CougarAt NATURENORTH.COM we've been tracking our site usage through the Google Adsense program since early 2008. We thought it was about time we let our viewers and supporting agencies know how we're doing. So, we worked up this summary of our various articles and sections, and how often each is being viewed. In essence, we're blowing our own horn about how well NatureNorth is doing in our mission to make Manitobans more aware of their natural heritage. We're hoping this might translate into more support and sponsorship that will let us do more!

Thanks to Manitobans!
Several of our major features were made possible by generous grants from the Government of Manitoba (The Sustainable Development Innovations Fund and the Special Conservation Fund). These features are listed separately below. We like to think that this was taxpayers' money well-spent and we think the numbers presented here bear that out. We hear from Manitobans regularly telling us how much they enjoy NatureNorth and we know a lot of teachers use our site and its major features, like the Amphibians of Manitoba, in their classrooms. By the way, if you're an advertiser, business or agency looking to sponsor/support environmental education in Manitoba drop us a line: Contact NatureNorth.

Explanation of Statistics
The Google Adsense (GA) program allows us to make a little money from our content, which helps to support our efforts to create even more content! When a page with an ad on it is loaded by someone's internet browser GA records that as "1 page view". If that person "clicks" on one of the GA ads it earns us, and them, GA, a few pennies. That is recorded for us to view, too. We can assign tracking channels that allows us to monitor the number of times any single page or group of pages is viewed and how much money those pages make. For some of our major sections, such as The Amphibians of Manitoba, we monitor traffic to the opening or entry page for that section, as well as for the entire section (30 pages in the case of the Amphibians section). Records of visitors to a section entry page give us an idea of how many different people are visiting that section, while the records from the entire section let us know roughly how many pages within the section each visitor is viewing. For most of our smaller articles we simply track the total number of page views for all the pages that article encompasses.

Unfortunately, we are not yet able to track the precise origin of all our site visitors. This would give us a better picture of how well we are reaching Manitobans with our information. (We certainly don't mind if people from outside Manitoba are interested in the amazing natural heritage we have here, but our primary focus has always been to make Manitobans more aware of the nature and biodiversity that surrounds them.) Advanced tracking in place on our front page suggests that perhaps 1/3 of our overall traffic comes from Manitoba, another 1/3 from other parts of Canada and about 1/3 from the United States and the rest of the world. Though some of our features that deal specifically with Manitoba flora and fauna (Amphibians, Butterflies, Dragonflies of Manitoba) likely are being viewed more by Manitobans than anyone else.

Table Legend
In the table below the following information is provided: the name of the article or section (with a link to it), the number of pages in the section or article (# p), the date when we started tracking that article (Tracking From), the total number of page views recorded since tracking started (Total Page Views), then the total page views per year and daily averages for 2009 and 2010 separately.

And don't forget, even though we've only had extensive tracking capabilities since 2008, NatureNorth has been online since 1997. So we took some liberties and made some estimates of the total page views for some of our longer running features. You can take these numbers with a grain of salt if you like, but we're pretty proud of how much information we're getting out to Manitobans and to the world.


NatureNorth.com Visitor Statistics for 2009 - 2010
Total
2010
2010
2011 2011
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views
Daily Avg.
Page Views Daily Avg.

Overall Site            
NatureNorth Front Page 2008-04-08 28,366 8,145 22.3
7,875
22
Entire Site (>300 p)
2008-10-07 1,246,911 407,102 1,115.3
411,537
1,127
* Estimated All-time: 500 views/day for last 12 years
>2,000,000        
 
Government Supported Special Projects
Amphibians of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-08
23,430
6,156 16.9
9,908
27
Entire Section (30 p)
2008-04-26
183,043
45,487 124.6
56,983
156
* Estimated over the last 10 years: 100/day
>365,000        
 
Butterflies of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-23
7,205
1,369 3.8
2,218
6
Entire Section (12 p)
2008-04-26
23,158
5,491 15.0
6,651
18
* Estimated over the last 6 years: 15/day
>33,000        
 
Dragonflies of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-24
2,269
615 1.7
938
3
Entire Section (17 p)
2008-04-14
64,462
17,559 48.1
21,581
59
* Estimated for the last 5 years: 50/day:
>91,000        
 
Save Our Skinks
Entry Page
2008-10-07
2,752
909 2.5
671
2
Entire Section (14 p)
2008-04-26
18,197
5260 14.4
4,997
14
 
Manitoba Herps Atlas
Entry Page 2011-01-11
3,867
0 0
3,867
11
Entire Section (12 p)
2009-06-10
19,132
1360 3.7
17,489
48
             
Special Features            
Free Press Nature Columns (20 p) 2008-04-08
9,936
1948 5.3
1,625
4
Gardening articles (assorted, 9 p) 2009-01-10
15,409
6102 16.7
4,713
13
Great Gray Owl (1 p) 2008-10-23
11,912
4021 11.0
4,724
13
International Biodiversity Day (5 p) 2008-04-10
12,893
4962 13.6
4,282
12
Zoo - Assiniboine Park Zoo (4 p) 2008-04-10
7,655
2988 8.2
2,674
7
             
Total
2010
2010
2011 2011
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views
Daily Avg.
Page Views Daily Avg.

Spring Articles            
Spring Issue Page 2009-03-03
7,074
2,436 6.7
2,002
5
Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas Promotion (2 p) 2009-10-14
617
337 0.9
178
0.5
Mourning Cloak Butterfly (2 p) 2008-04-11
23,320
6,429 17.6
7,744
21
Manitoba's Silk moths (2 p) 2008-04-11
11,046
2,642 7.2
2,078
6
Garter Snakes in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-11
10,798
3,367 9.2
2,257
6
Silk Moths in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-12
2,884
699 1.9
795
2
Wood Frogs in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-11
17,268
4,575 12.5
4,539
12
Blue-spotted Salamander (2 p) 2008-04-11
8,850
2,248 6.2
1,681
5
Narcisse Snake Dens Update Page (1 p) 2008-04-21
40,156
19,902 54.5
16,283
45
Loggerhead Shrikes (1 p) 2008-04-11
3,162
911 2.5
770
2
White Suckers (2 p) 2008-04-11
9,774
2,565 7.0
2,853
8
Wood Frogs (2 p) 2008-04-11
26,539
6,008 16.5
5,889
16
Frog Log (1 p) 2008-04-11
2,835
680 1.9
399
1
Blue-eyed Grass (1 p) 2008-04-11
31,916
8,852 24.3
6,755
19
Prairie Crocus (3 p) 2008-04-11
13,926
4,963 13.6
4,356
12
Growing Prairie Wildflowers (1 p) 2008-04-11
3,746
925 2.5
583
2
Gardening with Native Wildflowers (1 p) 2008-04-11
8,672
2,311 6.3
1,803
5
Pink Lady's Slipper (2 p) 2008-04-11
18,241
5010 13.7
4,948
14
Pussy Willows (3 p) 2008-04-11
18,483
4290 11.8
3,366
9
Three-flowered Avens (1 p) 2008-04-11
3,322
928 2.5
808
2
Violets (1 p) 2008-04-11
3,078
647 1.8
765
2
Frog Calls (1 p) 2008-04-11
102,418
24,835 68.0
55,917
153
             
Summer Articles            
Summer Issue page 2009-03-03
3,440
1,113 3.0
1,099
3
Butterfly Gardening (1 p) 2008-04-14
2,293
575 1.6
429
1.5
Giant Water Bug (1 p) 2008-04-14
22,401
5,751 15.8
6,389
18
Chimney Swifts (1 p) 2009-05-04
704
246 0.7
249
1
Nocturnal Owl Survey (1 p) 2008-04-14
3,847
619 1.7
663
2
Owl Calls (1 p) 2008-04-14
20,097
4,458 12.2
13,015
36
Northern Prairie Skink (2 p) 2008-04-14
9,097
2,302 6.3
1,996
5
Echinacea (2 p) 2009-01-06
3,442
1,516 4.2
1,017
3
Summer Fruits (7 p) 2008-04-14
30,822
7,366 20.2
7,746
21
Giant Hyssop (1 p) 2008-04-14
4,784
1,248 3.4
1,268
3
Loon Survey (1 p) 2009-06-10 80 21 0.1
15
0.1
Mixed Grass Prairie (1 p) 2008-04-14
1,664
469 1.3
604
2
Monarch Butterfly (2 p) 2008-04-14
4,260
900 2.5
1,000
3
Poison Ivy (2 p) 2008-04-14
11,074
3,497 9.6
2,043
6
St. John's Wort (2 p) 2008-12-01
3,360
1,117 3.1
1,483
4
Forest Tent Caterpillars (2 p) 2008-04-14
1,276
211 0.6
137
0.5
Wild Edibles (1 p) 2009-12-09
496
221 0.6
259
1
Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie (24 p) 2009-01-01
15,625
5,147 14.1
3,775
10
Tall Grass Prairie (1 p) 2008-04-14
6,234
2,210 6.1
1,864
5
             
Total
2010
2010
2011 2011
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views
Daily Avg.
Page Views Daily Avg.

Fall Articles            
Fall Issue Page 2009-03-03
4,693
1,703 4.7
922
3
Asters (10 p) 2008-04-09
14,797
3,555 9.7
3,874
11
Fall Colours in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-10
1,892
308 0.8
243
1.5
Fall Colours (2 p) 2008-04-10
9,744
2,091 5.7
2,846
8
Northern Crayfish (plus Classroom article, 3 p) 2008-04-09
98,722
36,585 100.2
3,434
9
Wild Cucumber (2 p) 2008-04-10
5,148
1,068 2.9
985
3
Night Crawlers (Classroom article, too, 3 p) 2008-04-09
100,040
23,136 63.4
23,269
64
White Underwing Moth (2 p) 2008-04-09
1,685
309 0.8
574
2
             
Winter Articles            
Winter Issue Page 2009-03-03
5,760
2,613 7.2
1,864
5
Black Spruce (2 p) 2008-04-14
5,156
1,211 3.3
1,127
3
Cougars in Manitoba (2 p) 2009-01-19
17,957
5,871 16.1
8,955
25
Frozen Alive (2 p) 2008-04-14
27,411
7,424 20.3
9,261
25
Goldenrod Gall Fly (1 p) 2008-04-14
11,015
3,033 8.3
2,554
7
Roughed Grouse (3 p) 2008-04-14
9,425
2,379 6.5
3,195
9
Western Hognose Snake Study (1 p) 2008-04-14
3,440
999 2.7
523
1.5
Wildlife of Omand's Creek (3 p) 2008-04-14
2,057
544 1.5
394
1
Snow Snakes (1 p) 2008-04-14
18,456
7,040 19.3
4,731
13
Tracks in the Snow in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-14
1,963
629 1.7
326
1
Tracks in the Snow (20 p) 2008-04-14
120,608
50,309 137.8
28,460
78