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 recent years 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
Total
2012 2012 2013 2013
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views Daily Avg. Page Views Daily Avg.

Overall Site            
NatureNorth Front Page 2008-04-08 36,617 8,251 23 6,680 18
Entire Site (>300 p)
2008-10-07
1,981,143
431,972 1,183 302,260 828
* Estimated All-time: 500 views/day for last 16 years
>5,000,000
(We've been online since 1997!)
 
Government Supported Special Projects
Amphibians of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-08
37,920
8,531 23 5,959 16
Entire Section (30 p)
2008-04-26
264,758
47,808 131 33,907 93
* Estimated over the last 10 years: 100/day
>365,000        
 
Butterflies of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-23
9,367
3,361 9 1,039 3
Entire Section (12 p)
2008-04-26
35,203
9,024 25 3,021 8
* Estimated over the last 8 years: 15/day
>50,000        
 
Dragonflies of Manitoba
Entry Page
2008-10-24
3,112
843 2 529 1
Entire Section (17 p)
2008-04-14
99,100
22,285 61 12,353 34
* Estimated for the last 7 years: 50/day:
>110,000        
 
Save Our Skinks
Entry Page
2008-10-07
3,527
775 2 722 2
Entire Section (14 p)
2008-04-26
26,968
5,469 15 3,302 9
 
Manitoba Herps Atlas
Entry Page 2011-01-11
9,819
3,434 9 2,518 7
Entire Section (12 p)
2009-06-10
53,569
19,289 53 15,148 42
             
Special Features            
Free Press Nature Columns (20 p) 2008-04-08
13,106
1,442 4 1,728 5
Gardening articles (assorted, 9 p) 2009-01-10
25,494
5,912 16 4,191 11
Great Gray Owl (1 p) 2008-10-23
22,996
6,132 17 4,952 14
International Biodiversity Day (5 p) 2008-04-10
21,329
5,214 14 3,222 9
Zoo - Assiniboine Park Zoo (4 p) 2008-04-10
12,888
3,743 10 1,490 4
             
Total
2012 2012 2013 2013
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views Daily Avg. Page Views Daily Avg.

Spring Articles            
Spring Issue Page 2009-03-03 10,433 2,027 6 1,332 4
Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas Promotion (2 p) 2009-10-14 1,659 418
1
333 1
Mourning Cloak Butterfly (2 p) 2008-04-11 39,911 10,212
28
6,379 17
Manitoba's Silk moths (2 p) 2008-04-11 16,426 3,378
9
2,002 5
Garter Snakes in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-11 16,589 1,589
4
835 2
Silk Moths in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-12 4,848 909
2
1,055 3
Wood Frogs in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-11 23,701 3,623
10
2,810 8
Blue-spotted Salamander (2 p) 2008-04-11 12,987 2,202
6
1,935 5
Narcisse Snake Dens Update Page (1 p) 2008-04-21 120,934 22,903
63
27,478 75
Loggerhead Shrikes (1 p) 2008-04-11 3,396 499
1
214 1
White Suckers (2 p) 2008-04-11 12,991 2,218
6
999 3
Wood Frogs (2 p) 2008-04-11 34,166 4,908
13
2,719 7
Frog Log (1 p) 2008-04-11 3,138 303
1
258 1
Blue-eyed Grass (1 p) 2008-04-11 43,192 6,986
19
4,290 12
Prairie Crocus (3 p) 2008-04-11 23,875 6,058
17
3,891 11
Growing Prairie Wildflowers (1 p) 2008-04-11 4,986 779
2
461 1
Gardening with Native Wildflowers (1 p) 2008-04-11 12,356 2,112
6
1,572 4
Pink Lady's Slipper (2 p) 2008-04-11 22,478 2,974
8
1,263 3
Pussy Willows (3 p) 2008-04-11 24,216 3,731
10
2,002 5
Three-flowered Avens (1 p) 2008-04-11 4,444 747
2
375 1
Violets (1 p) 2008-04-11 3,934 612
2
244 1
Frog Calls (1 p) 2008-04-11 228,765 72,944
200
53,403 146

Summer Articles            
Summer Issue page 2009-03-03 5,371 1,197 3 734 2
Thatching Ants (1 p) 2013-05-01 258 0 0 258 1
Butterfly Gardening (1 p) 2008-04-14 3,379 646 2 440 1
Giant Water Bug (1 p) 2008-04-14 35,538 6,973 19 6,164 17
Burn, Prairie, Burn (1 p) 2013-04-01 95 0 0 95 0
Chimney Swifts (1 p) 2009-05-04 991 232 1 55 0
Nocturnal Owl Survey (1 p) 2008-04-14 4,787 792 2 148 0
Owl Calls (1 p) 2008-04-14 44,358 15,863 43 8,398 23
Northern Prairie Skink (2 p) 2008-04-14 11,854 2,137 6 620 2
Dandelion (2 p) 2013-05-01 183 0 0 183 1
Echinacea (2 p) 2009-01-06 5,502 1,269 3 791 2
Summer Fruits (7 p) 2008-04-14 41,362 7,118 20 3,422 9
Giant Hyssop (1 p) 2008-04-14 6,588 1,014 3 790 2
Loon Survey (1 p) 2009-06-10 129 24 0 25 0
Mixed Grass Prairie (1 p) 2008-04-14 3,440 968 3 808 2
Monarch Butterfly (2 p) 2008-04-14 8,839 2,520 7 2,059 6
Poison Ivy (2 p) 2008-04-14 16,588 2,994 8 2,520 7
St. John's Wort (2 p) 2008-12-01 5,695 1,775 5 560 2
Forest Tent Caterpillars (2 p) 2008-04-14 1,784 320 1 188 1
Wild Edibles (1 p) 2009-12-09 1,039 277 1 266 1
Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie (24 p) 2009-01-01 18,752 2,246 6 881 2
Tall Grass Prairie (1 p) 2008-04-14 10,660 2,190 6 999 3
             
Total
2012 2012 2013 2013
Article / Section Name
Tracking From
Page Views
Page Views Daily Avg. Page Views Daily Avg.

Fall Articles            
Fall Issue Page 2009-03-03 6,048 813 2 542 1
Asters (10 p) 2008-04-09 19,041 2,927 8 1,317 4
Belugas (2 p) 2013-07-01 301 160 0 141 0
Fall Colours in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-10 2,197 225 1 80 0
Fall Colours (2 p) 2008-04-10 12,797 2,211 6 842 2
Northern Crayfish (plus Classroom article, 3 p) 2008-04-09 111,204 5,981 16 6,501 18
Wild Cucumber (2 p) 2008-04-10 6,761 723 2 890 2
Leeches (2 p)
2013-09-01 2,263 140 0 2,123 6
Manitoba Mosasaurs (1 p) 2013-09-01 24 0 0 24 0
Night Crawlers (Classroom article, too, 3 p) 2008-04-09 133,377 20,362 56 12,975 36
Predictive Modeling (1 p) 2013-09-01 38 0 0 38 0
White Underwing Moth (2 p) 2008-04-09 2,400 371 1 344 1
             
Winter Articles            
Winter Issue Page 2009-03-03 7,783 1,162 3 861 2
Black Spruce (2 p) 2008-04-14 8,449 1,397 4 1,896 5
Cougars in Manitoba (2 p) 2009-01-19 33,345 10,762 29 4,626 13
Frozen Alive (2 p) 2008-04-14 43,767 8,985 25 7,371 20
Goldenrod Gall Fly (1 p) 2008-04-14 14,680 2,160 6 1,505 4
Roughed Grouse (3 p) 2008-04-14 21,677 5,689 16 6,563 18
Western Hognose Snake Study (1 p) 2008-04-14 4,091 404 1 247 1
Wildlife of Omand's Creek (3 p) 2008-04-14 2,591 285 1 249 1
Painted Turtle Blog (2 p) 2013-10-01 287 0 0 287 1
Snow Snakes (1 p) 2008-04-14 25,322 3,354 9 3,512 10
Tracks in the Snow in the Classroom (1 p) 2008-04-14 2,503 253 1 287 1
Tracks in the Snow (20 p) 2008-04-14 144,102 14,988 41 8,506 23
Winterkill (2 p)
2013-06-14 477 172 0 305 1