One year and counting

From the editor ...

In April 2007, news of the planned reopening of Blue Moon restaurant in Charlotte Park inspired me to take an idea for a hyper-local news site about my own neighborhood and turn it into a reality.

TheCharlotteParker.com was born on April 6, 2007, and the inaugural post "Blue Moon restaurant to return to Rock Harbor marina" kicked off neighborhood news coverage here. The prospect of having Blue Moon's cool beverages and mellow outdoor dining within walking distance jump-started my interest in and curiosity about my neighborhood, Charlotte Park.

At the time, I was giddy and overwhelmed with all the possibilities of The Charlotte Parker. I imagined posting stories daily, featuring profiles of interesting neighbors and shedding light on important local issues. I also hoped to meet a lot of neighbors, and I even dreamed of organizing block parties and fundraisers for neighborhood projects.

While many of my initial ideas now are featured on The Charlotte Parker's homepage - neighborhood calendar and map, a group discussion list, and an easy email subscription box - not all of my grand plans have come to pass, yet. Still, The Charlotte Parker has had a successful first year.

News coverage has been pretty diverse: from river-flooding threats and development issues to yard sales and store openings and closings. Also, I've had the pleasure of connecting with many neighbors in person and online. Perhaps most notably, neighbor Kate Wingate has joined me in posting stories here, and just as her enthusiasm has inspired me, I hope it encourages other neighbors to join us in posting news and information. (Interested? Shoot me an email.) Finally, I'm happy to report Kate has planned a neighborhood get-together for this Sunday - at Blue Moon Lagoon, of course.

I'm proud to be a Charlotte Parker. It's been fun and deeply rewarding to cover our neighborhood, and I hope you'll stay tuned.

Here are some geeky statistics from Google Analytics, which has been tracking site traffic for The Charlotte Parker since April 8, 2007. Highlights from the first year:

Visitors

6,121 visits

4,202 absolute unique visitors

16.72 average visits per day

Comparison: First 3 months/last 3 months

1,371/2,243 visits

847/1,675 absolute unique visitors

15.07/24.65 average visits per day

Visitor trends (for the year)

1.95 pageviews per visit

1:53 average time on site

31% returning visitors, 69% new visitors

Traffic sources

14% direct, 27% referring sites, 59% search engines

Top referring sites: Enclave (264 visits), Tennessean (230), NashvillePost (103)

Top keyword search terms: "blue moon lagoon nashville" (157), "charlotte parker" (138), "nashville west stores" (94)

Content

Top viewed stories: Blue Moon to return (1,015), Stores coming to Nashville West (993), Stores now open (501)

Highest-traffic dates: March 24 following H.G. Hill closing story (189 visits), June 5 Store removes gay newspaper (86), March 17 following World Market video (49)