By Chuck Woodbury
PUBLISHER
Last Monday, May 22, I woke early at my Seattle home, made my coffee, then sat down to check that everything was OK with that day’s RV Daily Tips Newsletter and the RVtravel.com website itself. The only problem I noticed was that our site was loading very slowly and in some instances not loading at all, but showing an error message.
I called our technical guy, Kim Christiansen, and he suggested I check our traffic statistics. I did and was stunned at what I saw — more than 9,000 people were on the website at that very moment. Kim told me he was taking measures to keep our server from crashing.
On a typical early Monday morning, we might have 500 to 700 people on site at one time, less than half what we would have on a Sunday where our RVtravel.com newsletter draws a much larger crowd.
The traffic continued, with 8,000 to 9,000 visitors at once on the site all day long, well into the evening. By 9 p.m., we had passed one million page views for the day.
‘That’s 10 Rose Bowl crowds,’ I thought. How could that be?
“That’s 10 Rose Bowl crowds,” I thought. How could that be? But Google Analytics, which we use to monitor our traffic, is the gold standard. If it says 9,000 people are on RVtravel.com at one time, it’s true. Ditto for one million page views a day (we ended the day with about 1.1 million page views).
Viral Are Us
It turned out that one of our articles had gone viral. Three-quarters of our traffic was coming from it alone. Now, six days later, 1.4 million people have read the story by Gail Marsh.
RVtravel.com is a small business, two full-time employees, one part-time, a dozen freelance writers, Kim our I.T. guy, and me. Few websites ever draw that much traffic without a staff ten times larger. Until Monday, I think our record was probably about 400,000 page views in a single day.
As you can imagine, many of Monday’s visitors signed up to receive email alerts for one or more of our newsletters. I’d like to welcome the thousand or so of you who are now part of our subscriber family.
So that’s our big news. As the founder of RVtravel.com, who started this newsletter in 2001 with a $30 investment, to draw so many visitors in one day is an achievement that for most small publishers would seem too good to be true. In this case, it is true.
Congrats and so happy for you and your team at RV travel.com
Thanks, Hank! We’re pretty happy about it, also! It’s thanks to you and our other great readers (not to mention our terrific writers!) that we reached that amazing milestone. We’re going for another record-breaker, except that we don’t know exactly what’s going to strike a chord again with more than a million viewers around the world.🤔 Purple trees? Whoda thunk? Stay tuned. Have a good night. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Big kudos and congratulations to Chuck and the entire RVTravel team and especially to Gail. I’ve said it before, Gail is an impressive writer and I always enjoy her material and her style.
Thanks, Cancelproof! We appreciate your kind words. (Just keep in mind we have Gail the writer, and Chuck’s Gail.😉 Two different people, in case you weren’t aware. Not that it makes any difference.) Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane
Quality and honesty. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, Frank!👍 We’re trying our darndest! Have a good afternoon/evening.🤗 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Congratulations Chuck, Emily, Diane, Kim, Gail, and all the staff writers! This accomplishment only reinforces what many of us have known for years-small does not mean limited, it only means a lot of dedicated work from some very committed, special people. Sorry none of us have crossed trails in the last few years, but I’m sure we will again. Thanks for the continued effort to produce this multifaceted, complex content.
Thank you, J and J! Maybe we’ll see you out at Enumclaw again one of these years.🤞 Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Thank You Chuck and All of your Staff for what you do for All of us RV’ers.. Telling The Truth about the RV Lifestyle.. Congratulations on Your on 9,000 people reading your Newsletter at the same time.. Keep Up The Great Work, We need People like You to keep us Informed… I just cannot say Enough Good things about RV TRAVEL..
Thank you, travilenman! And we just cannot say enough good things about you and our other wonderful readers. You all are why we do what we do! Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Congratulations. You have worked very diligent for a long time to achieve that record. May it continue to break records. Just evidence of a quality publication worth reading.
Thank you very much, Bill, for your generous words. We appreciate them, and YOU. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Congratulations to Chuck, Emily, Diane, and the rest of the RVTravel crew!
It amazes me how much content you produce, with such a limited staff.
You guys are the BEST!
Thanks, Sven! We appreciate your kind words, and we appreciate YOU! Yep, we’re busy. It keeps (most of) us out of mischief, that’s for sure! But we do this for you and our other amazing readers, so it’s worth it when we know our efforts are appreciated. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
this is first morning read . great publication. i knew something happened last Monday. congratulations
Thanks, Robert. Yep, something happened on Monday, all right, thanks to all of our great readers and, oh, just a few more! Woohoo! Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
This newsletter is my first read with coffee after clearing email clutter every morning. Thank you all for the love you give to this great RV resource.
You’re welcome, Bill. Thank you for your kind words. We appreciate them, and we appreciate YOU (and our other wonderful readers). Yep, we love what we do, and we’re glad you can see that. Makes our efforts worthwhile. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
🤗
Sweet! Thanks, Bill. Backatcha. 🤗 Take care. 😀 –Diane
Congratulations to you and all the great staff and writers at rv travel!! Its a well deserved recognition!
An outstanding achievement for you and your staff and all the families involved. Congratulations.
Thanks, Dick and Sandy! Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Congratulations, an excellent achievement. I love reading this e-newsletter. Keep up the great work, and travel safe!
Thanks, Caren! We’re so glad you like our newsletter, and we’ll keep doing what we love as long as we have readers who love what we do. 🤗 Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
A day just isn’t started correctly without a hot cup of coffee and this newsletter. Keep up the great work
Best ever to start the day off right!
Thank you, Herman and Swede! (I had an Uncle Swede, BTW. He didn’t like his given name of Leon.) Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Really? Purple paint ?? hahaha. You mentioned that Maine has that law yet I have never seen a tree in Maine with purple paint. Granted, considering we have millions of acres of trees here, meaning probably billions of trees, it might be a fact somewhere in the State. Anyway, Congratulations.
Congratulations, to all, especially to Gail for the story! A huge milestone, to be sure.
Thanks, littleleftie. Yep, Gail hit a grand slam with her purple tree story!💜 Yay! Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com