2011 at yourfirstvisit.net

Dear readers, thanks to all of you for an awesome year!

Almost 800,000 of you stopped by this year–more than three times as many as in 2010, and more than 12 times as many as in 2009.  You are currently stopping by at a rate of 150,000 visits a month–thank you, thank you, thank you.

The site had its millionth visitor in November 2011, and its 5 millionth page view and 3000th comment in December.

Almost 50,000 of you are frequent visitors–up from 12,000 last year.

In 2011, you came from more than 14,000 communities in more than 180 countries and territories

I am humbled by your visits, and will keep trying to make the site better, and to add useful, new, interesting, and different material.

TOP 10 PLACES YOU COME FROM

More than 75% of you come to this site by a search engine.

Of the rest, about 1/3 of you come directly, by typing the site’s url or clicking on a bookmark, and about 2/3 come via a link.

Those who came from a link came from one of more than 50,000 links from more than two thousand different domains.

Excluding search engines, Facebook, Yahoo Answers and such, the following are the top ten domains you came from in 2011:

1. Disboards.com. Disboards is the leading Disney community discussion board. I’ve never started a thread on Disboards, as I don’t want to spam it, but threads that others start generate thousands of visits to this site–and a lot of great criticisms and suggestions for improvement. See, for example, this discussion (I love its title!) and this one.
2. MilitaryDisneyTips.com is a great site for military families, and one I collaborate with quite a bit. Steve’s expertise on issues and opportunities for military families at Walt Disney World and the rest of Orlando is a great resource for his readers–and for mine.
3. One little link on About.com–here–drives a surprising amount of traffic to this site. The link is explained on the About.com page as an example itinerary, but it points to my Easter Itinerary, which only works for two or three not-recommended weeks of the year. I wish it pointed to my Basic Itinerary, Autumn-Winter-Spring Itinerary, or even the Summer Itinerary…
4. Josh’s easywdw.com is a great and often hilarious site, growing like crazy, and has a terrific community.  A few little links here and there on his site and forum drove a lot of traffic here.
5. DestinationsinFlorida.com is the website of the Disney-specialist travel agents I partner with and recommend. Traffic here comes from some guest posts I did for them, and other links they have to this site.
6. The community on tripadvisor.com is beginning to send a lot of traffic here, especially one wonderful guy who uses the screen name “GoPenguins.”
7. OrlandoFlorida.net is another Disney discussion board that sends a lot of people. Thanks!
8. One article on parenting.com drove a lot of traffic here in 2011, and still yields a bit now and then.
9. Sarah and Tom Bricker’s great site Disney Tourist Blog links here every now and then.
10. John at www.leaveittogenie.com has to my great gratitude featured this site on his home page for years now.

TOP 10 OUTBOUND LINKS YOU CLICK

I link to a number of other sites, some from my Recommended Websites page, and some as “for more information” resources.

Two-thirds of the tens of thousands of outbound links that you click are to one of Disney’s or Universal’s sites.

The top ten other most popular sites you click to from here are as follows:

1. MilitaryDisneyTips.com, for more information on points of interest to military families visiting Walt Disney World (also #1 last year!)
2. Mousesavers.com, recommended for more info on savings opportunities
3. TouringPlans.com, which I recommend all over the site for all kinds of reasons, but especially for their crowd calendar
4. Mouseplanet.com, which I recommend for news, and often link to for more info on Disney news I write about
5. DestinationsinFlorida.com, my travel agent partners
6. The Disney Food Blog
7. Tikimanpages.com, for more information on the Polynesian Resort
8. easywdw.com 
9. Disboards.com 
10. Dad’s Guide to WDW

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR PAGES

Excluding the home page, which if I put it on this list would be third, all of the top ten most popular pages on the site deal with when to go:

1. The list of 2011 Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World, Ranked in Order, based on crowds, prices, hurricanes, ride closures, etc
2. Predictions of 2011 Crowds to use in picking your visit dates
3. The list of  2012 Weeks to Visit, ranked in order
4. The basic guidance on When to Go, and why to go then
5. The overview of the Best and Worst Times to Visit Walt Disney World
6. 2012 Disney World Price Seasons
7. 2011 Walt Disney World Price Seasons
8. The 2011 Week Picker–a tool for personalizing the best time for your family to go
9. Disney World Crowds in 2012
10. Material on weather and when to go