UKC

UKClimbing.com Site News

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Each month, in the darkest and deepest recesses of UKClimbing.com user statistics that are logged continually are published in a monthly table so that we can see how the site is growing, or not, as the case maybe.

They tell us which are the most popular bits of the site and how many people are visiting.

UKClimbing.com is a climbing and mountaineering community website open to all, it is also advertiser supported. As well as helping us, these statistics also help our advertisers who are very interested in such numbers, as well as the click-throughs they get in their adverts whether they be Premier Posts, Newsletter adverts or the graphic banners that can be seen on each page. Of course they are very interested in increasing sales (and giving you the best gear, service and prices), the whole point of advertising in the first place.

We thought we would share some of last May's statistics.

First off though, the hard working Nick Smith (UKC profile), who deals with all things technical at UKClimbing.com has news about the Logbook stats, here's what he said,

"The UKC logbooks have grown fast since we started them only 18 months ago. Just had the 250,000th tick logged: More

In comparison, 8a.nu has taken 4 years to reach 500,000 logs, and we expect UKC to overtake them next year. Australian site thecrag.com has taken 8 years to reach 300,000 logs, and rockclimbing.com, the biggest climbing site in the USA, only has 140,000 logs."

I was very happy about our News page views. Last May 2006 we had 36,239 visits (1,169 a day) this May a whopping, 84,818 visits, which works out at 2,736 visits every day.

The UKClimbing.com forums have in the opinion of many media specialists (not just us) the best interface in the business, they aren't just one of those off-the-shelf phpBB 'open source forum solutions' which lack individuality. The UKClimbing.com forums are that well-thought out that we get regular requests off other websites and magazines to purchase them off us.

Some Forum stats for May:

  • Weekly posts average: 17,388
  • Maximum users online at any one time: 500
  • There are a total of 2,142,351 messages in 140,458 threads
  • Forums Weekly IP addresses: 94,199

    Site as a whole stats:

  • Cross site weekly IP addresses for May: 160,384
  • Registered users: 31,868 (you can check it here)

    As regards registered users, this may seem like a modest number, but is almost double 8a.nu's 16,578 members, rockclimbing.com has 62,521 members. Whilst there are some duplicates at UKClimbing.com, the one major difference is that we purge unused memberships on a daily basis (if they haven't been used for a year) so you get a more realistic number of people who actively use UKClimbing.com, rather than pumping up numbers for the benefit of selling advertising.

    Advertisers are also getting more innovative in how they use UKClimbing.com. Price is very important (see the recent spate of deals by many retailers at UKC (see all ads here)) but also is interaction and education. Advertisers want us to make an informed buying decision. This Premier Post (and a recent newsletter advert) by Chris Rowlands at DMM What's happening at DMM? was bravely left open for replies from anyone (we all know how volatile the forums can be sometimes). This type of use of UKClimbing.com allows us to question Chris and DMM about what they have planned, what is imminent, and is a bit like, "Any Questions?" Advertising at UKClimbing.com works, it helps the many climbing businesses, offers us great deals and keeps us informed about the latest gear developments and advertising keeps this site going for the benefit of its users. If you would like to advertise, start by reading this page, Why UKClimbing.com?

    In other news, we now have a new Starting Out forum for beginners and improvers, the Photo gallery is still as popular as ever with over 46,700 photographs, and we are getting up as many articles and reviews up as we can. As regards the Photo galleries, many get emails from climbing magazines, book publishers and other websites asking for paid use of images, just another benefit of UKClimbing.com

    Whilst we are seeing lots of growth and popularity, we are still a small outfit and will have to make some decisions soon in the direction we should take, hopefully with your help. Please let us know, you could start a thread down the forums or add to the one attached to this news report.


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    4 Jun, 2007
    I wouldn't get so complacent about your interface. Two features of PhP or whatever UKB use that are incredibly useful are the ability to embed images with hotlinking or whatever it's called, and the fact that hyperlinks in posts open in a new window or tab, because other wise you lose where you got to when checking links other people have given when browsing the forums if you have to press back. I know you can right click and open in a new window, but that takes way longer. I think many people are glad of the lack of smilies, but I'd implement those two features before you start on some pHp bashing mission. html geeks can show off their skills by posting in bold font, but UKC seems like a decidedly traditional `newspaper letters page' crossed with an old school `bulletin board'/`newsgroup' medium, compared to what you can do on the web now. Disclaimer: this may just be my computer.
    4 Jun, 2007
    tell us what decisions you soon have to make about direction, and then we could comment....
    When discussing any aspect of site design speed and navigation have always been a priority for us, which is why we have opted not to allow imbedded images. Having said that the forums software is continually evolving so it may happen at some point. Thanks for the feedback.
    It’s probably lots of smaller decisions rather than any major change in direction. Here are few topics that are always on the agenda: - What will be our next major application? - Do we expand beyond the UK using domains such as USClimbing.com or EUClimbing.com? - Do we take on the commitment of an office premises with all the traditional associated costs? - How can we continue to deliver content that our users want to access? - How can we retain our users? - How can we be profitable?
    4 Jun, 2007
    pictures in posts can also be a bit lame. Its now so easy to post you pics on the internet for free, then just put the link here, who cares? It just means things load so much faster here. Don't you find all the avatars and stuff on UKB really lame? Isn't it the computer equivalent of having "wacky" socks or a cartoon tie? click the link with the wheel of your mouse, or whilst holding control. Then it opens in a new tab/window. Its that easy.
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