Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for me to make the rounds shaking the cup. I’ll make a more detailed report soon, but a few figures for now to let readers take the site’s temperature:
Unique page views hit record highs in late fall of 80,000 readers in one month’s time. This dropped a bit over the holidays, but we are still at over 72,000 uniques per month (well above the historical average) despite the slower pace of content over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday stretch.
It’s a good trend, and encouraging for the site’s future. I suspect part of the reason things are going well in that department is that I upgraded the server in early fall to a more costly dedicated server, because the traffic was starting to cause the site to crash on a frequent basis.
When content is flowing freely, the site tends to attract around 80,000 page views per week — a little over 11,000 per day. Add to this the fact that there are now almost as many new as returning visitors, and it indicates that the reach has increased substantially.
Alexa figures are decent, too, with the site looking like it will soon break into the top 100,000 again if trends continue.
Now, not to crow or anything, but The Spearhead did pioneer the style that is starting to launch men’s issues into far greater public prominence than they were a few short years ago. Not only this site, but others are getting much more traffic than was the case back in the late aughts. Before The Spearhead, men’s issues were essentially stuck on AM radio — pretty much off the radar screen as far the politicized masses were concerned. I can’t take credit alone for changing this, but confronting the feminists head in an unapologetic style online with a site dedicated exactly to that and little else was my idea, and it worked. The name of the site speaks for itself — it was intended to lead the way in a focused, direct thrust through enemy lines:
An armored spearhead (UK English: armoured spearhead) is a formation of armored fighting vehicles, mostly tanks, that form the front of an offensive thrust during a battle. The idea is to concentrate as much firepower into a small front as possible, so any defenders in front of them will be overwhelmed. As the spearhead moves forward, infantry units following in the gap behind them form up on either side of the line of advance in order to protect the flanks.
It seems that it worked. However, there is a weakness:
The tactic is quite risky. A determined enemy can counterattack against the infantry on the flanks, thereby cutting off the spearhead from resupply and quickly bringing it to a halt. In order to avoid this the spearhead must move as fast as possible in order to keep the defense from re-organizing in this fashion.
If the formation cannot resupply, it will run out of steam and lose the initiative. So, if you want to see The Spearhead to keep moving forward, please support the site financially. There’s still plenty of ground to cover before it reaches its objective, and it would be a shame to let up before finishing the job.
One thing I’d like to add is that we are still in the growth stage where men’s issues are concerned, so helping one site has a positive effect on the others. Actually, this is true even when the sites/organizations oppose each other over one issue or another (something I try to avoid, but human nature dictates that it will happen from time to time). Despite impressive growth, most people have little idea that we exist, and there’s so much material to be uncovered and so much work to be done that there are plenty of jobs for everyone. However, funds are limited — we aren’t sponsored by either the government or major corporations like many feminist organizations. This means we have to rely on help from supporters.
Speaking for The Spearhead, you are getting far more for every dollar you give in support than any donor to a feminist cause would. Literally thousands of articles and hours of work have gone into the site, and all on a limited budget that wouldn’t support a single feminist for a half year. This, I suspect, is how we’ll win.
But we do need help to keep going, so if you like the work we’ve done so far a contribution would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your support
Bill Price
Support Options located on the upper right sidebar.
