Mac Musings

40,000 the Hard Way

Daniel Knight - 2002.01.10 -

It was April 1998 when Low End Mac first served up over 120,000 pages in a single month. The site was just a year old. We had sailed past the 40,000 mark to serve 59,000 pages in December 1997.

This week, we've hit the 40,000 mark three days in a row (give or take a few search engines). Over the history of the site, our six busiest days (ranging from 37,000 to 61,000) all took place during the past month - the record being set on December 19, the day Slashdot linked to Linux Lies. That article alone received 16,500 hits the first day it was up and passed the 28,000 mark by the end of December, making it the most read editorial in LEM history and the second most accessed page on the site for the month.

Unlike the day Slashdot came to visit, no single article stands out for having 20-30,000 hits all by itself. In fact, only a single page (excepting the home page) has had over 2,000 hits during a single day this week. That's known as serving up 40,000 pages the hard way.

For comparison, even with a big hit from Slashdot last month, we averaged 29,000 pages per day in December. Other than the day we posted Linux Lies, our busiest day in December was 38,700 hits.

Standouts: Monday's iCab Beats Opera as Fastest Low-end Browser at 1,144 hits the first day, Tuesday's Lament for a Budget iMac at 1,670, and Wednesday's Macworld and the New iMac at 2,033, Say Goodnight, Steve at 1,897, and Joy in iMacville at 1,343.

A few pieces published this week have passed the 2,000 mark over the course of two or more days - the profile of the Flat Panel iMac at 2,300, Macworld and the New iMac G4 G4 at 2,033, and Lament for a Budget iMac at 2,018.

We're not expecting this kind of traffic all month, but we're gratified that so many of you are coming to Low End Mac to get our varied viewpoints on things like classic iMac value, LDC iMac coolness, and iPhoto practicality. And if traffic should somehow continue at this rate, we'll have our first million page month.