More Traffic Than the Freeway: How GOOD Killed It Last Month

Here at GOOD, we're cracking open some beers during office hours because May 2011 was our highest traffic month ever.

A lot of this was us getting better at what we've always done. Our infographics sailed around the interwebs, and readers devoured our coverage of big stories like the Bin Laden raid and the rapture that wasn’t. But a lot of this was born out of a new energy and focus on what works and what's critical in today's world. Oh, and better headlines. Definitely better headlines.

If numbers are your thing, we can break it down all technical. We drew 3.4 million unique visitors in May, the best month in the magazine’s history and the fifth consecutive high-growth month for our humble site. In terms of traffic volume, the average day is now 240 percent busier than it was at the start of this year. We had 170,000 daily visits in May compared to 70,000 per day in January.

"We're totally killing it!!!" wrote Executive Editor Ann Friedman in a chat message. "And I've only been here for two months."

Like most bosses, Friedman is quick to take credit, but the growth was fueled largely by our success on social media.

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• Facebook: Picture America’s biggest football stadium packed to capacity. That’s the size of our Facebook following. We crossed the 100,000 mark at the beginning of May and have nearly tripled our following since the beginning of the year.


• Twitter: Look out, Lady Gaga. Our Twitter following is now larger than the population of Washington, D.C., with more than 600,000 folks subscribed. This milestone came just two months after crossing the half-million mark.


• Tumblr: We launched our Tumblr in late April. Five weeks later, we’ve got 7,000 followers. Boom. We are stoked to engage with our community on this slick new platform, and we’re loving your feedback and questions. Keep them coming.
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We're growing in other ways, too. The New York Times profiled our new agency arm, GOOD/Corps. Across departments, GOOD welcomed several new team members, and we're looking to hire even more.

June, we're coming for you.