Millions of people have visited this website in 2023, and the year isn’t even over yet!

I never imagined that Fuji X Weekly would grow so popular—I’m shocked by it, actually. It’s a real honor to be helpful to such a large number of photographers across the world, and I feel like I’m only getting started. It’s amazing to me just how far this thing has come, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes.

I’ve been digging through the Fuji X Weekly website analytics, which I do from time-to-time (but probably not nearly as often as I should), and I discovered a few interesting points. Some of you might find this intriguing, too, while others might not (and I apologize for that). For those who are interested, let’s dive into the stats!

During the month of October two milestones were reached: 1) near the beginning of the month, Fuji X Weekly total page views for 2023 exceeded that of 2022, and 2) by the end of October, Fuji X Weekly surpassed two million unique visitors!

Page views is a pretty straight-forward statistic. Between the homepage, blog page, blog posts, Film Simulation Recipe articles, etc., etc., etc.—across the entirety of the Fuji X Weekly website—all of the various pages have been viewed a total approaching 9,000,000 (last year was just over eight million; this year is on track to top 10 million). That’s an absolutely unbelievable number to me! In 2023, I’m averaging 4.3 page views per visitor, which (from what I can tell) is a good number. I’ve read that 3-4 page views per visitor is average. One person might only ever open one article, while someone else might view seven, and between the two of them they had eight page views, with an average of four. Some websites—such as many e-commerce—have more page views per visitor, while some have less, and some much less. There are several very popular photography websites (I won’t mention them by name, but trust me that they’re highly recognizable) that average less than two page views per visitor.

Surprisingly, the more convoluted statistic is unique visitors. Near the very end of October, Fuji X Weekly surpassed two million unique visitors. Or did it? What constitutes a unique visitor, anyway?

If you visit this website from the same device multiple times, you’ll typically be counted as only one visitor. There are some exceptions, depending on your security settings, how often you delete cookies, if you change internet providers or move to a new home, and things like that—but, by-and-large, if you visit this website (say) 20 times over the year, you are counted as only one unique visitor. However, if you use multiple devices—say, your desktop, laptop, work computer, cellphone, and tablet—you could be counted as five unique visitors. Unless, that is, you are logged into your WordPress account (if you have one) on each of those devices, then you’ll only be counted once and not five times. It’s impossible to know how many unique visitors there actually are, since it’s likely that many people are being counted more than once. I cannot know just how many are being counted more than once, or how many times they’re being counted. For sure, two million different people have not visited Fuji X Weekly so far in 2023, but whatever the real number is, it’s still a heck of a lot.

Let’s talk bounce rate, which is the number of people who visit a website only once, and view only one page, and never come back (they bounce). The average bounce rate across all websites is about 40.5%, but it varies significantly based on website type. Blogs, for example, are in the highest category, with an average bounce rate of 65%. My bounce rate is 50%, which is really good for the type of website that it is. It means that half of the visitors read only one article and leave, never to return. They probably followed a link from some other website or a social media post, or Fuji X Weekly came up in a Google search, and they either found exactly what they were looking for and had no need for further reading, or (more likely) they weren’t all that interested in what was published, so they left. That accounts for one million visitors (and, in turn, one million page views), which leaves the other million as people who are either repeat visitors, or someone who visited just once but viewed more than one article before leaving. For that second group of one million, they averaged almost eight page views per person.

Of that one million who didn’t bounce right away, it’s impossible to know just how many are repeat visitors, or how many were counted more than once (one individual counted as multiple unique visitors). As best as I can tell from the data I could find, making some assumptions based on averages, I believe that around 500,000-ish people have visited Fuji X Weekly in 2023 more than once, and around 80,000-100,000 are regular readers. Someone who is a “regular reader” isn’t necessarily someone who reads everything that’s published, but perhaps checks in every now and then (probably opening many of the Film Simulation Recipe posts that pertain to their particular camera model, but maybe not a lot of the other content). Those who read the majority of the articles published on this website is a much smaller number, around 4,000 to 5,000 I think. Those who read literally everything—the true diehard fans—is likely less than 500, and maybe as little as 200.

We started with millions—two million, to be exact—which is an impressive number; however, we dwindled that down a whole bunch. First to one million, after subtracting those who quickly bounced; then to 500,000-ish, for those who likely visited more than once this year; next to 80,000-100,000, which is the rough number of those who do (at least somewhat) regularly read this website; then to 4,000-5,000, for those who are enthusiastic, and read much of what’s published; and finally to as little as 200—the truly devoted followers of Fuji X Weekly, who read literally all of the articles. Of those numbers, I’m most happy by the smaller ones. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am by those who visit this website often—you are why I continue to publish content and new Recipes frequently. Thank you! From the bottom of my heart, you really mean a lot.

You might be curious which pages and articles have been viewed the most on Fuji X Weekly so far this year. For the top five, the homepage is obvious the most-viewed, followed by the X-Trans IV Recipe page, then the Film Simulation Recipe page, then the X-Trans III Recipe page, and finally X-Trans V Recipe page. The most-viewed article is How To Add Film Simulation Recipes To Your Fujifilm Camera. The top five Film Simulation Recipe posts (in order from most to least viewed) are Kodachrome 64, Kodak Portra 400 v2, Kodak Portra 400, Vibrant Arizona, and Vintage Kodak. Aside from the one already mentioned, the top five non-Recipe articles (in order from most to least viewed) are A $400 Alternative to the Fujifilm X100V, X-E4, and X70, Report: Fujifilm X100Z to be Released in Early 2024, Which Film Simulation Recipes, When? — Part 1, How to Solve Fujifilm’s Cam Remote App Not Connecting to iPhone, and Let’s talk about the upcoming Fujifilm X100Z. Film Simulation Recipe articles tend to get a lot more views than the non-Recipe posts.

I’m not really sure how to conclude this, but just to say one more time a big “Thank you!” to everyone who visits this website, reads the articles, maybe shares them with others, and perhaps is even a Creative Collective subscriber. I also want to express my great appreciation to those who have downloaded the Fuji X Weekly App (and/or the Ricoh Recipes App and RitchieCam App), and especially to those who have become Patrons. This wouldn’t continue to exist without your support. I really appreciate you!