A big couple of days

It’s been a big traffic week at Trade Me.

Last Monday we set a new daily record with 35 million page impressions.

Then this Sunday just been we knocked that out of the park with 38 million page impressions.¹

(And, when I say we I actually mean you, of course!)

Either way, that’s a lot of pages!

Obviously there are internal things that influence these fluctuations - site design, speed, etc. But, it’s also interesting to consider some of the external factors.

One is television. There does seem to be a long term correlation between more and more crappy (but cheap to produce) reality television and more and more traffic on Trade Me, although I’m not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg. 😉

Big sporting events can have an influence too. The night Hamish Carter won his gold medal traffic was noticeably down. Likewise during the Lions tests in 2005. We should probably plan for a quiet September and October this year during the Rugby World Cup.

Another factor is the weather. People who are outside making the most of the sunny weather are not inside browsing the web.

In this particular case I wonder if daylight saving played a part. All of a sudden it’s darker outside and you need to find something different to fill the evenings. On top of that Sunday had 25 hours in the day, which doesn’t happen very often!

Any other ideas?