By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - First of all, I won't publish anything submitted from an anonymous source. Please sign your submissions with your real name and a telephone number. If you want me to protect your identity as the source of the information that's fine and I do that all the time, however I have to know who you are. Also, don't submit links unless you intend to participate in our long standing link exchange program. Basically, if you link to me then I will link to you, but I won't link to anyone who doesn't link back. So, put up a link to www.panama-guide.com somewhere on your website, let me know where it is, and I'll link to you. If you don't do that, then submitting a link is a waste of time because I'll just delete it. Anyway, have a great Sunday.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Traffic to the Panama-Guide.com website increased by more than 53% compared to February 2009, representing excellent year-on-year strategic growth. We also broke two long standing traffic records this month, in the categories of "Pages Delivered" and "Hits To The Server." Every time a visitor reads an article that counts as one "page delivered." And, in order to create that page, "hits to the server" are generated. So to a certain extent these two categories go hand in hand. We delivered more than 2.6 million webpages to our readers in February 2010 (actually 2,605,349), shattering the previous record set during the presidential elections of May 2009. Along those same lines, smashed another record - in the category of "hits to the server" in a single month. The prior record was 9.1 million established during the May 2009 elections, and this month we saw more than 10.3 million hits (actually 10,357,517). Notably, we didn't break records in the categories of Unique Visitors or Visits, which means this month the people who came to the website had a tendency to read more articles on the site during their visit. We also had our second straight month with more than 100,000 unique visitors, according to the Sitemeter Gold Chart. There were three distinct traffic peaks this month. The first came during Sunday and Monday, 7 & 8 February, when the outing of the "Doctor of Fake" Jerry Ray Hall became public knowledge in Texas. The second peak was on Tuesday, 23 February, with the arrest of Daniel Moreno Melendez in the murder of Denise Mullen Hiller. And the third peak was yesterday with the earthquake in Chile and the Tsunami warnings issued for the Republic of Panama. The Tsunami turned out to be nothing, Jerry Ray Hall is still a wacko, and I wish the Denise Hiller story had never happened. Normally February is a slow month for traffic because with only 28 days the longer months have more time to rack up numbers. This month was an exception. Anyway, Gertrude says "Hi" and sends her best wishes for a happy month of March 2010.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I've received a few emails asking "hey Don, are you alright?" Since Wednesday this week I've been devoting 100% of my time to assist Panamanian law enforcement and judicial authorities first catch and now charge the suspect in the brutal murder of American expat Denise Hiller last week. When something like this comes up, obviously it becomes the priority over almost everything else - goof balls like Jerry Hall aren't going anywhere, and they can wait. Anyway, thanks for the concern, and hopefully I'll be able to get back in the saddle and to return to a more normal and routine evolution between today and tomorrow. No, I have to drop out to write the article about the murder suspect who was formally charged last night...

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - The article published today about the new bridge that will eventually be built over the Panama Canal near Colon was article number 11,000 on this website. Let's see, where did I put that box of funny hats and noise makers? We are now in our sixth year of providing news and information to the ever expanding community of English speaking expatriates in the Republic of Panama - we just keep piling it on higher and deeper - and after awhile they start to add up. People will come up to me and often start off conversations with stuff like "remember that time you wrote that thing about that guy..." Well, kinda. It never ceases to amaze me how sometimes people can remember even the smallest little details of articles I've written and published, sometimes years ago. Our readers tend to "stick" to the website like glue once they find us and I like to think that we pick up and add new loyal readers, one at a time. We are now getting about 100,000 unique visitors per month, and our traffic levels continue to increase, year on year, ignoring the little short-term fluctuations. Strategically speaking, we have been growing about 30% per year or more since our launch on 27 August 2004. And of course, thank you all for coming back, time and time again. We're #1 thanks to you.

By way of reference, the cake in the picture was to celebrate the 11,000th dive of the USS Dogfish near Nassau in the Bahamas. Their accomplishment was much more important and harder to achieve than mine - but they did just happened to have the right number on the cake. In any case, cheers...

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Welcome aboard to our latest link swapper - the Ginger House in Cerro Azul. From their website: "Ginger House is a quaint guest house and wellness retreat located in the mountain community of Los Altos de Cerro Azul. Its 45 minutes away from Tocumen International Airport. This retreat borders the Chagres National Forest. There are plenty of trails to hike and wildlife to see within the retreat area. There are also day trips to taken, such as canal tours, historic tours,river rides and zip Lines through the jungle. Or you can just hang out in a hammock with a good book and a cool drink. I can arrange massage and reiki treatments by appointment only. Ginger House is also available for private functions such as business luncheons or brunch." And special credit goes to Picasso, the owner and operator of the Ginger House, for her patience with me about getting his one posted. She wrote - "Hey...Over Here!!! Dont forget about swapping links and banners and massage and stuff. Ok Well, you told me to pester you, which I really hate to do to people. So here it goes...PESTER PESTER PESTER. I know know pain in the ass. but i gotta get my business rolling. Thanks for your HELP. Cheers, Picasso" My pleasure. And, my apologies for taking so long to get this done. The place sounds great.    

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - During the month of January 2010 we delivered 1.9 million page views (1,935,214 to be exact) falling just short of the 2 million mark for the month. The single month record of 2,076,444 in May 2009 remains intact. Of course traffic to the website was inflated that month thanks to the election of Ricardo Martinelli. And by way of clarification - if you visit the website and read ten articles, that's ten page views. Every time you (or anyone else) sends a request to the server to view a page and that page is delivered, then that's "one." This is a very important number for our advertisers who want to know how many times there logo is getting displayed. Well, in January, that was more than 1.9 million times.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - A lot of things came together to make January 2010 a great month for website traffic. Former presidents getting tossed into the clinker, city-wide raids against hookers and prostitutes, the brand-new FIS scandal, the political maneuvers to force Panama's Attorney General getting forced out of office, and even a Puerto Rican (gringo) involved in an attempt to kidnap president Ricardo Martinelli. Mix all of that interesting news together with the arrival of dry season and fantastic summer-time weater, hundreds of thousands of tourist arrivals - and a swarm of earthquakes in Chiriqui. Yup, there was zooks of fodder for the "guide" this month and thankfully you all responded by checking in to see what was going on. According to the "Site Meter Gold Chart" which we have always used to gauge website traffic, in January 2010 more than 100,000 different people (unique visitors) came to the Panama-Guide.com website to follow the news and current events in English in the Republic of Panama. This is the first time in the five and a half year history of this website that we've eclipsed that mark, so of course it's a gratifying accomplishment. By way of comparison on the same scale we saw 75,655 unique visitors in January 2009 and an increase to 100,533 in January 2010, representing a 32.8% increase in traffic to the website, year on year. Hey, I'll take a 32% growth in traffic from one year to the next, anytime. Remember that in September 2009 I was celebrating over seeing an average of 87,361 uniques over a six month average. Well, over the past six months we've averaged 91,047 based on data from this same source, even though a relatively crappy month of December kinda screws the pooch a little in there. Anyway, pardon me whist I tweet my own horn a little. Advertisers - don't forget to send me those press releases. It looks like the Panamanian economy and real estate markets are starting to jump again, so let's get busy... Anyway, Gertrude Hoffmaster says "thanks, guys." And here's a teaser - there's a "community bombshell" coming in February but I just can't talk about it yet. Stay tuned.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - I call the last few days of the month "sweeps week" because it's during this time that I often set new traffic records for the Panama-Guide.com website. In the website business it's all about the traffic. As traffic to the website grows, it's common for us to match last month's numbers at about the middle of the last week of the next month. So by about the 26th or 27th of any month I can see that we have already obtained the same levels of traffic from previous comparable months, and now we're looking to sprint to the end of the month in new territory - breaking traffic records as we go.

Unique Visitors - The Most Important Category: We've been averaging more than 90,000 unique visitors per month since the May 2009 elections. There's a possibility that maybe, just maybe, we might hit 100,000 uniques for the first time this month. Those people with smaller websites like to talk about "hits" to their websites because that's usually the largest number produced by their website statistical programs. For example, so far in January 2010 we've seen more than 8.2 million hits to the website. But, so what? What does that mean? A much more important number is "unique visitors" - a category in which each visitor to the website is counted only once during the month. If you are a regular reader and you come back to the website every day, you only count as "1" in that number. Unique visitors is the most important number for current and potential advertisers because it gives them a sense of exactly how many different people their advertising will reach. And for January 2010 - for the first time - we are getting close to 100,000 unique visitors.

Not There Yet: It's going to be close and it's certainly not in the bag, but if current traffic levels and trends continue through Sunday then we just might get there. This is when I call upon you, my faithful readers, for a little help to push it over the top. Of course it's just boring website traffic statistics and arbitrary numbers, but I would like to start off 2010 by reaching the "100,000 unique visitors" plateau. In this business, traffic equals food. I turn traffic into diapers and dog food. I can walk into a meeting with a potential advertiser and truthfully tell them we get that many uniques each month. About half of our unique visitors come from the United States, about a third from Panama, and the remainder from the rest of the world.

Please Help Us Get There: This is a shameless plug and a call for help. I ask you, our faithful regular readers, to please do your part to help push us over the top. Please send a quick note or email someone, anyone, who you think might be interested in taking a look at what we offer here at Panama-Guide.com. If you happen to know someone in the UK that would be fantastic because those blokes are just starting to wake up to Panama. Anyway, whatever little thing you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. And as always, thank you very much for your continued support.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.   

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Welcome aboard to our latest link swapper, the Seagullcove Lodge in Boca Chica. From their website: "Some people enjoy a big resort with all its fury and grandeur. Others seek something a little more refined, relaxing and in tune with nature.....For the latter persons, Seagullcove Lodge, in Boca Chica, Panama is an exclusive hideaway with five sea-view cabins, a quality restaurant and exceptional care. It is the only boutique hotel in Boca Chica, located right on the gulf of Chiriqui, Panama." Sounds like a nice place. Looks very nice on the website, too. And once again, another entrepreneur takes advantage of our long standing link exchange program to grab some quick and easy web traffic. See, was that so hard? If you own or manage a website with English language content about Panama, you might want to sign up. Just like crack or heroin, the first one's free... (grin)

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.