It was a record-breaking year for F1 Fanatic with more visitors, comments and articles than ever before.
4,595,646 page views, 1,667,816 visits
Predictably, we got a big surge in traffic as the season started, but there was also a major increase in readership in September as the title battle gathered momentum.
And of course there were massive spikes in traffic when there was a really big story like Spankgate (April) and the championship finale (November). But the biggest spike of all was in July, when half of Poland came to visit. Dziekuje bardzo!
29,038 site comments, 67,450 live comments
The 2008 season marked the first year of live commenting during Grand Prix sessions at F1 Fanatic and I think it was a huge success. In fact, we quickly began to receive so many comments that I had to recruit a team of volunteers to help me keep on top of things. Thanks to everyone who helped run the F1 Fanatic Live Blogs in 2008 – I hope you’ll be back for more this year.
Nor were we short of things to discuss on the site between races. In fact there were more comments on F1 Fanatic this year than in the three previous years the site has been running combined. Add in the live blog comments, and the total for 2008 alone is over 96,000.
Top countries
The popularity of Robert Kubica helped make Poland the third biggest audience for F1 Fanatic, behind the UK and USA. Here’s the top ten for 2008:
1. United Kingdom 36.19%
2. United States 14.31%
3. Poland 4.16%
4. Australia 3.83%
5. Canada 3.46%
6. Spain 2.73%
7. India 2.43%
8. Germany 2.01%
9. Brazil 1.84%
10. France 1.68%
Thanks to everyone who participated in F1 Fanatic last year – whether by reading, writing, voting, commenting or suggesting an article. When I started the site a little under four years ago now I didn’t expect it would become anything like as popular as it has. I have plenty of new ideas for the rest of the year and I hope we all enjoy an exciting 2009 F1 season together.
Spud
1st January 2009, 16:20
Fair Play to you Keith.
Its hardly surpising how your site has become so popular. You have more information than f1.com! :)
Happy New Year to you and all other fanatics out there.
Keep up the good work!!!!
Spud. :D
anirudh
1st January 2009, 16:24
I started visiting this from this season…..
Bassfighter
1st January 2009, 17:22
to me this is the best site if I am talking about F1 I’ve seen.
Keith and all the other guy’s who are busy with this site: keep going cause you doing great work!!!!
I only miss 1 thing… where is The Netherlands if it comes to the top country´s :-S…
Chaz
1st January 2009, 17:37
Truly impressive statistics. Simply a testament to the quality of the posts.
(Incidentally for your information Keith, some of the advertising links seem to be broken)
diseased rat
1st January 2009, 19:02
Awesome job Keith, what a site. I am surprised that the US gives the second biggest audience though.
S Hughes
1st January 2009, 19:25
What a shame there is no GP in the US anymore as they are obviously really interested in F1. Great shame. I am sure the popularity/phenomenon of Lewis Hamilton has contributed to the increase in traffic on this site. Why don’t you do an article about the results of the F1 Racing/ING online survey? Apart from the result of Lewis being the most popular driver there are lots of other interesting results from F1 fans around the world. Sorry if you’ve already done one. It is published in January’s ‘F1 Racing’ magazine.
Happy New Year!
Il Venturetto
1st January 2009, 19:42
Thank you for all your hard work.
Kind regards from Spain!
Bud
1st January 2009, 20:11
Happy New Year to you and yours Keith, never a day goes by without a visit here, thanks for all the hard work and a fantastic site. :)
Wesley
1st January 2009, 20:14
I would have guessed the percentage of us Yanks would have been less….good to know I am not one of the only F1 fans over here.I have watched this site grow rather quickly over the past couple of years….and it has for good reason.
Happy New Year Keith and fanatics!Hope you all prosper in 2009!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
1st January 2009, 20:59
Chaz – Can you let me know which ones? Drop me a line via the contact form if you’d prefer.
S Hughes – I’m trying to get more details than what they already published in the magazine. There wasn’t really any great surprises in the few results they printed, I thought.
I think it’s great to see a healthy American contingent on the site. Although we in Europe think of F1 has having a minority following in America, a minority out of 301m people is still a decent number!
India seventh highest is a promising sign too. I hope they get an Indian Grand Prix sorted soon (and not just for my own selfish ends, i.e., getting more people on the site!)
Lynn
1st January 2009, 22:01
Well done Keith, this is a great site, I always visit this one first, then autosport and if I want a laugh Planet F1. Happy New Year to you and your team.
Moe
1st January 2009, 22:05
Thank you keith for all efforts you put in this site. I think that your blog is the most important blog in internet now..
Thank you, and keep up the good work.
Pink Peril
1st January 2009, 22:24
Great work Keith – I no longer go to the ‘official’ F1 site, I just come straight here for my F1 fix.
Lady Snowcat
1st January 2009, 22:34
Well done Keith…
Your enthusiasm and lack of bias shines through… and although I don’t always agree with you (can’t think why) I appreciate the cohesive and well argued comment which you exhibit, and encourage from your contributors too…
Keep up the excellent work and the site will grow and grow…
S Hughes
2nd January 2009, 0:07
I think the Ed Gorman blog on the Times website is another good F1 site for info and comments. I’d say the top ones are:
F1 Fanatic
Ed Gorman’s blog
Planet-F1
Gridcrasher (for lighthearted gossip and silliness)
verasaki
2nd January 2009, 1:15
great job you do, keith. i get a round up news emails from one or other of the hunter/gatherers(yahoo, google…whoever) but i don’t read all of them. you, f1 insight and la canta magnifico are the only regulars. i like sidepodcast too, but don’t often have the time for something i can’t skim.
i’d completely forgotten about the polish invasion! that was definitely the funniest this year!
best luck in the new year. let’s hope f1 provides the relief we’re probably all going to need.
301 million u.s. fans? where the heck are they?!
todd
2nd January 2009, 5:01
congrats and good luck on next year, if it was anything like 2008 there’ll be lots more interest!
your USP (unique selling proposition) i think is the stats and other hand built – hand researched items, not the general news and updates that floats around, anyone can do that and get it from autosport, so keep up the good unique content and the traffic should follow :)
Gman
2nd January 2009, 5:05
To me, the tremendous success for F1fanatic in 2008 is proof that a great product will attract and retain new readers on a continued basis. I first visited the site early in 2008 and the operation has continued to get better since then. In what was my first full year of following the sport, the site was a great asset in learning more about F1 and the many details that go along with the operation.
My thanks to Keith for putting together and maintaining a fantastic operation, and for the chance to contribute via several guest articles. Also, I can’t say how much I have enjoyed interacting with all of the other posters on all the given subjects- it’s been a great time and I know we’ll have many more to come.
Lastly, it makes me both very proud and very happy to see my country as second on the list of visitors- trust me Wesley, you’re not the only fan on our shores! I think these numbers reflect that F1 can indeed have a successful audience in the U.S., and if a blog like this can get figures such as these, just imagine what the results could be if Bernie and company really tried their hands at marketing F1 in America…..
mp4-19
2nd January 2009, 5:15
hats off to keith. The best F1 blog on the planet. Keep up the good work.
cyanide
2nd January 2009, 8:29
Congrats Keith! :D
Pete Walker
2nd January 2009, 9:12
Must be quite a feeling for you Keith, and rightly so! I found this site just over a year ago during last year’s deathly quiet Xmas/New Year period whilst desperately searching for an F1 news fix. Seldom has a day gone by since that I’ve not visited.
As far as I am concerned, this is the best F1 site on the internet and I’m sure the impressive 2008 traffic stats will be dwarfed by 2009’s. Keep up the good work. :)
luky
2nd January 2009, 11:25
well done, keep the good work!
Ekho
2nd January 2009, 12:18
I second all the comments here, this is a fantastic site and your encyclopedic knowledge and well-researched articles are a real boon to us real fans looking for more than just the basic commentary on the races. cheers keith!
IDR
2nd January 2009, 15:07
Congratulations Keith.
Your hard work, accurate and balanced information and some of your most robust correspondents, is the key for your blog’s success.
I must say I was one of the most frequent correspondents of Ed’s Gorman blog, but your way to manage this blog, F1 Fanatic is just the best.
Now, F1 Fanatic is the first site I visit when I want to know something about F1.
Big thanks for this wonderful site and I’m pretty sure, in 2009, your blog will double 2008 figures!
Best regards.
Stubie
2nd January 2009, 15:59
Kudos to you Keith.
The surge is both a testament to the quality of your posts and the keen management of the community… even during heated moments. Masterful job!
PJA
2nd January 2009, 16:11
Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work you put in.
I started visiting the site last season. Although I have followed F1 since 1991 I haven’t really used the internet for information before 2008 apart from the odd news article.
The reason this is my F1 site of choice is the quality of the articles and the debates. None of my friends follow F1 so it is nice to know what others think, without the debates descending into name calling as seems to happen on some sites.
Iceman
2nd January 2009, 18:38
fanatstic site well done Keith magnificent!!!
im in the Spain one :( sadly i would like to be in any other country
Jonas
3rd January 2009, 0:23
The best F1 site ever. More info than any other site and the forum site are well balanced compared to others. Keep it up!
bernification
3rd January 2009, 0:40
Most interesting, well informed F1 site on the net.
Congratulations and happy new year Keith.
Journeyer
3rd January 2009, 16:15
If anything, I’d argue that F1Fanatic had the biggest surge in popularity this year. You got featured on Sky News, by golly – twice!
Well done, Keith. You deserve it. :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th January 2009, 10:17
According to Google Trends we’ve caught up with Pitpass in terms of unique users and am catching Grandprix.com: data here
Journeyer
3rd January 2009, 16:24
Keith and Ollie for Best Sports Blog!
http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-sports-blog/
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th January 2009, 10:16
I know! Voting starts tomorrow, I’ll get a post up by then.
Wesley
5th January 2009, 23:35
Keith already got my vote today,never too soon.