Here’s a selection of the monthly highlights for christian-sauve.com:
1. Mmm. Numbers…
My Prickly "Urchin" web stats engine tells me that…
Report for: christian-sauve.com, June 2003 Total Visitors 4,458 Total Pageviews 9,091 (Corrected total: 5,479) Average Pageviews Per Day 303.03 (Corrected average: 182.63) Total Hits 13,620 Total Bytes Transferred 271.2MB Average Visitors Per Day 148.6 Average Hits Per Day 454 Average Bytes Transferred Per Day 9.039MB
The "corrected" numbers take out the CSS, robots.txt, PDFs, mis-filed graphic files (ICO, GIF, JPG) and other files mistakenly considered "pages" by the statistics pre-digestion engine. All results are lower than last month, which is sad, but not much of an issue given that this is, after all, summer and all the students ripping off my reviews are out of school.
In any case, our top ten most popular pages are
christian-sauve.com/index.html 302 christian-sauve.com/texts/free-movie-tickets.htm 238 christian-sauve.com/contact.html 203 christian-sauve.com/reviews/movies-1999.htm 134 christian-sauve.com/reviews.html 130 christian-sauve.com/reviews/movies-2002.htm 120 christian-sauve.com/reviews/movies-2001.htm 119 christian-sauve.com/new-york/day_2.html 117 christian-sauve.com/reviews/movies-2000.htm 104 christian-sauve.com/reviews/movies-1998.htm 96
…which is oddly consistent with last month’s results. Gee, do you suppose movie reviews are popular…? The "contact" page is surprising, though… because far less than a two hundred people are writing me! My guess is that this page is being examined by hackers for FormMail attacks. Indeed, almost 50 "attack" hits on non-existent formmail.pl scripts were also logged by the system.
If you care about such things, (I do!), here’s a look at browser statistics for the month (by visitors, last month’s results in parentheses):
Explorer|6 1840 (2254) Explorer|5 911 (1283) Netscape|4 519 (549) Scooter|3 417 (366) Netscape|5 315 (441)
I have a dream: that one day, we will look at our browser statistics and proudly proclaim that Netscape 4.x is no more. Until then, though, pain.
2. Where do these people come from?
Our top five sources of referrals (in visitors) were
google.com/search 680 (980) yahoo.com/search 256 (314) google.ca/search 164 (224) msn.com/results.aspx 108 (new in Top-5) yahoo.com/bin/search 84 (147)
Well, one mystery solved: Less referrals by search engines equal less traffic on the site. Imagine that.
Only one "new" but very exciting backlink this month: slashdot.org/yro/02/07/17/1837211.shtml referred to our fine site as "A good book review of [Floyd Rudmin's] Bordering on Aggression", a book discussing American military plans to invade Canada. Woo-hoo! Quoted on Slashdot!
3. Ohh! Visitor comments!
Interesting month for the christian-sauve.com mailbox. Here’s what I got:
1. Two messages wanted to discuss the same thing: My partially skeptical review of Frank Camper’s mercenary memoir Merc: The Professional. On June 1st, someone wrote to ask
Do you know where Frank Camper is living and the name of his security business? Also what was the terrorist act he committed that landed him in jail?
To which I could only shrug and reply that I didn’t know. After all, I’m just a chump who bought the book at a charity sale. This being said, I did dig a bit with Google and found that contrarily to my expectations, Camper pretty much disappeared from the web after 1997. This shot a hole through my theory that Camper’s narrative was slightly exaggerated for purposes of self-promotion. As if to echo those thoughts, another person wrote me on June 21st:
Saw your review of MERC: The Professional, by Frank Camper. I also picked up your "tongue-in-cheek" style of "can you really believe him."
I am a graduate of Frank Camper’s Mercenary School (…)
What followed was an exchange of messages which established to my satisfaction that Camper’s school was definitely all that Camper claimed it to be and that his book is probably a lot more truthful that I might have suggested in my initial review. I also suggested that given my correspondent’s knowledge of Camper’s school, he may want to put up a web site detailing the activities of the school. Days later, I got this follow-up
I shall take to heart your suggestion of a website. That might be a way to contact Frank Camper — or let him contact me.
If you want to know more, head over to The Mercenary School Graduates Website!
Naturally, I had to update my review with this new information. Isn’t the web interesting?
2. In another strange coincidence, hours after trying to convince Buena Vista to put me on their press list for my Camera Oscura movie reviewing column, I got a message asking
One time a lady gave me a preview ticket for "you and a guest" because she wasn’t able to go that night. She said that she had signed up and she gets the ticket in the mail every time there is a preview in our area. Do you know how to get on that list?
Ha. The irony. I not-so-briefly answered
Regional details can vary widely (There are substantial differences between Canada and the US or major metropolitan markets versus smaller cities), as do the various lists one can "subscribe to" ("request a subscription" is more accurate) in order to get notifications of screenings. In my own experience, you can get on various distributors’ promotional lists if you can convince them of promotional returns in exchange. (Which is to say: being in a position to talk about these movies to a large audience and, maybe, convince them to go see the films)
Professional regular movie reviewers with a sizeable audience contact movie studios and ask to be included on their press lists. After review by their promotional people, reviewers are put on a list where they’re notified of any new releases in their area. Reviewers have to contact each studio separately; there are no central list, unless they’re buddies with the owner of a large cineplex!
Do note that a certain level of experience and regularity is expected before access can be granted. In my case, a professional quarterly movie reviewing column at www.revue-alibis.com (in French) managed to convince about half the studios that I deserved to be on their list, and left the other half unimpressed for the moment. (The sticking points here being frequency of publication and the size of the audience.)
You may want to investigate possibilities in your area for becoming a movie reviewer for, say, your weekly papers (community or alternative) or contacting studio publicity departments to ask about their criterias for inclusion.
There are, of course, other ways to be put on "a list", and most of them presuppose a relationship with someone at either a movie chain or at a movie studio. Up here in Canada, Famous Players used to have a program by which they were recruiting citizen spies to evaluate the condition of their theaters, with free tickets thrown in the bargain. Then there’s the owner
of the local science-fiction bookstore, who regularly got tickets for new SF movies to give away to customers…Lots of answers, lots of ways; good luck!
Weeks later, no word back from either Buena Vista nor the person who asked the question.
3. I continue to bring happiness to the world by reducing the number of people frustrated by SOLARIS:
Re : Your "Solaris" movie explanation :
Saw this movie 2day and loved it. The atmosphere and soundtrack were fantastic and certainly brought to mind 2001 : A Space Odyssey.
That said, it did confuse me in parts and your explanation made me see certain parts of the movie in a new light (and generally helped me understand it better).
Glad to serve. Glad to help.
4. Search Queries Oddities
(This being the section in which we take a look at the search engine queries used by various visitors to find christian-sauve.com)
4.1 – Top ten queries
>free movie screenings (x23) >free movie tickets (x13) >kari wuhler (x11) >christian movie reviews (x9) >2001 novel and for starters (x9) >solaris explanation (x9) >isbn lookup (x8) >how to get free movie tickets (x8) >top 100 christian books (x7) >good films (x7)
So… people like free movie tickets, don’t they?
4.2 – My name is (what?)
>christian book reviews (x2) >christian book reviews run baby run >christian choreographies >christian logic essay >christian monologue vignettes >christian morin crivain >christian movie rating secret of the sword >christian movie reviewers (x2) >christian movie reviews braveheart >christian nympho >christian parody (x2) >christian perspective on rosemarys baby >christian review of the matrix reload >christian reviews for scream franchise (x2) >christian reviews on animatrix >christian sauve (x7) >christian scholars book reviews on many infallible proofs >lose weight this summer christian >pixar christian >www.christian based weight loss >www.christian hidden pictures pages
One day, I will tire of this curious habit of sticking "christian" in front of just about every word construction. But not this month.
4.3 – Let’s all go to the Movies!
The Solaris Whazzat-fest abates somewhat:
>interpretation solaris >solaris explained (x5) >solaris interpretation (x2) >solaris movie explained (x2)
But given that we are in the lull between the theater and the video release, I expect this to pick up again in a big way on July 29th.
4.4 – Everybody was cyber-stalking!
So, who’s hot and who’s not?
>actress amanda peet naked xx movie >alicia silverstone lesbian rumors >amanda peet the whole nine yard nude >ashley judd short hair high crimes >claudia christian strip >emma watsons boyfriend (x3) >francoise yip proved >heidi fleiss pictures >helen slater 12:01 plot >how did julia robert effect fashion >jeanne tripplehorn undressed >jewel helen hunt leelee sobieski look alike >kendra torgan (x2) >leelee sobieski naked eyes wide shut >miss congeniality sandra bullock lederhosen >monica belluccis pet peeves >naked halle berry (x2) >patricia pearcy nude (x3) >paula garcès nude (x2) >rene zellweger biodome >rosario dawson he got game nude pics >roshumba williams (x2) >salma hayek anal sex hollywood rumors >sandra bullock nude picture for free only her >sarah silverman marital status >spy movies that vicki lewis played >tia carrere cleavage high school high >tia carrere naked showdown in little tokyo >veronique cloutier nude >winona rider teen movie prom
Take your pick.
>edward norton matt daemon gambling >hilarious quotes arnold schwarzenegger >jason stratham biography (x5) >jason stratham interview >jason stratham nude >jason stratham qi shu biography >keanu reeves and freddie prinze jr. aim icons >michael jacksonwearing masks >movie start rock hudson >stéphane rousseau nude
Guys too.
4.5 – The Perv-a-tron!
>actresses describing how they performed nude scenes
I can see where this is going: "Well, first, I remove my clothes…"
>clothed girlfight
Now, now. If it doesn’t involve Jello, it can’t be a true girlfight.
>stickman porn movies
Getting desperate, aren’t we?
4.6 – Strange, disturbing and wondrous…
>did einstein invent rock n roll (x2)
Someone’s been watching Yahoo Serious’s YOUNG EINSTEIN…
>movie where accidents keep happening 2000
FINAL DESTINATION. Try harder.
>groundzilla (x2)
Grr. I used "Grounzilla" to describe a gigantic groundhog in a 1998 parody, and now I find that a baseball player has this nickname.
>unfortunately due to the movies reputation i already knew every frame of the film
Spooky! This is a direct quote from my review of DOCTOR STRANGELOVE. You can’t find this exact quote anywhere else on the web! How did it find its way through Google?
Until next time, my name is Christian Sauvé and I remain… obsessed by web statistics.