As I mentioned yesterday, I thought it might be a good idea to give a retrospective on September 2008. This way, readers can get to know not only the top commentators, but also some basic blog stats and figures. I haven’t decided whether I’ll be doing this every month or not, so I’m totally open for any feedback from the Beyond the Rhetoric community. What do you guys think?

Top Commentators

Let’s start the review by acknowledging the top commentators of September 2008. I see some familiar names from last month, but the last few spots in the top five have been supplanted by a couple of Dot Com Pho regulars. Perhaps the most notable name missing from the list is Jorge, a guy who has made the list for several months in a row. I wonder where he went…

  1. Nick – 22 comments
  2. DCR – 21 comments
  3. Betshopboy – 16 comments
  4. Stephen – 9 comments
  5. Ed Lau – 6 comments

Nick and Dan had a pretty close battle there. Both of them duked it out to the very last minute, but Nick managed to come out on top with one more comment than DCR. Congrats!

General Traffic Statistics

While I do get the occasional spike when a post gets submitted to StumbleUpon, blog traffic on Beyond the Rhetoric is generally pretty steady. I can expect right around the same number of visitors each and every day, though weekends can take a slight dip compared to the rest of the week. Here are some of the key stats for September.

  • Total visits: 10,494
  • Total pageviews: 13,945
  • Pages per visit: 1.33
  • Average RSS subscriptions: 273
  • Twitter followers: 309

I managed to blip over the 300 mark for RSS subscribers on a couple of occasions, but I’d really like to see that number consistently over 300. Maybe it’s time to run another contest.

Top Referring Sites

Commentators drive the discussion on blogs, but you’ve got to get the traffic first. A good amount of visitors come from search engines and social media sites, but I’m going to dedicate this section of the review to organic, human-driven sites instead.

  1. the.[ED}ition
  2. LoveToKnow
  3. Writing White Papers
  4. Mobile Magazine
  5. GameTrailers Forums

As you can see, it seems that I drive some traffic back to myself from a couple of my freelance writing clients. While I do comment on other blogs from time to time, perhaps it’s time that I ramp up this effort a little more so that the bloggers may feel more inclined to provide more link juice my way.

Top Blog Posts

Several of my posts may focus on freelance writing and personal development, but I also explore some of my other interests as well. I’ve been told that it is this variety that makes my blog interesting to certain readers and I can certainly appreciate that. Which blog posts got the most traffic last month?

  1. Richmond Night Market 2008
  2. Where’s the Google Phone
  3. How to Open a US Bank Account as a Canadian Citizen
  4. Value of Blogging to Freelancers
  5. Video: Top 10 Best SNES Games Ever

I’d say that’s quite the eclectic mix. Generally, my posts focusing on the business of freelance writing don’t get the most traffic, because they’re not really geared to rank in Google or get picked up by social media sites. As you can tell, the most popular posts seems to the ones that have a better chance of getting ranked in search engines and, not surprisingly, that’s where they derive most of their traffic.

Were there any posts in September that you found particular useful, insightful, or entertaining? I’d love to hear some real feedback from real readers. Thanks in advance and here’s to a happy and healthy October.