The Diary: facts update

At the three and a half years point since the launch of the Kilcullen Diary, it seems a worthwhile time to look at some facts and figures relating to the service.

The current visitor rate has increased by 28 percent from this time last year, while the number of pages read has gone up by 37 percent. More than 89,000 pages were read in the last 12 months.

There are now in excess of 2,200 individual stories on the site, posted since 25 January 2005, under some 90 subject tags.

In all there were visitors from 123 countries during the past year, with the top 10 sources being Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Almost two-thirds of pages read were by visitors from within Ireland. A further quarter were read from the US/UK combined in close to equal measure.

On average, visitors spend a minute and a half on the site at a time, and four out of five leave after reading the current page. The busiest days are typically Mondays and Tuesdays, while the least busy are typically Saturday and Sunday. Seasonally, the least busy time is the Christmas Day to New Year Day period, while a very mild drop off is discernible during August.

There are over 4,600 photographs linked to the site, which have been viewed (specifically selected) a total of more than 37,000 times. Amongst these, there are 59 'sets' of photographs from particular events which are viewed as slide shows.

It is safe to say that virtually all visitors have a direct connection with Kilcullen, as the site content is of absolutely no interest to anyone else.

No charge is made for the Diary service, and there is no income from it.

Brian Byrne.