations Mr. Beck and to all of your staff. You guys deserve it!!!
  
  Report this comment
No Grass
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 6:29pm
Mr. Baker, I’m a heavy TheBlaze consumer. To better the viewing and interaction, I offer this critique (bad shoe):
A) The transition to TheBlaze from GBTV has brought viewing problems (using Explorer and Firefox). I’ve found Firefox work-arounds, but still am unable to view TheBlazeTV from certain Explorer environments. Had no problems when it was GBTV.
B) The pop-ups and banners are almost to the point of having to cancel my subscription. If it wasn’t for Firefox and Ghostery, I would not be an TheBlaze customer.
C) Though some days are slow news days, I think you should be more careful of flippant content. Try to find more meaningful content for your TheBlaze customers on slow news days. In essence, quit looking like the Huff-Po. Spell checking and review for the use of articles would help readability.
D) The Live-Blaze-Cast events are extremely painful. I made it through maybe an half-hour of two Blaze-Casts…Never again. I recommend producing something, vs. try anything.

The other (good shoe):
A) Thank you for TheBlaze. You generally do a great job and are filling a void for news, and sometimes meaningful information. The reader can tell that you try, and care.
B) You stay fairly current and contemporary. Mostly, thank you for updates and follow-up. Too many news outlets/threads do not follow-up as events and information changes. Please, do not get lazy as you grow.
(continued)

Report this comment
Red-Long-Braid
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 5:36pm
I’m so happy for The Blaze!! Way to go Glenn, Scott and the amazing crew :-)
I pray every morning and every night for you guys, you are leading the way out of darkness.
Thank you for all you do.
God bless you all…

Report this comment
www.TopTheNews.com
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 5:36pm
Good work, I hope to be there some day…Good selection and good discussions-it always makes a website fun to go to.

Report this comment
AmericanLass
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 5:17pm
Great job for a great site. This is the place I come to for any of the current stories of the day. why, because I know its accurate, it has to be or it will be attacked by the left. You can’t trust other sites because they write anything they want and no one calls them on it. We will let those on the right know when they are off base and know that there will be a retraction if they are wrong.

Report this comment
ccosoc
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 5:11pm
Build the system for more traffic. Things are just starting.

Report this comment
meaziz
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 5:09pm
Fantastic news… Go Glenn….

Report this comment

Comments are closed.

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.

« Back to The Blaze