Substance Web traffic surpasses all previous records in February 2010 -- 445,904 total 'hits'
Traffic to the SubstanceNews Web site (www.substancenews.net) in February 2010 surpassed all previous months, despite the fact that the month only had 28 days. During the month, the total "hits" (as measured by Network Solutions 'Site Stats') was 402,904 with three days missing. When the average number of hits per day is added to the 25 days that Network Solutions counted, the total number of "hits" was 445,904.
In January and February 2010, Network Solutions support people told Substance, four days of Site Stats were taken down as Network Solutions handled hacker attacks. The main service provided by the company, Web hosting, was not interrupted on those days. Since the "new" Substance site went hot in January 2009, Web traffic has been increasing steadily. The highest previous month had fewer than 400,000 hits (October 2009 at 393,720). Substance ad sales are increasing as a result of the traffic to the Web site. Work on revamping the print edition continues.
Beginning in May 2008, Substance recreated its Web presence. After six months of trial and error, Substance officially began the count, launching the "new" site (www.substancenews.net) on January 1, 2009. Rather than try and redesign the so-called "Old" Substance site (www.substancenews.com), the staff decided to create a new site at www.substancenews.net. Content from the "old" site is still available at www.substancenews.com.
At the January and February 2010 Substance staff meetings, Substance decided as the main objective for 2010 to become the most reliable source of news and analysis about Chicago's public schools while expanding coverage of struggles for public education from across the USA.
In addition to increased overall Web traffic, the SubstanceNews Web site is also increasing so-called "content" — the amount of news and analysis published. In February 2010, SubstanceNews published 86 articles on line, along with 121 photographs. A total of 121 photo captions (which Substance considers "mini articles") were published. All content is copyrighted original material, with full credit given to the writers or photographers. Reprint permission is generally granted to teachers and others for fair use. Commercial publishers are asked to contact Substance for terms.
SubstanceNews is encouraging comments on any of our present or past substancenews.net articles. Anonymous and pseudonymous comments are allowed unless there are reasons for the editor to question the source of the comments. Unlike some sites, comments to www.substancenews.net are posted immediately and questions raised later. It is impossible for comments to be added at www.substancenews.com.
