New Smyrna Beach No. 1 among users from 18,191 cities globally
DAYTONA BEACH -- Headline Surfer®, the award-winning 24/7 internet newspaper has been accessed in 216 countries around the word in the past two years, according to Google Analytics for and accessed via HeadlineSurfer.com.
The United States is clearly the dominant country for Headline Surfer® with 1.55 million users or slightly more than 90% of the total internet traffic. At No. 2 is Canada, United Kingdom at No. 3, and Australia and India, at No.'s 4 and 5, respectively.
With the focus clearly on greater New Smyrna Beach as the home base from the launch of the site until the husband-wife team moved in September to Lake Mary before settling in Sanford and establishing Daytona Beach as the home base, New Smyrna Beach remains the dominant No. 1 city globally. Overall, the site has been accessed by users from 18,191 cities around the world.
Among the top stories on Headline Surfer®, has been alleged corruption in municipal government under New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer, first elected in 2009. He's not seeking re-election. Readers liked the stories that ran on the investigative reports, "Show Me the Money: New Smyrna Beach," detailing waste in taxpayer funded CRA grants: Upwards of $2 million for bars and alcohol-fueled street festivals, benefitting insiders, and culminating in a horrible DUI-related crash on the South Causeway Bridge in 2013 following the Cinco de Mayo street party on Flagler Avenue.
Other stories of scandal include Mayor Barringer trying to piggyback on a CRA construction project by appointing a friend to the board, his appointing Stephen "Steve" Sather, to the city's Planning Board despite his no contest plea in 1994, in a Daytona Beach courtroom to trying to purchase a large quantity of cocaine from an undercover cop posing as a coke dealer. Sather is now running for a city commission seat for the second time in five years.
Other top stories have been the internet newspaper's coverage New Smyrna Beach High School's Cudas home football game video highlights (especially homecoming), the continuing coverage of the George Zimmerman murder trial, Daytona International Speedway's Speedweeks (Rolex 24 and Daytona 500) and July Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup Race under the lights.
Headline Surfer® was the first news organization in the Sunshine State to produce a multi-media presentation of a high school graduation in 2008, something it has done every year since with New Smyrna Beach HS from the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.
The 2014 coverage of the Indianapolis 500 (even from Florida) was big hit, as were updates on NBA stars Dwight Howard and Vince Carter, both of whom played for the Orlando Magic.
Other stories that have drawn international readers is the internet newspaper's focus on the "Walking Tall" personna of Daytona Beach Police Chief Michael Chitwood, known for his name calling and the city's skyrocketing violent crime totals, which Headline Surfer® has emphasized with electronic crime mapping.
The internet newspapers investigative reports story on Chitwood's promotion to captain of a supervisor who was abusive to female cops under his command for close to a decade, was among the most-read stories, which also won two Florida Press awards.
Here is a listing of the Top 100 Countries:
The rankings represent the last two years, ending June 20, 2014.
While the Top 10 rankings are fairly predictable for an English-speaking website, the ranking at No. 7 is described as "not set" which means Google couldn't affix these users to a particular country or territory for one reason or another. Every continent is represented with the exception of Antarctica, which doesn't have any countries.
At No. 44, Romania is the final country with at least 500 users. Serbia just misses that cutoff with 495 users. Ghana at No. 89 is the last country in the Top 100 with at least 100 visitors. And Latvia at No. 90, just misses that cutoff with 99 visitors.
Overall, in terms of analytics, there have been 1,412,363 (1.41 million) users who have accessed Headline Surfer®.
These 1.41 million users have come to the site 2,037,396 (2.03 million) times.
And they have collectively accessed 3,445,236 (3.44 million) page views on Headline Surfer®.
Headline Surfer® has been accessed by users in 18,191 cities around the world.
Florida No. 1 in The States, as well as DC and Puerto Rico
The Sunshine State tops the ramkings in the US for users in the 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, accessing HeadlineSurfer.com.It goes without saying that Headline Surfer has been accessed in all 50 states as well as Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
Florida is the No. 1 state with nearly 54% of the total.
California, New York, Georgia and Texas round out the Top 5. Rounding out the Top 10 states are Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
Michigan comes in at No. 13 among the states with at least 21,000 users. Ahead of Michigan are Virginia and New Jersey.
It goes without saying that Headline Surfer has been accessed in all 50 states as well as Washington, DCand Puerto Rico.
Florida is the No. 1 state with nearly 54% of the total. California, New York, Georgia and Texas round out the Top 5. Rounding out the Top 10 states are Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
At left are the rankings of internet users in The States that have acccessed Headline Surfer®, dominated by Florida, with California, New York, Georgia and Texas rounding the Top 5. The bottom five states in the rankings represent the smaller populations within their boundaries with Alsalaska coming in fifth from the bottom, followed by Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.486 Florida communities accessing Headline Surfer®
In terms of Florida cities, New Smyrna Beach, the home base of Headline Surfer® from the onset until the end of August, is the No. ranked city overall and worldwide with 241,948 users or 14.06% of the total.
Daytona Beach is a distant second with 84,151, or 4.89%, followed by Edgewater, Orlando and Port Orange. Among major cities, New York City is 6th with 47,628 users, Atlanta is 10th and Los Angeles is 16th. London is the highest ranking international city at 18th.
Headline Surfer has been accessed by users in 486 Florida communities.
Of the overall traffic, only 28.24% is direct. The rest is the result of Headline Surfer® content being accessed around the clock by Google News and placed in its news directories by city and zip code and in the major search engines, as well as the internet newspaper's vast social media network.
It's typical for Headline Surfer® to be trending on the first page of a key word search within 5 to 10 minutes. The size of the media outlet has little to do with placement.
Headline Surfer® has the distinction of being the very first true internet newspaper that Google News accepted as legitimate press within months of its April 7, 2008, launch as NSBNews.net. Two years ago, with the successful acquisition of the registered trademark "Headline Surfer" the URL was changed to HeadlineSurfer.com.