How many people read Oots?

[silversaraph]

On a regular basis? Thread search fails me.

[Mystic Muse]

enough.post not long enough.

[Setra]

enough.post not long enough.
Never enough!

[NerfTW]

Do you mean "who also post on the forum"? Or do you just mean the numbers in general? For the latter, you're probably not going to get any answers short of emailing Mr. Burlew directly, but we can tell, since he makes a living off it, that the numbers must be pretty high.

[Comet]

Millions and millions.

[monomer]

Well, Alexa (http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Arts/Comics/Comic_Strips_and_Panels) doesn't explicitly state how many readers there are, it does show that OotS is the sixth moste visited comic strip online. It is also the 3260th most visited site in the US.

[ocdscale]

Or to put it another way, out of all the 'people on the internet', about 1.7% of them check out Giantitp.com.

So while Google.com is like California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania combined, Giantitp.com is like Minnesota (population ~5.2million).

Seems small only compared to a giant like Google. Compare it to Wizards.com (Virginia) and it's probably a middleweight.

[Hardcore]

Interestingly the rankings say it is very big in South Korea:smallconfused:

[silversaraph]

Well, people who have clicked on it once on their I.P address and had it registered is not what I mean. I'm talking about regular readers, those who check and read the updates (not a one time archive breeze.)

I mean, I've read a lot of webcomics, but only a few do I regularly read instead of a one time marathon.

[Keldin]

Not enough -- get your friends to read it!!

[littlequietguy]

Me :smallbiggrin:

[Setra]

VG cats is above OotS?

Bah :smallannoyed:

I'm also curious about xkcd being at the top.. Knowing that a lot of the people who like xkcd can probably do a lot of stuff that might fudge with the numbers, I must wonder if it's accurate..

Then again I'm paranoid, so that might be it too :smalltongue:

[DarkElfGangsta]

{Scrubbed}
Chuck Norris

[ScottishDragon]

Good,if Chuck Norris reads Oots then its all good.:smallbiggrin:

[Setra]

Good,if Chuck Norris reads Oots then its all good.:smallbiggrin:
Well obviously Chuck Norris reads OotS, I mean the man who taught him everything he knows is in there. :smalltongue:

[largertyler]

{Scrubbed}
Chuck Noriss


AH HA HA OH HO HO he he he ahhhh. (laughter)

[Turkish Delight]

Enough, apparently, to pay the bills.

[factotum]

Well, people who have clicked on it once on their I.P address and had it registered is not what I mean. I'm talking about regular readers, those who check and read the updates (not a one time archive breeze.)


The simple fact is that we can't answer that question. The only person who possibly could is The Giant, because he presumably has access to the web logs that show how many visits this site is receiving, but even then it would be difficult to figure out because the same person might come in on different IP addresses each time, making it impossible to trace how many times they've visited.

One fact is certain: the number of regular visitors will be greater than the total number of people signed up for the forums, and according to the info at the bottom of the page, there are currently 40,199 of those.

[RMS Oceanic]

I know I read it, and so does my brother. So at least 2. :smallsmile:

[Yendor]

Four. Indications of any more are all part of an elaborate ruse.

[Keris]

While this information may well be woefully outdated by now (The Giant posted it back in '08), it might serve to give some indication of how much traffic OotS generates.

[The] last time this site got less than 6 million hits in a month was last September [2007], when I took a scheduled 3-week break. By my estimates, we have 250,000 regular check-every-strip readers, plus an uncountable number of casual readers.

[Morquard]

I'm also curious about xkcd being at the top.. Knowing that a lot of the people who like xkcd can probably do a lot of stuff that might fudge with the numbers, I must wonder if it's accurate..

I often find single xkcd strips inserted in wikis, blogs etc, because the topic of the article and the strip are somewhat related, but I'm not sure if that registers as a xkcd reader.

[Zherog]

On a regular basis? Thread search fails me.

I believe the scientific term is "metric ass ton."

[silversaraph]

Then it's definitely more than 250,000, if it was last year, unless the giant was "rounding" the figures a little. But man, does he seem pissed in that post you quoted.

Edit: Gah! And you can feel his eyes ripping out your spleen through the computer in the second one. :smalleek:

[Tyndmyr]

Four. Indications of any more are all part of an elaborate ruse.

The first rule of the elaborate ruse is not to talk about the elaborate ruse.

[Gamerlord]

Let us see, assuming everyone who ever registered on this forum at least once frequently read, that is at least 40,100+. Let us assume that at least 10 times that number reads it.

If he told us sales numbers on his books that would help.

[Elm11]

Well, Alexa (http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Arts/Comics/Comic_Strips_and_Panels) doesn't explicitly state how many readers there are, it does show that OotS is the sixth moste visited comic strip online. It is also the 3260th most visited site in the US.

so, what you're saying is that GiTP is the most visited non-porn site in the U.S :smallbiggrin:

I jest. Other than that, i know a fair number of people around canberra that read oots, however that will be biased since most of my friends are involved in the gaming community.

[Sewblon]

If you count my self-diagnosed-multiple-personality-disorder, that is at least ten people.

[itaibn]

The first rule of the {Scrubbed} is not to talk about mention the {Scrubbed}.
Fixed. There's a big difference between the two.

[TriForce]

Whats a Oots? :smallannoyed:

[ScottishDragon]

Whats a Oots? :smallannoyed:
hope i got the quote right...




Oots=order of the stick

[El Llamita]

{Scrubbed}
Chuck Noriss


Hey, that chick is argentinian! And hot!


I'm curious about why do you know her... I mean, I have no reason to think her popularity exceeded the limits of my country. She's hot, but that's it.

[DarkElfGangsta]

Hey, that chick is argentinian! And hot!


I'm curious about why do you know her... I mean, I have no reason to think her popularity exceeded the limits of my country. She's hot, but that's it.

you are kidding right? she is like one of the top five hottest women on earth.
her shows were a huge hit in my country.
she was in that rebelde way show and chiquititas.
she is the current girlfriend of some canadian buble guy.
diosssss she is hotttttt:smallbiggrin:

[Setra]

you are kidding right? she is like one of the top five hottest women on earth.
After this post I had to look her up.. And it turns out you're right!

Wow she's hot. If there was a drool smiley I'd be using it now. Instead I will use this :belkar:

[J.J.J-H-Schmidt]

i got the link to this site from a friend who got it from a friend etc... but i actually traced it back, and out of the 12 people on that aforementioned list, 3 of us regularly check the site and only two of us post in forum.

[the_tick_rules]

Don't we all? Or else what would we be doing here?

[B.I.T.T.]

Well we know that it's a number no smaller then zero and no greater then six billion.

[Sir_Elderberry]

Well we know that it's a number no smaller then zero and no greater then six billion.

The world population is actually 6.9bn. So seven billion is a more sensible upper bound.

[Ancalagon]

http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.giantitp.com

Shows a daily pageview of some 140.000. Of course, those include your ten or twenty daily re-visists. ;)

Also check out the traffic data below. I think the answer is "lots". But most importantly, "hopefully enough to be an incentive to go through with the entire story". ;)

[The Giant]

http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.giantitp.com

Shows a daily pageview of some 140.000. Of course, those include your ten or twenty daily re-visists. ;)

Also check out the traffic data below. I think the answer is "lots". But most importantly, "hopefully enough to be an incentive to go through with the entire story". ;)

Good gods, I wish that site was accurate. Suffice to say, I do not make $417 a day in ad revenue. I make $0 a day, probably due to the fact that I seem to have forgotten to put ads on the site at all.

However, the "250,000 dedicated readers" number still holds pretty much true. I'd say we're maybe up to 300,000, but growth has been slow over the last two years or so. A lot of people have just discovered the strip, but a lot of people have fallen from "dedicated" to "check it once every two months," too. On the occasions that I've been forced to ballpark the total number of people reading the story no matter how casually, I tend to estimate it at about double that, or 600,000. But that's mostly just a guess.

[Zappy]

I make $0 a day, probably due to the fact that I seem to have forgotten to put ads on the site at all.

And I appreciate that. I hope you make enough from the books to make up for that.

[Milandros]

And I appreciate that. I hope you make enough from the books to make up for that.

Indeed. If you haven't bought the books, then do so! Help Rich buy food so he doesn't get to weak to draw!

The prequel books, particularly Start of Darkness, are superb. SoD is perhaps the best of Rich's work, it is really, really good. Seriously recommended.

[DEG]

suggestion to Rich:
why not make an OOTS RPG? I know I'd buy it. and if you could make 3-d stick figures, than more ppl than just OOTS fans would buy it. this is a serious suggestion, you could make much more money that way.

[silversaraph]

Good gods, I wish that site was accurate. Suffice to say, I do not make $417 a day in ad revenue. I make $0 a day, probably due to the fact that I seem to have forgotten to put ads on the site at all.

However, the "250,000 dedicated readers" number still holds pretty much true. I'd say we're maybe up to 300,000, but growth has been slow over the last two years or so. A lot of people have just discovered the strip, but a lot of people have fallen from "dedicated" to "check it once every two months," too. On the occasions that I've been forced to ballpark the total number of people reading the story no matter how casually, I tend to estimate it at about double that, or 600,000. But that's mostly just a guess.



I think they do an estimate based on Google ads on the side of the page, which they assume everyone apparently has.

----
Wow, The Giant replied to the thread. And... he gave us the answer... no more speculation for us.

I hereby six gun this thread!

...

Uh, Roland, little help here?

[Nimrod's Son]

suggestion to Rich:
why not make an OOTS RPG? I know I'd buy it. and if you could make 3-d stick figures, than more ppl than just OOTS fans would buy it. this is a serious suggestion, you could make much more money that way.
...Except that to do that would require a staggering amount of time and effort on Rich's part, almost certainly to the point where the comic would have to be put on a long hiatus in order to get it done. Or else outsource the whole RPG-thing to a third party - in which case it wouldn't really be OotS any more.

There's already a board game (http://www.ookoodook.com/store/OOTSAdvGame.shtml), I'd be content with that if I were you.

[sam79]

suggestion to Rich:
why not make an OOTS RPG? I know I'd buy it. and if you could make 3-d stick figures, than more ppl than just OOTS fans would buy it. this is a serious suggestion, you could make much more money that way.

Surely there already is an OOTS roleplay game; D+D 3.5. That's the whole basis of the strip, isn't it?

[NerfTW]

Yeah, putting things down in stats first off is going to require D20 material, and secondly, would spoil future plot developments or set things in stone, something he's said he doesn't want to do.

After the strip is over, that might be possible, but I doubt it would occur before then. Also, it's just D20 with some house rules. Not worth the effort in my opinion.


As for that web site, those are full of crap. They're scams. There's no way to tell another site's internet traffic without access to their own server logs. And certainly not ad revenue. As noted by the fact that there are no ads on this site.

In fact, most web ranking pages are just pulling numbers out their ass or getting them from some metric involving links leading to the page, so take those with a grain of salt as well.

[Ancalagon]

I think they do an estimate based on Google ads on the side of the page, which they assume everyone apparently has.

It's an estimation based on the pagevisits. No clue what data they use to calculate the ad-revenue based on that, but we can surely assume it's a feature THEY use to let THEIR site have some use for people and to increase THEIR pageviews. ;)

As for an OotS-RPG... I would not buy it. OotS is not the setting or the rules (it makes fun about), but the character and the stories. I'll gladly buy any material about OotS that presents new stories we came to like and enjoy, but in regard to the "setting"... it's designed to BE the cliche. The setting itself is well designed but quite standard - what happens IN the setting is what is awesome.

As for 300k to 600k readers: I want to express that I find it awesome OotS worked out for Rich and us as hoped (probaly even better than hoped). It started as some ugghh... geek-thing, it could very well have ended as just another small geek-fun-site that was awesome to like a few thousand people (no clue, like askdreldritch.com (not related to me in any way!) or whatever) but died down later as life of everyone moved on.
This development is much more than anyone could have hoped and it's also nice to see that "good internet comics" are something that can stand on it's own... like newspaper-comics in the last century.

As long as the OotS-story runs, I'm going to buy the stuff. And should Rich try something new after that I'll surely take a lot of interest in that as well. Now I'm going to hope I'll get my self-given present from ookoodook before christmas. ;)

[Yul]

Not enought

http://topwebcomics.com/default.aspx

[Zonkerbl]

Indeed. If you haven't bought the books, then do so! Help Rich buy food so he doesn't get to weak to draw!

The prequel books, particularly Start of Darkness, are superb. SoD is perhaps the best of Rich's work, it is really, really good. Seriously recommended.

Good idea, thanks.

[The Recreator]

Not enought

http://topwebcomics.com/default.aspx

Feh. Don't get me wrong, there are some great comics on that list, but a Top Comics list generated by user votes can't really reflect a comic's audience accurately. The absolute most popular comics will reach more people than even that list (like xkcd and its college professor fanbase), and once you draw those kind of numbers, you don't need to bribe users to vote with incentives.

Now, if I recall correctly, compete.com puts giantitp.com's traffic around the 100,000 unique visitors per month range. I don't know how accurate that number is, but compared to topwebcomics.com (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/giantitp.com+topwebcomics.com/), compete.com says the Giant draws in three times as many unique visitors as Top Webcomics.

Also, if the Giant's metric is right (which I must assume is true, since he would know his site better than some podunk metric site), and going by the "10% of readers convert to sales" rule of thumb, that means an average of 20,000 books or other merch sold per year. At the $25 price point… that's 500 grand in revenue.

Good sir, I don't think you even need ads.:smallcool:

(Oh, one more thing: giantitp.com has a higher Alexa rank than Penny Arcade. Make of that what you will.)

[NerfTW]

Revenue that doesn't include expenses. Don't forget that all those users are also using bandwith, which costs money.

[The Recreator]

Revenue that doesn't include expenses. Don't forget that all those users are also using bandwith, which costs money.

I chose my words carefully; revenue is the money a person or business receives from sales or other activities, while profit (or "net income") is the amount of cash gained (or lost) after subtracting expenses, taxes, property depreciation and the like, numbers which I am not (and should not be) privy to.

But yeah, your point holds true. I have no clue how much it costs the Giant to run his operation. There's also everyone else's wage to consider - while the Giant creates most of the content himself, he has help with distribution.

[Tyndmyr]

I imagine that expenses eat quite a bit of that. Hosting and bandwidth bills alone are probably quite impressive.

That said, making enough to live off of via webcomic is quite a feat, and kudos to anyone who pulls it off.

[Ancalagon]

Not enought

http://topwebcomics.com/default.aspx

Last time I looked, there was no "voting" button around here. And there was some comment years ago that OotS would take the top-spot anyway... or am I mistaken?

[Herald Alberich]

Last time I looked, there was no "voting" button around here. And there was some comment years ago that OotS would take the top-spot anyway... or am I mistaken?

It did, for a very long time, at a different ranking list. That's where these incentive comics (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/Incentives.html) came from. After the comic spent some months at #1, the Giant decided he didn't need that publicity anymore and let himself fall off the list. Then he posted the incentives for everyone to see.

(All of the above is secondhand knowledge and an expansion on what's written at the top of the linked page; someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

[Setra]

http://www.giantitp.com/Images/bcx/MonsterMash002.gif
BWAHAHAHAHAHA *Falls over laughing*

[Spiky]

Surely there already is an OOTS roleplay game; D+D 3.5. That's the whole basis of the strip, isn't it?

That and the TV Tropes website.

[Nimrod's Son]

That and the TV Tropes website.
Um... that website exists because of common storytelling techniques, not the other way around.

[SPoD]

Also, if the Giant's metric is right (which I must assume is true, since he would know his site better than some podunk metric site), and going by the "10% of readers convert to sales" rule of thumb, that means an average of 20,000 books or other merch sold per year. At the $25 price point… that's 500 grand in revenue.

I strongly remember the Giant writing once that only something like 2-3% of his estimated readership ever buys anything, which would make your calculations more in the 100-150 grand territory. Still quite good for a webcomic, but after expenses probably not much more than a livable wage. After all, a book sold through a comic shop gives 50% of the cover price to the shop owner, right off the top, plus a further cut to the distributor.

[Spiky]

Um... that website exists because of common storytelling techniques, not the other way around.

Sure, but the tropes used in OOTS are clearly an intentional addition. Most of them are pure jokes rather than the author's natural technique.

[Nimrod's Son]

Sure, but the tropes used in OOTS are clearly an intentional addition.
I never said Rich did it by accident. But I take issue with the idea that that infernal website did anything to inspire it. I'm sure Rich is aware of the website just as everyone else is, but I'd be amazed if he actually reads it, much less uses it as the basis of everything he writes.

[Kish]

Yes, as I told someone who was claiming OotS was based on TVTropes, there's no evidence that Rich has ever been to the website in his life.

[Doran]

Yes, as I told someone who was claiming OotS was based on TVTropes, there's no evidence that Rich has ever been to the website in his life.

Seriously? That's like saying the Lord of the Rings is based on a dictionary.
TV tropes categorises tropes, it doesn't invent them.

[Adonis1x23]

suggestion to Rich:
why not make an OOTS RPG? I know I'd buy it. and if you could make 3-d stick figures, than more ppl than just OOTS fans would buy it. this is a serious suggestion, you could make much more money that way.

There is an oots rpg...it's called d&d

[veti]

Yes, as I told someone who was claiming OotS was based on TVTropes, there's no evidence that Rich has ever been to the website in his life.

Well, except for this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8006917#post8006917).

[Logalmier]

Over Nine-thousand!!!

[Roland St. Jude]

There is an oots rpg...it's called d&d

Sheriff of Moddingham: Once a thread's gone six weeks without a post, please let it lie rather than reviving it.