August was a big month for interest.co.nz. In fact it was our biggest month ever.
It was also a big month for you, our readers. During August interest.co.nz had almost 368,000 unique readers, with more than two million page impressions recorded. Both figures are the highest monthly figures this website has ever experienced.
Key traffic drivers during the month were the Reserve Bank's surprise 50 basis points Official Cash Rate cut, subsequent interest rate moves by banks, and uncertainty and turbulence in global financial markets.
As demonstrated by the chart below, during August we were joined by many new readers. And to you, welcome!
And we delivered many more pages of content, as demonstrated by the chart below.
Interest.co.nz was founded by David Chaston in 1999. In 2008 news was added to the data comparison services provided on the site. Our small team provides information, news, explainers, analysis and opinion on interest rates and economic data. We closely follow key drivers of the New Zealand economy, such as housing and the rural sector, and provide daily updates on key global economic and financial issues.
We maintain close scrutiny of New Zealand banks and other financial service providers, providing detailed analysis on key issues such as the bank capital debate. Additionally we cover politics, striving to focus more on policy than personality. We're also grateful to our regular outside contributors who add so much to the interest.co.nz website.
Some readers choose to share their views. We welcome this and on any day we get about 250 comments from about 100 or so readers. We do ask, however, that comments meet basic standards. These are detailed here.
Even those readers who don't comment, read intensively. Site-wide the average time a reader spends engaged is three minutes and twenty seconds. But for articles it is much longer, well exceeding four minutes on average. And here is the interesting thing, something we weren't expecting. Those reading our content on mobile devices spend about 10% longer engaged.
Thank you for your support.
38 Comments
Well deserved interest.co.nz
You're a fantastic resource and one of the bright lights among NZ media.
The increased traffic is also a good sign of more people becoming informed instead of the relying on the mainstream media, which is not necessarily produced in the interests of objectivty, but more dictated by the interests of advertisers.
I was in the process of hunting for my first home a couple of years ago, landed on Property Talk for a bit while I did my research. Followed a link one day to Interest.co and got a few laughs out of the comments section. Lurked for a few months before I officially registered.
.. I reckon there's an inverse relationship between business confidence and blogging at interest.co nz
Clearly there's a deep discontent with the current coalition government , and this is reflected in many of us coming here to have a right old whinge about it all . .
If my theory is validated by scientific study David , will you vote Labour next election to keep the business flourishing , or will you hold onto your principled stand and continue a lifetime of voting for the McGillicuddy Serious Party ?
Interest.co.nz for the real news, then flick through the other 'news' agencies to see which direction they wish to stear the masses.
About to sell a house and after that I'll be sending some coin your way.
Glad to see that people are switching on to what's going on.
Congrats. It is always interesting and intriguing to check out interst.co.nz. Enjoy immensely the discussions.
Of course, in August we had more fodder to feed our thoughts and share.
Well done, David and team for pulling together a diverse group of readers who add jest, variety, deep thought and make a visit to this place always enlightening, entertaining and fun.
Best wishes for more successes and readers.
One of the best sites I've come across, my only disappointment is that I was away for most of August and hoped I'd be missed, at least just a little - damn!
One of the great strengths of this site is the comments stream, and many of the commenters provide some depth through their own analysis and responses to the articles. PDK, Nymad, Zac Smith, Boatman, Andy B, Gummy to name just a few who I always look for. These have provided to my education as well as helped keep me somewhat humble (just a little) when expressing an opinion or seeking an answer. There is the risk though that occasionally it gets a little repetitive.
Constructive criticism; in the early days of the re-format of the site a number asked the question about making the comments more visible, and this has clearly been not easy, because it hasn't been done. Perhaps a heading in the menu bar to the comments stream would work?
In the absence of a comments stream, something simpler such a red "New Comments" next to each article heading in the news homepage, and a red "New" next to each new comment in the article itself would be a great addition. I find i'm having to remember what the previous comments count was on an article to ascertain whether new comments have been made.
Maybe even emails notifications of new replies to a user's comment will help keep the conversation going.
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