Hello Autostraddle Plus members! As some of our most passionate patriots, we thought you might enjoy a peek behind the curtain into the dark annals of numbers, charts, graphs and figures about how this little light of ours fared in 2015. We’d like to politely request that you do not share any of these graphics outside of A+ and instead enjoy them only here on this page right now with us as a family! Okay? We brought hot fudge and vegan apples.
Most Popular Content of 2015
Social Media
Social media rules everything around us. Google searches used to be the main method by which people found content on websites, but this year, that changed and now SOCIAL IS KING! I have weird feelings about this in general that I talk about fairly incessantly in my Business of Art fix. Anyhow, it’s really interesting to look at what posts perform well on different platforms.
And, in case you missed it, here’s our Instagram Top Nine:
Who Wrote How Much
A more terrifying statistic is that I have no less than 57 unpublished wordpress drafts to my name.
Money Money Money
Income & Expenses
Here’s a look at where our money comes from and what we spend it on.
Merchandise
Merchandise has become a major revenue stream for Autostraddle. In 2015, we sold over $100k in merchandise!
Last but not least… you people.
Autostraddle Plus
Thank you for enabling us to exist this year! We hope that when we do this again next year there’ll be about 500 more of you right here, right in this spot, believing in us and the importance of independent, woman-owned-and-operated media.
Yay A+! I hope to be able to afford to upgrade my membership to gold in the coming year because I love you and what you do, and Autostraddle is worth more to me than anything else on the internet.
THANK YOU ALICE!!
This is everything I’ve ever wanted.
How did you calculate the “most viral” posts? By a social media shares to time ratio?
Most social media shares overall — generally driven by facebook
People make $100k a year!? A YEAR?! That’s a real amount?!?
this isn’t the most important thing I got out of this post-I love stuff like this! But also I am just surprised and amazed.
I do payroll filing. If you’re amazed by $100K a year, you would probably vomit if you saw my CEO’s salary. It’s ridiculous.
yes… lots of people do!! it’s actually uncommon that so few of our readers do, our readership is disproportionately lower-income (which is part of why it’s so amazing that our readers are still eager to support us, which’s why i shared that info to begin with!!), but i think there are a lot of socioeconomic factors that go into that w/r/t queer women and non-binary folks and also younger people, students, etc. but like, if i was a high-ranking editor at like gawker or buzzfeed, i’d be making $65-$100k. (i obviously make a small fraction of that here.) the recommended annual income to live comfortably in any major US city is over $120k. (i don’t live in a city anymore. :-) )
anyhow! i don’t want this to turn into a thread where anybody feels judged or weird for how much they do or don’t make, so hopefully we can wrap it up here?
I didn’t know that I wanted this, it was so great
Oh many, I love stats, charts, and graphs! This is incredible! I’ve always wondered why AS posted so many articles about food and cooking, since it didn’t really seem to relate to gender, sexuality, sex, or LBTQ issues, but I guess I didn’t know you guys had such a big Pinterest following! That’s kinda cool. I can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store!
we actually don’t have a HUGE pinterest following… like some of our most pinned posts only have a couple hundred pins. we mostly do that stuff because we like it! i don’t know, from the start it was just something we wanted to do, i think b/c i love crafting, and i love how BUST magazine sort of incorporates food and crafting into their stuff too. our craft, food and DIY posts don’t get a lot of hits but they’re good for the soul.
yes! i love to read them, event though i never make the crafts or recipes they remind me that nice things are always within reach.
I read each and every recipe post! I’m a baking type of femme. I’m always here for it. Those of us who are cooking/ diy/ domestic type of queers may be small in number on AS, but we are mighty. Keep the posts coming! ❤️
however gabrielle korn’s 2012 post about how to make galaxy pants went mad viral on pinterest and is one of our most popular posts of all time
i’d be curious to see a top-ten most popular AS posts of all time (is there one already? i should look) if only to see if any of them ever topped the famous t-swift article.
for number of comments, i mean.
1. how to make gay friends and meet girls: the ultimate guide to effective queer socializing (2010)
2. we see you: an open thread for bisexual women dating men (2015)
3. it’s our birthday! ask us anything at our all-day A+ birthday party! (2015)
4. why taylor swift offends little monsters, feminists and weirdos (2010)
5. how to drink: whiskey (2012)
6. Introducing Camp Autostraddle (2012)
7. OPEN THREAD: OPEN (2011) (that was a very big creative day for me as i’m sure you can imagine)
8. It’s a Thing: International Meet An Autostraddler Week (2010)
9. OPEN THREAD: Let’s Talk About How Awesome A-Camp Was (2012)
10 Christmakwanzakah Open Thread: For All Your Homo-Holiday Feelings (2010)
hahah omg! thanks Riese!
for those that were also curious, the top article got 1,191 comments. W O A H.
alllll the charts
I love seeing the numbers – I feel like my grasp on how online media works gets a lot better.
ALSO, it makes me so happy that The Toast is on the list of referrers. Autostraddle and The Toast are my two favorite places on the whole internet and it’s like having best friends that are also best friends.
This is a sexy post. And by that I don’t mean that I find charts and graphs sexually appealing (okay, that’s a lie; this gives my hyper-organized self a nice warm feeling), but that there were a LOT of references to sex-themed content.
This is so great!
I’m graduating this year so count me in as one of your new paying members around May or so (my current bronze was won in a giveaway). Here’s to another year of AS!
Yay!!
First thought: Of course the most popular search terms are all about sex. My Tumblr blog title contains the word “lesbian” and probably 3/4ths of my views are directed from searches for lesbian porn. Urg.
It’s interesting to see just how sharply the percentage of your income from ads has dropped. I really appreciate the inclusion of your whole expenses breakdown. It’s great that over half of Autostraddle’s budget goes to employees.
Wow we’re really interested in sex, aren’t we. Also cool post, I love charts and learning more about behind the scenes stuff.
Omg I love stats <3 thank youuu for this!!!
All of these numbers and charts are exciting and interesting and gorgeous, as is everyone here!
LONG LIVE A+
Thanks for posting, this stuff is really interesting. And hopefully this post will motivate a few more people to become A+ members. :D
I hope so too. <3 Thanks Kadry!!
Such a great idea for a post!
Happy 2016, Straddlers!
This whole thing was so great but what really made me laugh was #5 on the top outclicks list…I was reading along and it was just about what I expected: merch store, Crash Pad, Survey Monkey, and then all of a sudden-
“Kristen Stewart Foregoes Bikini For A Pair of Men’s Y-Fronts… As She Flashes Her Bra While Cosying Up to Pal Alicia Cargile on Hawaii Beach”
I admit I was probably one of the many who clicked on that link.
yes, you and approximately 10,000 other inquiring minds were VERY interested in the Y-Fronts
The outlinks part first made me laugh and then it made me want to hug everyone.
To a successful 2016, Ladies and Non-Ladies and everyone in between!
*raises champagne glass and clinks it against her laptop screen*
Yay charts and graphs! Thank you for taking the time to make this, the information is so interesting AND pretty.
Fascinating stuff!
It’s interesting that more than half of A+ subscribers are on the lower half income-wise. I wonder what it’d be like to compare this with the general readership of AS – does it still skew low-income? Are there more high-income readers who aren’t as willing to subscribe?
Mostly thinking of this in terms of the way people think about subscriptions and fundraising, and whether it is necessarily a useful tactic to only ever go after the high earners.
it’s pretty on par with the demographics of our readers in general — mind you, that means the readers who fill out our reader surveys and the ones who answer questions about income. our most recent reader survey in 2014 had 13.5% making over $100k and 35% under $25k.
i think it also depends on the nature of the subscription / fundraising… because in addition to a+ subscribers, we also do have some readers (who are often also a+ subscribers) who will drop us large donations here and there — at which point my heart explodes and i want to hug them but i can’t because it’s the internet. and that one donation will make a huge difference in what we can afford editorially that week or month and how long it takes me to fall asleep that night. like if you looked at our 2012 fundraising campaign, probably like 50% of the money came from 900 people, and 40% came from like 40 people and 10% came from two people. so we needed that 900 and we also needed that 40 and those 2. we couldn’t have done it without all of those groups.
but the income thing isn’t always that simple, i guess. higher-income person with a house and a wife and kids or a sick parent or a lot of debt might have a harder time making room in their budget for A+ than a lower-income person who’s single, lives at home or in a cheap apartment, and doesn’t have a lot of expenses in general. sometimes it’s that simple but sometimes it isn’t. regardless, I LOVE TALKING ABOUT DATA
i enjoyed this and i am trying to remember to leave comments, even lil boring ones, so you guys know what people are reading and enjoying. i bet making it wasn’t the most creatively exciting thing ever but i hope it was ok! because i would never complain if you gave us more infographics. i’ll almost always click on a post with infographics partly because i’m curious and i know it will be interesting yet comprehensible, partly because autostraddle’s design is so good and i just enjoy looking at really any graphics y’all make.
:)
heartily seconding all of the things in this comment.
The out-clicks thing had me chuckling… and then I got to the Clarke / Lexa fanfiction and I laughed out loud. Who knew?
Also, I don’t know how I missed the space pants article but I am RECTIFYING THAT IMMEDIATELY
I don’t read fan fiction… At all. Like it really confuses me and I don’t really get it? And I don’t get the whole shipping thing as a whole, but whatever. HOWEVER, I love me some The 100 and that link was the very first time I ever read fan fiction and then I went on to read pretty much all of it. What I’m saying is that it was a success.
This accountant is loving the graphics
Always happy to support Autostraddle in every way
I’ve found I don’t keep up with the A+ perks that well. I’m glad I saw this one! I always love the posts about autostraddle itself or the survey results.
1. sex
2. lesbian
3. things
4. lesbian things
5. lesbian
This warmed my data-driven heart. Thank you!
As a person who does statistics and data analysis is as part of my job, I found this really interesting.
It’s so hard to do business these days. It’s like the Internet opened up a world of opportunity, but it also means there’s this crazy level of competition and constant innovation and evolution. It’s really interesting to see the swing to social media marketing as opposed to SEO/SEM.
Thanks for sharing this information. Transparency is really unusual but very much appreciated. It’s great to see what an impact A Plus is having on the site and the growth it has experienced over the past year. So great to see over half of revenue going towards content. Yay for independent media and supporting the great humans who share great content with us.
I love this and it is so much information! I always wonder how anyone distills it into, like future planning and change (or staying the same)…
So I’m enjoying it on a very surface level.
I would be really interested in reading something with this perspective!
I’m having a Ravenclawgasm right now and YOU ARE TO THANK WITH THIS MAJESTIC POST.
But actually. Data collection + visualization, transparency, biz info = <3 AAAAAH YES.
@neuronbomb I was about to send this to you so I’m glad you’re already here being perfect.
Ravenclawgasm. Oh my god. I never knew I needed that word until I saw it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. OMG.
As a long term reader who rarely comments I feel it is my duty to tell you this post made me feel even more connected to this amazing website/community. I am constantly impressed at your willingness to share information any other company or website would deem commercial-in-confidence. I am genuinely flawed (but I shouldn’t be….really) by how much you and the AS team trust the readers of this great website.
I usually don’t do new years resolutions but maybe I need to make an exception, I think I need to tell the writers how much I love their work by commenting more.
This post also inspired me to come up with a rough donation schedule, so look out for some additional funds coming your way in 2016.
Cheers and have a great day!
I second all of this. It’s been really interesting learning more about how running a website actually works. I feel like the content on Autostraddle has made me a more ethical consumer of media across the board, not just with regard to this site – I take the time to turn off adblock and, when possible, pay for content that’s behind a paywall rather than trying to get it for free, because I have a greater understanding of the consequences of my actions.
Also, I just noticed that my phone will now suggest the word “Autostraddle” after I type a few letters and that makes me really happy.
AAAHH!!! YAY TO COMMENTING MORE!!!
I’m just here for the vegan apples.
Thank you for this post! I am constantly curious about the numbers regarding AS/A+ so this is basically a dream come true.
This is brilliant! And thank you for the transparency – it’s one of the (many) things that really sets Autostraddle apart. Also really interesting for me professionally too as someone who looks at this sort of thing for the website I manage.
I am so glad those apples weren’t carnivorous.
Nothing more disconcerting than an apple that bites back.
All this feedback is great! I’m so glad that y’all enjoyed these NUMBERS, it’s very good to know!
this is amazing!! I love numbers and y’all always have such prettily formatted data.
I’m going to have to do some serious budget cutting this year since I need to find my own place in an expensive city in the next 9 months or so, but I’ll try my best to squeeze in room to donate to this site. Seriously, the writing and the staff and the community here is amazing and I’m so so pleased to be in a position to be able to contribute.
I am so glad AS has harnessed the power of subscriptions! Subscriptions are so easy and dangerous! It’s like oh yeah, I can totally do ten dollar a month! And before you know it, you (I) are subscribed to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Autostraddle, Crashpad, Hulu Ad Free, Starz, Scribd, Kindle Unlimited…
Oh my god, no wonder I’m broke. New resolution: pare down subscriptions. (But not AS! Never AS! Because it is important!)
oh i subscribe like a maniac, but i feel like that’s important for us to do — paying it forward, practicing what we preach, etc. so i subscribe to the new york times, slate plus, the new inquiry, guernica, bitch, netflix, hulu plus ad-free, kindle unlimited, the new yorker, amazon prime, pandora, rolling stone. and cable i mean once upon a time there was no way to consume media without paying for it, and i used to buy a lot of print media and rent a lot of movies before it was possible to do otherwise. so i’m AT PEACE with it.
we really do love tying people up apparently!
Fascinating infographics, per ushe. Thanks for sharing your data, and for trusting us.
This is great! I love looking at what other people search for and read on AS. :)
I love this!!
Love the transparency, thank you, Riese! And the graphics are so neat. How do you make them?
I use piktochart! It’s $29/month, which is steep — but I’m not a designer and don’t know how to use InDesign or anything, so it’s pretty user-friendly for me to do stuff like this! if i want something to look super profesh though and I have the time to wait I’ll have Alex do it, and she uses InDesign. But I made all of these on piktochart.
Thank you! Will def check it out!
I’m a researcher, so numbers and charts are my thing – and it’s so cool to see how many other people are enjoying them. Thanks so much for being open and sharing this information. I love being better able to understand how everything works, and I always find an article or two that I somehow missed the first time.
nuuuuuuumbers
Anyone else itching to read Riese’s 57 unpublished drafts?
I so appreciate when you do things like this <3
What I’ve always wondered is how many celebrity A+ members there are (this is probably much better in my head, tbh – picturing Ruby Rose bummed that she didn’t get a comment award, but chuckling at a hilarious mention in No Filter).
And do you have an age range graph of members?
If I get that much-higher-paying job I’ve got my eye on in the next few months, keep your eyes on the donation box, Autostraddle :-)