It was just over a year ago -- November 12, 2007 -- when I first launched The Housing Chronicles blog on the eve of the annual BIS (Building Industry Show) in Southern California. At the time the mission statement was the following, and it hasn't changed:
To share the reality of where the development industry (primarily housing, but also sometimes retail, office, industrial and other land uses) is headed, whether bad, really bad, about the same, slightly improving or finally showing some real life.
As I sit here on another BIS Eve, I wanted to thank the readers from throughout the world who have visited the site, sometimes finding it through a Google or a Yahoo search, other times from other blog links (mostly Patrick.net, Calculated Risk, Dr. Housing Bubble and Lansner on Real Estate), sometimes through automated blog readers, other times through links such as BuilderBytes, and occasionally simply by just stumbling upon it by accident.
Direct traffic to this blog slowly grew over the year and then suddenly leaped up to average from 7,500 to 8,000 unique visitors per month over the last couple of months, which is close to the circulation of the CBIA magazine for which I once wrote, California Builder (10,000). While not a big number by Internet terms, it's certainly nice to have a regular audience for my musings, rantings and links.
Want to advertise on this blog with banner ads, sponsored links or embedded links? Email me at info@metrointel.com or call 888-82-DEVELOP.
In February of this year, the blog joined syndicators BlogBurst and NewsTex in order to leverage their existing relationships with media-owned web sites and get some placement beyond the building industry.
For BlogBurst alone, it's been a great success, with editors from Reuters, Fox Business News and the Chicago Sun-Times regularly selecting posts for their sites. Occasionally, editors from The Wall Street Journal and USA Today would also select posts for online placement, but by far the biggest fan has been Reuters, with over 7.8 million 'headline views' (tech speak for placing a blog headline on a web page):
Top 10 Publishers (All History) for Housing Chronicles
| Total Views | |
|---|---|
| Reuters | 7,845,527 |
| FoxNews | 155,469 |
| Chicago Sun Times | 122,924 |
| Computer Shopper | 25,505 |
| Livestrong | 17,053 |
| IBS | 5,203 |
| Wall Street Journal | 5,021 |
| Palm Beach Post | 716 |
| usatoday.com | 264 |
| CT Green Scene | 209 |
NewsTex has also recorded several hundred thousand placements, mostly on the Lexis Nexis service.
Finally, Builder magazine recently started featuring this blog on a special page on their web site, which they should start promoting very soon.
All in all, not bad for a year's work. I hope you do find the blog interesting, and please continue to visit often!
If you want to know more about the man behind the blog, visit www.metrointel.com.
And if you want to discuss any real estate consulting services you may need anywhere in the U.S., call me toll-free at 888-82-DEVELOP.
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