Good morning everyone, happy President’s Day! I just completed my first week as a permanent blog on Boarding Area and wanted to share some stats with you. Last Monday was amazing, not only was it my first day on Boarding Area, but I set a new all time high for total page views in a single day. My previous record was around 4,700, but Monday crushed that records with an amazing 6,103 total page views! Before you go any further, you should check out this post from last Monday: Put me in, Coach! Travel with Grant moves to Boarding Area!
The rest of the week had its up and down days (like normal), it just depends what is going on in the travel blogosphere and if my articles are relevant to most readers. The gray section on the right hand side are Saturday and Sunday, which are normally my slowest days. I don’t blog much on the weekends, unless there is a really good deal to share.
With that said, here are my weekly page views for the five weeks leading up to my move from Prior2Boarding to Boarding Area. Over the last 5 weeks, I averaged 21,924 total page views, or about 3,132 total page views per day. Last week, I received 33,470 total page views, or about 4,781 total page views per day. I don’t want to read into this too much, but I am definitely very happy about the jump in page views.
I want to welcome all the new TWG readers and thank the long time readers for all their support over the last 20+ months. I couldn’t have done it without you!
Enough about me, let’s plan a meetup in San Francisco. I have family coming up to visit me this weekend, but I can meet up with everyone Saturday afternoon (February 21) from 12pm to 2pm, somewhere in San Francisco. I am open for suggestions and need to settle on a restaurant in the next day or 2. I need to find a restaurant that is easy to get to by public transportation or Uber, has plentiful seating, and allows individuals to purchase and pay for their own meal (no splitting checks). Honestly, I am not looking for the best restaurant in SF, just a good place to meet that has good food. If you have anything that fits the bill, please let me know below. If you are planning on attending, I would love to know that as well.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
P.S. I have a pretty busy schedule the following 2 weekends. On Saturday, February 28, I will be speaking at the OC TravelCon in Anaheim, CA (link). The following weekend (March 6-8), I will be flying down to San Diego for FTU Advanced (link). Hopefully I will see a few of you there.
Congratulations!!! You work hard and deserve it! We are enjoying your blog. Your work is much appreciated!
Thank you Poptarts! How did you come up with nickname?
Congratulations on your blog’s growth and on cheers to your continued success!
Thank you Gary, your help and blog traffic have been very much appreciated. See you in San Diego?
GRANT, don’t blow it by posting every lame Amex offer, your with the big boys now, show us where’s the beef? Please don’t sellout pushing C.C.’s thru lame content. Good Luck KiD, I love ya, your pal and secret admirer Enrico Pallazo
Thank you Enrico, I have a few good posts coming soon. No lame AMEX offers :)
meetup suggestion… Super duper burger… Market street and there’s one in the marina district, too!
Thank you Cynthia, I like the burger idea!
Congrats Grant! I had ran into your blog a while ago but found it again through a shared link from another blogger. I have to say your material is very relative and well presented. I also love the fact that you are so engaging with your readers. I understand this can change as you gain more users and it will be tough to reply to every question etc.. but it’s a big draw for me at a personal level. After all that’s why I visit a blog to learn stuff and when reader questions go unanswered, it’s hard to learn.
Anyhow keep up the good work and best of luck!
Thank you Joe, I’m glad to have you back. I live by this philosophy: if someone takes time to send me an email or leave a comment on my blog, I will make time to answer their email or comment. Sometimes I spend 20+ minutes on an email if someone needs help finding award space. At this point, I probably respond to 95% of all comments that are directed to me (some comments are directed to other comments on the posts). I hope to keep this level of response rate. I agree, it is annoying when you leave a comment/question on a blog and it goes unanswered, I hate that feeling.
While I’d normally agree with Cynthia L, I’ll have to say SDB on Market has great outdoor seating areas, but if you’re there during a weekend, it may not be open since it’s in the Financial District, which is dead on the weekends. If you like the burger idea, I’d recommend Gott’s in the Ferry Building, instead. It has tons of indoor and outdoor seating, is most certainly open on weekends, is in the historic and iconic Ferry Building, and it accessible from nearly everywhere in the city.
Thank you for the recommendations, Adam. They all sound like excellent restaurants.