by Believe it or not, Bricks of the Dead has been rolling for two years as of Saturday, February 18th. Pretty impressive, no? Let’s look at some facts and figures.
Content Statistics
Since launching, we’ve done:
- 22 Zombie game features and write-ups
- 6 interviews (with more on the way)
- 64 reviews
- 95 Zombie creations of the week
- 30 assorted blog posts
- And 224 comics, but let’s break those down as well:
- 195 regular episodes of Bricks of the Dead
- 22 Bonus Feature episodes
- And 7 Guest Strips (which were just awesome, by the way)
And through all of that, you guys have contributed over 11,000 comments. That’s a hell of a lot of discussion.
Traffic Statistics
Since launching the site I’ve had:
- 141,661 visits to the site (65,265 of which were from unique users)
- 690,758 page views – well over the half a million mark and climbing fast!
- That’s an average of just under 1,000 page views per day/almost 29,000 per month. Awesome.
But where’s all that traffic coming from? So glad you asked.
I have no idea what those three “Campaign” visits are supposed to be.
As far as where traffic comes from, the top five referral sources are:
- StumbleUpon
- Reasonably Clever (Thanks Doyle!)
- Brick Comic Network
The Survey Results
You may all remember that survey I kept bugging you about. Well 62 of you took the time to fill it out, and I really appreciate that. Your responses were all very interesting. I’ll share a few of them.
For the favorite/least favorite metric, I tried to parse out all the “Other” answers based on notes. It seems a lot of people either didn’t have, or couldn’t pick a least favorite character. And yes, they guy who wrote “the zombies” was probably being sarcastic. Also, people really seem to like Murphy.
As far as what everyone’s favorite part of Bricks of the Dead was, the comic itself was the overwhelming winner, getting 79% of the votes. The remainder was pretty evenly split, with quite a few people saying that liked everything. Well thanks!
What would people change? Mostly, people would like to keep things pretty much the way they are, or keep things they way they are, only with more updates. There were also a handful of really good technical and content suggestions here that I’m going to try to implement. Finally, a few of you seem to be getting irritated with The Bonus Features. Don’t worry, I’ve got a firm end date for that, and it’s coming fairly soon.
As far as other items people want to see, there’s a good deal of support (> 53%) for a forum, so I might look for good solutions there. It seems like you guys would also like to see more tutorials, how to articles, and reviews of LEGO® sets. I’ll see what I can do.
Finally, just shy of half of the respondents indicated that they’d be somewhat to very likely to purchase an item that got a good review here, which is pretty damn cool. Slightly less of you (> 40%) stated you’d be interested in some Bricks of the Dead merchandise. No promises there, but I might see about getting a t shirt of a coffee cup or something done up. You guys all drink coffee, right?
What’s Next?
So after two years, what’s next for Bricks of the Dead? Well, more of the same. The Bonus Features are going to end soon, and I’m going to transition to three episodes per week, which should make a lot of you happy. I’m talking to some people that are doing pretty cool stuff about getting some how to articles up. We’ve got a healthy backlog of items to review, and I’m hoping to branch into more than just books, movies, and third-party accessories.
Sometime this year I also plan to give the site a bit of an update, both to add functionality and make the content more organized and easier to browse. And maybe see about a forum.
Thank You
Lastly, I’d like to say thank you to every single people who has checked out my silly little webcomic over the last couple of years. I feel incredibly lucky to have such an incredible community of people to talk to every day about all things LEGO® and zombie. It’s been a blast working on this, and most of that is because of you guys.
“Sniff”…I’m so proud of this site….and you of course!
Hah, thank you.
Congrats Dave!
Thanks Fox!
Congrats Dave, it’s hard work and it’s paying off so well done and please keep it up!
You have given a home to all the Zombie/Lego fans out there and I’m also very grateful to be a part of this small community.
And I’m damn glad to have you around here, Yatkuu!
Who else to supply our fix? Dave is the only trust worthy dealer around.
Get’em hooked and raise the price!
You know, I would have liked to see the Bonus Features continue, but it really depends on whether you can do it while maintaining a regular flow of BotD strips and other review or feature content too.
If it was one or the other, I’d settle for more BotD strips, and I think that is a good compromise, however, do please remember holidays and special occasions as a means of keeping certain kinds of bonus strips around. 😉
Speaking of statistics, have you gone through the comics themselves and broken down the killing or maiming of zombies and people yet? 😀
You know, I never even thought about those statistics. That might be kind of fun to find out.
Hey dave, you know how you could keep having bonus comics going, you could have like 1 a month, that is if you don’t have an end-all bonus strip planned.
That’s something I’d considered. It seems like most people do like them, so I might just do them here and there once I finish the current storyline.
Ooooh statistics, makes me all warm and fuzzy!
Congratualtions on two years of blood, guts, drama and braaaaaaaains!
Re. the “campaigns” — I think that’s Google-speak for people hitting your site via Adwords or other specific promotional links.
Thank you kindly, Louise!
Ah, that could make sense re: campaigns. I think I did play around with one when the site first launched since I ended up with a gift card for AdWords. Looks like it wasn’t terribly successful.
I think that’s how I found the site to be honest with you.. I can barely remember.
Two years, that is great! I have to say since stumblin on this site one day looking for some cool MOCs, I haven’t left. Thank you for all your effort and hard work Dave and anyone else who has contributed to this site.
Thank you kindly, Tom.
Congratulations on two very successful years of Bricks of the Dead, Dave!
I hope to be half as successful as you’ve been by the time Zombie Outbrick reaches its second birthday. 😉
Although I was hoping you would continue The Bonus Features. Oh well, on to bigger and better things, I suppose.
Here’s to plastic building blocks, reanimated corpses, blood and guts, and the future!
Zombie Outbrick is certainly promising. Keep at it!
Thank you Dave for all the comics you’ve made without asking for pretty much anything from your fans and loyal readers.
Hah, you’re very welcome.
Well done on reaching the two year mark!!
Fingers crossed you manage to find the time in your “regular” life to keep this up for another two!
from this side of the pond……..a hearty congrats to ya!
Thank you, sir! I have to say, I didn’t realize you were actually in Scotland. Very cool.
Congrats Dave!! I suggest this site to everyone I talk to and can’t wait to see the update. You are AWESOME!!
*blush*
Keep up the good work
Thank you, I shall!
-Looks around back and forth-
Damn I’ve been here for a year?
Still smells like dead people.
As well.. I want to know the other person who also liked Clark.
Yeah, I wish it told me who picked what as well.
Wait.. I’ve been reading and part of this site since episode 74… SO how long have I been around?
That was back in November of 2010.
Wow… Doesn’t feel like much time had passed… I remember when ZM began posting up reviews, and that felt like just yesterday… Oh god.. Time does pass by to fast T-T
Indeed it does! I’ve enjoyed the forum Dave has given me to ramble!