2012 A Report to Readers of the Westchester Amateur Winemakers Blog. Happy New Year!

As the New Year begins we like to look back at the past year and review the success of the Westchester Amateur Winemakers Club Blog.  We do it for a few reasons.  One it validates the energy we put into keeping it going.  Another reason, with all the horrible and frankly inaccurate information on the leading winemaking forums such as WinemakingTalk.com, all we can wish is to see progress in our efforts to be the go-to blog on the internet for honest and accurate advice for serious Amateur Winemakers.  Instead of being misled by the fakers who permeate existing forums, why shouldn’t this be the place to be?  After all, the best of the lot of serious Amateur Winemakers already post here.  For those who are new or those who don’t know, when we started this Blog I had my doubts about it being successful.  It takes some balls even Marty himself has some modesty.  The ability to not be always be correct about everything and admit it takes something too. Or just the idea of being presumptuous enough to think you can have a blog and anyone would bother to pay attention to it is reason enough to question whether to do it.  But then again reflecting, after spending a tremendous effort being part of Winepress.us in a big way,  it was apparent to me serious Amateurs needed their own special place without the stupidity of phony moderators,  who most don’t make wine in the first place, who regulate discussion and subject matter when they have little or no knowledge of what they speak..  Did I need motivation? No that was reason enough and I am glad I listened to Anthony Forte.  Anthony who manages the technical side of the blog and the one who encouraged me to take on this endeavor assured me it would be a success.  Year after year his prediction has become more and more true.  The success this year tops all others.  Here are some of the statistics for the 2012 Year. They are impressive.

Let’s  look at some facts.  The Blog contains 470 Blog Posts with 2843 Comments in 21 Categories with 1130 searchable Tags.  In 2012 we had visitors from 112 Countries on all the Continents. We had a total of 28,872 visitors with 11,141 visiting at least once.  These visitors created 114,000 Page Views with the incredible average of 2.23 minutes for each visit. I am no expert but I am told by Anthony Forte who happens to be in the business of website optimization.  He reports it is even more astounding the low 3.38% Bounce Rate. That is, those who landed per chance on the blog but did not stay.   35% of all Visitors were new.  Anthony tells me the last 3 statistics represent incredible numbers for website optimization which Website Managers would kill for in their own commercial accounts.  Anthony uses our blog in his business presentations as a model to demonstrate our blog as an example of a highly successful website for others to recognize as a mark of achievement they too should look to achieve.  Holy Cow!  Wow!   Hey we must be doing something right.  I hope so and those of you who contribute I hope you will continue to make it better.   We have a good thing here and it is unique.

Consider further,  our Referral Traffic, those winemakers who visit from other winemaking sites who’s sites consider us as the enemy, these visitors found  us from direct contact from those close minded sites,  and this might get the site managers panties in a bunch, but it really gives me a sense of personal satisfaction to whoop their ass.  A whopping 26% of traffic was referred by Winepress.us and Winemakingtalk.com  despite efforts by them to expunge any references on their forums about this blog.  When will they get it? Censorship doesn’t work.  Get over it Joel and Wade, we are here to stay. Learn to live with us. We are here for the serious Amateur Winemaker, not advertising dollars you pocket.  Anthony is correct  their Forum architectures are outdated as is their over bearing close minded content control which turns so many off.  More importantly for winemakers, their search functions are horrible.  Ours is superior hands down.

Further proof,  the Page Landing and Search Traffic parameters are impressive.  Besides the home page of the blog the two top pages found from an internet search was the Brix Chart which Greg Perrucci provided. The second was the post on Poor Man’s Enolmaster or Rich Man’s Enolmatic. Too bad Greg can’t find his way here.  I have tried repeatedly. I have not given up.  Come to the other side Greg.

This year also marked the Blog having the honor to have the very top Amateur Winemakers in the Hobby join as contributors and posters.  I thank them all for their participation.   And congratulations to all our Medal Winners in competitions we respect such as the M&M Grape Co. Competition.

Let’s  continue the trend in 2013 and make the WestchesterWinemakers.com Blog the place to be to get the best information on serious Amateur Winemaking and have some fun too while we are at it.

Thanks  Guys!!!  You all deserve the credit.  Happy New Year!