Given that 2005 is now all but wrapped up, I thought it would be good to go back and look at why it is that 2005 has been the most amazing year yet for sjhoward.co.uk. 

In 2004, the site generated 238,122 hits.  That’s quite a lot for a little site like mine.  In 2005, I’ve been blown away by 1,200,000 hits - the exact figures aren’t yet in at the time of writing, but that’s very nearly one million more hits than last year.  That is truly incredible.  Since January, the average daily number of hits has more than tripled. 

Of course, this popularity boom comes with inherent difficulties.  In the early part of the year, the site was plagued by Internal Server Errors as my host struggled to keep up with the sudden explosion in site traffic.  Over the course of the year, however, B-One have become used to the traffic level, and so Internal Server Errors have almost become a thing of the past.

This year has also been an incredibly prolific one, with 640 posts filed, and special sections set up for coverage of the devastating tsunami of 2004, and the political excitement of this year’s General Election, not to mention being asked to write for Channel 4 News.  The amount written, though, only reflects the amount that’s happened this year - it’s been incredibly busy, with news events covering the broadest possible spectrum of emotion.

On another subject entirely, I’ve conducted several experiments with advertising on the site this year, one of which is still ongoing.  I’m happy to report that, for the first time, the site has generated enough money to cover costs during 2005, and that’s something about which we can all be glad, as it will continue to allow me to innovate and introduce new features to the site.

On the subject of new features… at the beginning of 2005, there was only one way to access the site - visiting it at sjhoward.co.uk using a standard web browser.  Now, there are many more ways of getting your fix:  You can get us on your mobile, on your mp3 player, and in your email inbox to name just three, in addition to the traditional browsing method.

On the technical side, I started the year with Blogger and finished it with WordPress, following the ‘big move’ in January.  And some exciting news:  As of today, the site is running on the all-new WordPress 2.0. This should make the site faster and more reliable, and certainly does give me more to play with, in a more intuitive way, backstage.

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my visitors, readers, advertisers, and others, for your support during 2005.  With you, it’s been a great year for the site, but without you, the site is nothing.  Thank you so much for your continuing support.

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I’ve had reports already of a bug in the new software - some people are reporting seeing “Error 412 - Precondition Failed” preventing them from accessing the site temporarily. I think I’ve tackled this bug, but if anyone sees that error - or any other bugs or errors - then please let me know at the usual address.  There are bound to be bugs in the system here and there, so please help me to squish them by reporting them to me.  Thank you!

» This comment was received at 14:14 on 31 December 05

Another bug: The mobile version of the site is currently not working. I hope to have this fixed within the next couple of days.

» This comment was received at 12:05 on 01 January 06

A temporary fix for the mobile problem is now online - access the site via the text route (text ’sjh’ to 60300) or the URI http://www.sjhoward.co.uk/wp-wap.php and it should work. The sjhoward.co.uk/mobile URI will be fixed in due course.

» This comment was received at 15:57 on 01 January 06

The final figure for number of hits in 2005 was 1,202,415 - more than five times the number in 2004.

Also, the URI for the mobile service has now been updated to http://mobile.sjhoward.co.uk.  Texting ’sjh’ to shortcode 60300 still provides quick-and-easy access for those with WAP 2.0 compatable phones.

» This comment was received at 22:54 on 10 February 06

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