BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Tomorrow is Father’s Day. And based on the base we’re building up here, it’s safe to say this holiday should be second only to Christmas when it comes to gift subscription sales.
So far, so good: We’ve processed 113 Father’s Day gift subscriptions in the two weeks since we began offering customized cards. That’s not spectacular, and it isn’t close to our Christmas pace, but it’s also a legit bump and highly encouraging going into the future.
Here’s where to get one.
Thanks so much to all who already have, by the way. And please, by all means, feel free to share in comments under this post any reaction your dad might have. Would love to hear it..
• For the past three months, these have been our total page views, finally including our app figues as well: 489,886 in March, 511,599 in April, 478,578 in May. That puts us about a half-million average per month, which makes us more than happy. And the dip from April to May means next to nothing, as the Penguins’ immense popularity makes such a difference.
Oh, and these statistics are drawn from Google Analytics, the industry’s gold standard for measuring such stuff.
• Matt Gajtka has begun the hard process of aligning our coverage this fall for Pitt football and basketball, Penn State football, West Virginia football, Duquesne basketball and Robert Morris basketball and hockey. We’ll hold off on any announcements about his choices until we’re much closer to kickoff in late August, but he sure sounds excited already.
• There probably isn’t any good way to say this, but I’ll say it, anyway: It’s been at least a little odd that, out of every 20 people who approach us about wanting to work for the site, an estimated 19 aren’t subscribed and, thus, haven’t read any of what we’ve written. And I know this because, in most cases, it’s been the one and only question I’ve asked.
It’s a free country and all, and the last thing I’d do is extort subscriptions out of potential applicants, so please keep this in context. But now that we’re pretty far along in the process, I can freely share with you that we’re very proud to have added people all along who have believed in what we’re doing from Day 1.
• This one is solely for those who senselessly squawk about soccer coverage, but my column from the Riverhounds-D.C. United match almost doubled the page views of my Pirates column from PNC Park two nights earlier. And the difference was even more pronounced among our app readers, who trend younger.
What made this surprising to me, beyond the obvious, was that, at least in my view, the piece on the Pirates involved a ton more effort and ended up better in quality.
If you don’t like soccer, that’s just wonderful. No one will ram it down your throat. No other coverage will suffer. Our coverage of the Riverhounds has absolutely zero impact on what we invest into the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates or anything else. So just scroll right past it. Your life will continue uninterrupted by either this evil sport or those diabolical Commies who created it.
In the interim, we’ll keep doing right by those who follow Pittsburgh’s soccer club, and we’ll keep enjoying the additional traffic and subscriptions that result.
Seem fair?
• Our one-year anniversary Lunatic Bash will be July 18 at Highmark Stadium. Any subscriber attending gets two free tickets to that night’s match between the Riverhounds and Louisville City FC. More details as we get closer. And no, it’s not limited to those with Lunatic Level — or three-year — subscriptions. All subscribers are welcome.
• We never stop selling standard gift subscriptions. Click the box below for all options:
• If you are an active-duty military member or a veteran — or if you know one — let it be known that subscriptions to this site are free. Click the box below:
As a reminder: We take care of all active-duty military and always will. Our veteran subscriptions are funded by donations. Click the same box if you’d like to contribute.
• Our merchandise shop now has clothing, mugs, mousepads, flash drives and more:
• If you haven’t downloaded yet, here is our app for iPhone/iPad. And the app for Android. Overall app count: 9,363 active downloads from Apple, 3,503 from Android.
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 12,414 paid subscriptions. We’ll turn 11 months old on Tuesday. Our first-year goal — 10,000 — was topped in early April.
• If you can’t figure out something related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email [email protected]
• Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support.
Graphic -- DALI KOVACEVIC
June 20, 2015
Saturday site stuff: Happy Father’s Day!
by Dejan Kovacevic • Site stuff • Saturday site stuff
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Tomorrow is Father’s Day. And based on the base we’re building up here, it’s safe to say this holiday should be second only to Christmas when it comes to gift subscription sales.
So far, so good: We’ve processed 113 Father’s Day gift subscriptions in the two weeks since we began offering customized cards. That’s not spectacular, and it isn’t close to our Christmas pace, but it’s also a legit bump and highly encouraging going into the future.
Here’s where to get one.
Thanks so much to all who already have, by the way. And please, by all means, feel free to share in comments under this post any reaction your dad might have. Would love to hear it..
• For the past three months, these have been our total page views, finally including our app figues as well: 489,886 in March, 511,599 in April, 478,578 in May. That puts us about a half-million average per month, which makes us more than happy. And the dip from April to May means next to nothing, as the Penguins’ immense popularity makes such a difference.
Oh, and these statistics are drawn from Google Analytics, the industry’s gold standard for measuring such stuff.
• Matt Gajtka has begun the hard process of aligning our coverage this fall for Pitt football and basketball, Penn State football, West Virginia football, Duquesne basketball and Robert Morris basketball and hockey. We’ll hold off on any announcements about his choices until we’re much closer to kickoff in late August, but he sure sounds excited already.
• There probably isn’t any good way to say this, but I’ll say it, anyway: It’s been at least a little odd that, out of every 20 people who approach us about wanting to work for the site, an estimated 19 aren’t subscribed and, thus, haven’t read any of what we’ve written. And I know this because, in most cases, it’s been the one and only question I’ve asked.
It’s a free country and all, and the last thing I’d do is extort subscriptions out of potential applicants, so please keep this in context. But now that we’re pretty far along in the process, I can freely share with you that we’re very proud to have added people all along who have believed in what we’re doing from Day 1.
• This one is solely for those who senselessly squawk about soccer coverage, but my column from the Riverhounds-D.C. United match almost doubled the page views of my Pirates column from PNC Park two nights earlier. And the difference was even more pronounced among our app readers, who trend younger.
What made this surprising to me, beyond the obvious, was that, at least in my view, the piece on the Pirates involved a ton more effort and ended up better in quality.
If you don’t like soccer, that’s just wonderful. No one will ram it down your throat. No other coverage will suffer. Our coverage of the Riverhounds has absolutely zero impact on what we invest into the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates or anything else. So just scroll right past it. Your life will continue uninterrupted by either this evil sport or those diabolical Commies who created it.
In the interim, we’ll keep doing right by those who follow Pittsburgh’s soccer club, and we’ll keep enjoying the additional traffic and subscriptions that result.
Seem fair?
• Our one-year anniversary Lunatic Bash will be July 18 at Highmark Stadium. Any subscriber attending gets two free tickets to that night’s match between the Riverhounds and Louisville City FC. More details as we get closer. And no, it’s not limited to those with Lunatic Level — or three-year — subscriptions. All subscribers are welcome.
• We never stop selling standard gift subscriptions. Click the box below for all options:
• If you are an active-duty military member or a veteran — or if you know one — let it be known that subscriptions to this site are free. Click the box below:
As a reminder: We take care of all active-duty military and always will. Our veteran subscriptions are funded by donations. Click the same box if you’d like to contribute.
• Our merchandise shop now has clothing, mugs, mousepads, flash drives and more:
• If you haven’t downloaded yet, here is our app for iPhone/iPad. And the app for Android. Overall app count: 9,363 active downloads from Apple, 3,503 from Android.
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 12,414 paid subscriptions. We’ll turn 11 months old on Tuesday. Our first-year goal — 10,000 — was topped in early April.
• If you can’t figure out something related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email [email protected]
• Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support.