Volume 2, No. 2. January 25, 2002
Eric’s Turn
Numbers crunched
In the tradition of magazines who publish their circulation figures, we want
to use this opportunity to make an equivalent "circulation report" for THE LOOP.
THE LOOP is a biweekly newsletter posted on the Internet at www.gettheloop.com.
It is a free site and available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.
Additionally, we e-mail notifications of a newsletter's posting, complete with
a direct link from the e-mail message to that issue of the newsletter. Consequently,
we have two distinct forms of circulation: the number of visits to our site,
as reported by our domain host, LexiConn (www.lexiconn.com),
and our e-mail notification database.
For 2001, our first year of operation, www.gettheloop.com had a total of 58,409
visits. We broke these down according to visits-per-LOOP issue, calculating
the total number of visits from the day a newsletter was posted and the notifications
e-mailed to the day before the posting of the following issue. Our average visitation
for the year was 2,434 per issue of THE LOOP, an average which rose to 3,327
visits during the last quarter. Our first issue garnered 1,611 visits, and we
reached a low of 1,436 with the April 6 issue. We reached a high of 6,818 visits
with our post-IAAPA Show issue of November 30. The last issue of 2001, December
14, generated 6,207 visits. These statistics include our own visits to the site
to build, post and maintain THE LOOP and its ancillary features; though the
number varies with each issue, we account for between 50 and 100 visits per
issue.
Our database currently contains 7,840 e-mail addresses to which we send linked
notifications. We built this database from industry association directories,
Minton Enterprises' sources and new subscriptions. About 800 e-mail notifications
"bounce back" undelivered for a variety of reasons, ranging from incorrect entries
to full mailboxes and discarded addresses. We are working to decrease the number
of bouncebacks by culling and, in some cases correcting, the invalid addresses.
Currently, up to 7,000 notifications are reaching their targeted recipients,
though we suspect a percentage of these are not getting through for various
technical reasons. We also know from anecdotal reports that many readers who
are not in our database are having THE LOOP link forwarded to them by other
recipients.
If you currently are not receiving THE LOOP notifications directly, if you are
forwarding THE LOOP on to someone, or if you know of someone who might enjoy
or benefit from reading THE LOOP, please click here
to add the e-mail address to our database.
It is the policy of Minton Enterprises and THE LOOP to keep our database secure.
We have taken measures to withstand viruses and worms, and we will not lend
or sell the database to any entity.
THE LOOP's mission statement: To keep the amusement and attractions business
connected by presenting information and personalities that encourage and enable
the industry's growth and influence.
To share your news, e-mail Eric Minton (eric@gettheloop.com) or call, toll-free, 888-902-LOOP (outside North America call 937-296-9796). To advertise in THE LOOP, e-mail Lynne Mosman (lynne@gettheloop.com), or call her toll-free at 866-902-LOOP (outside North America dial 1-937-296-9796).