3 million people, 15 million pages, 300 videos

Modesty is the colour of virtue but one doesn’t light a candle and put it under a bushel. Talk about mixed messages! With a nod to The Velvet Underground, I’ll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don’t know.

The dust is now settling on the mid-January move from the old domain name (digitalaudioreview.net) to the new one (Darko.Audio) and the majority of technical issues* [see footnote #1] have been ironed out.

A publisher’s biggest concern with a domain name change is that it will cause a glitch in Google’s index matrix to force a downturn in visitor traffic. Thanks to the diligent work of Darko.Audio’s web developer that didn’t happen.

I won’t insult your intelligence by trumpeting social media reach (that can be bought) or per-page view counters (that can be faked – for free) as indicators of Darko.Audio’s reach. For that, we draw on screenshots from incorruptible server-side apps.

This site’s Cloudflare’s analytics report that Darko.Audio attracted 218,628 unique visitors last month. That’s not pages, that’s people. (December 2017 and January 2018 showed similar visitor numbers).

Extrapolating for the year whilst factoring in growth and returning visitor overlap, this website will talk to 3+ million people in 2018.

Cloudflare analytics doesn’t report on page numbers so we call up the web server’s cPanel stats for a Q1 report:

Over 1 million pages were served by Darko.Audio in February 2018. Extrapolating again as in, we’re on target for a whopping 12 million pages served per year. Even with modest growth, we’ll hit 15+ million pages.

Whilst we’re talking numbers, here’s a list of Darko.Audio’s top thirty-five* [see foonote #3] most read posts for the last six months, broken down by category:

1. Op-ed
2. Page
3. Op-ed
4. Review
5. Review
6. News
7. Review
8. Review
9. Review
10. Op-ed
11. Review
12. Music
13. News
14. Review
15. Showcase
16. News
17. News
18. Review
19. Showcase
20. Review
21. News
22. Op-ed
23. Review
24. Review
25. Review
26. Review
27. Op-ed
28. Showcase
29. Review
30. Op-ed
31. Op-ed
32. News
33. Review
34. Review

I’m a full-time audiophile – this is my day job. That category popularity correlates with time invested is immensely pleasing. Reviews take by far the greatest amount of time to put together and are, thankfully, the most read category. In second popularity place sit Op-ed ‘think’ pieces, penned by myself and more frequently/eloquently by Srajan Ebaen of 6moons – they turn forethought into more generalised insight.

With manufacturer-supplied photos arriving with press releases, news items take only an hour or two to write. Darko.Audio show reports are like news items but with photos taken by the correspondent. And if that show correspondent happens to be me, you can also expect video, which often sees post-production eat half a day.

Hosted on Vimeo, I’ve shot, edited and published 254 videos in the past two years and embedded them in show reports and factory tours to provide readers (viewers!) with a feeling of being there. The video brings you closer to the event.

And yet, not a single show report ranks in the top 10 and only 3 feature in the entire list. One could argue that show reports are to audiophile reporting what sugar is to the body: a short-term feel-good hit but low in long-term nutritional value. With their mice and keyboards Darko.Audio readers do nothing to dissuade me from giving reviews priority over shows, the latter’s coverage usually wrapped after a week lest it becomes stale and, after two weeks, mouldy.

Besides, few manufacturers send emails my way to ensure coverage of their next audio show exhibit; the majority want their product reviewed. So numerous are review requests in 2018 that I’m closed to fresh (cold-called) review assignments until June/July.

And whilst iPhone video is good enough for show reports and factory tours, it isn’t the right qualitative fit for reviews whose insight, by definition, commands higher publishing standards.

The recent introduction of a professional cameraman to Darko.Audio’s editorial team means we are now able to shoot and edit short, high-quality video content for embedding within reviews. See here, here, here and here for examples.

Expect to see more and better video content as the year progresses. Don’t expect to see it made available for sale. Like Darko.Audio’s words and pictures, all videos are editorial, not promotional. And by year’s end, there’ll be over 300 of ’em.

Oh – and there’s a podcast coming…

Further information: none

Footnote #1: Facebook refused a name change to the DAR Facebook page (now dormant) that forced me to create a new page for Darko.Audio – click here to give it a LIKE. (And no, you don’t need Facebook to access this website).

Footnote #2: cPanel page data is incomplete for January because the site was moved to its new domain/server on the 12th of the month.

Footnote #3: Thirty-five because that’s all that fits on a single page of a Google doc.