I’m putting together a giveaway of items,, both big and small, that I’d like my readers to have as a personal way of saying THANK YOU this holiday season.
I don’t really track my blog traffic all that closely. I know that of the hundreds of thousands of visits this blog receives each month, each person comes an average of about four times. But that’s as far as my tracking of these things goes.
I remember way back, after I had been blogging for a year, that my traffic was about 500 visits per day. That was 10 1/2 years ago. Back then I did have an email list of a little more than 1000 people who had signed up to get my posts each day. That sort of encouragement made me feel like what I was doing here was valuable, as was meeting people at frequent flyer get-togethers and having folks tell me that they read the site every day. I appreciate that. I really do love my readers, and I love answering all of the questions that I get every day. I do my best to answer all of the emails that come in.
Randy Petersen emailed me on Friday to let me know that I was rounding towards one million absolute unique visitors over the course of the year. I had no idea.
I mean, I know that each day through a variety of different means — traffic to the blog, email lists, feed subscriptions — that over 30,000 people a day were reading this, I put that number down at the bottom of my posts. In fact now the number is probably more like 40,000. But I always assumed those were the same people. I had no idea that it was more like a million different people checking in here. I love that.
If I had realized earlier I would have reached out to my favorite travel programs and asked them to join me in celebrating by offering points and status. But I didn’t have the lead time for that. Perhaps some time with a future giveaway.
Instead I’m going to clean out my own personal stash, and commit to giving away a minimum of twenty different items to readers though probably more. I’ll do it all in a single giveaway post (or if it becomes too cumbersome, perhaps in two giveaway posts), I won’t drag this out over the course of the whole month. But I do want to personally say thank you — by sharing my miles, by sharing elite status, gift cards, and other items that I can offer you. Because I really do appreciate interacting with you here each and every day.
Coming soon…
- You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Pretty exciting benchmark for you! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time and have no intention of stopping. Best wishes for continued success in 2014.
I only have time for one travel blog a day, so I’m happy to read the best- thanks, Gary!
Thanks! I enjoy your blog very much. Happy holidays!!!
Congrats Gary!
Maybe you ought to get into politics, Gary 😉
Your blog and posts are thoughtful and informative and sometimes just goofy fun. Thanks for all you do!
Congratulations! I read your blog every day and you have and continue to teach me a lot. Thank you.
Ccngrats and here’ s to the next million! A generous gesture indeed, although based on the million figure, I don’t fancy my odds
Congratulations – know that I truly enjoy your blog, and am not surprised that a million others do too. Obviously a winner.
Time to start a new blog? Million Readers Secrets? 🙂
Congratulations Gary! Just one point about Uniques. Often we ARE talking about the same “person” when it may be tha daily/weekly/monthly I hit this site from any one of 3-4 computers and about 2-3 cell phones and 2-3 tablets. I imagine many of your readers are in a similar space from consuming on multiple devices at various times. These usually ALL end up appearing as “uniques” if the tracking cookies aren’t all together together. So, not to minimize the clear strength of the blog I’m not sure I would extrapolate it out as you have. 🙂
Congrats & thanks – I’m a newbie & look forward to your valued info & tips daily.
Congratulations! Unique Visitor Numbers aside, I think the success of your Site (and its draw for “regulars”) is largely the result of your ability and willingness to provide us with so much helpful, understandable guidance on an everyday basis. Reading your Blog has introduced me and my family & friends to so many different ways of approaching travel (and traveling better!) I’d previously never thought of, or thought attainable. So, THANK YOU, truly!
Congrats and thanks for being such a huge help thru your wonderful blogs !!
Get lots of useful advice from you!
Oh, the most valuable thing I have learned is the power of churning for free travel!
Before reading this website I (innocently) had no idea a person could have several credit cards, cancel them frequently, get more, get points and not harm your credit rating. This have been amazing for me and even thought I am still a small time economy class flyer our family has taken several trips that would have been out of reach for us using points and the techniques Gary recommends. Thank you.
Pack personal ID, points earning credit card and the spirit of adventure!
Thanks Gary! I just learned something accidentally today. I had heard that a good way to get the statement credit on the Citi AAdvantage Business Visa, you could book a refundable trip on AA, then cancel it when the credit hits the statement. I still wasn’t positive if this would work, but today when I phoned to cancel, the rep canceled the ticket but further said that, as a courtesy, she’d keep the record locator # open, in case I wanted to come back and rebook. I think that may help ensure that the statement credit doesn’t get clawed back.