TTAC Approaches Car and Driver's Readership Stats; Site Redesign Coming

Jeff Puthuff is one of our (mostly unsung) heroes: a TTAC commentator who made the leap to editor. Initially, Jeff made the jump as our resident proof reader, grammarian and style guru. Since then, he’s begun patrolling the comments section and helping us figure out how to take TTAC to the next level. This is the month that VerticalScope’s boffins will cull the cranky code created by NameMedia‘s Estonian customizers. In short, TTAC will return to a bog standard WordPress platform, with a few bells on. We will, of course, keep things nice and simple. And then adjust the site’s style and functionality according to your feedback. Meanwhile, Jeff has created a new way for you to access all TTAC reviews: click here for more direct access to our arsenal of democracy. Meanwhile redux, thought you might like to know that our stats are approaching those of the dead tree version of Car and Driver.

That rag claims a circulation (not all paid mind you) of 1.31 million. TTAC’s number of unique visits per month currently stands at 1,111,684. If you want to be churlish (as we so often are), our number of unique visitors clocks-in at 674,295. Since VerticalScope removed a bit of porno code embedded on our home page (I shit you not), our seach engine biz has taken off, accounting for 60.34 percent of the site’s traffic. In case you were wondering.

Even if you dismiss our stat mongering as spin, I’d like to point out that we produce the equivalent–at least in terms of word count—as a full issue of Car and Driver in one week. (You might say we’re more true to the magazine’s original spirit than they are, but I couldn’t possibly comment.) TTAC has two full-time employees. Car and Driver have more. Lots more.

]Of course, TTAC gets creamed by Car and Driver’s website, Edmunds, Autoblog and Jalopnik (amongst others). But hey, some milestones are worth celebrating. In this case, GM-style (i.e. prematurely). The longest journey and all that.

[I’m leaving all the errors in situ so you can see what I have to deal with . . . Love ya, Robert!–Jeff]