Update on Readers, Traffic, and Sponsors

We’re halfway through 2010. Time for an update on Drug Channels readership and sponsors!

As I show you below, blog traffic continues to grow in 2010. We hit a new record in June thanks to coverage of the CVS-WAG spat and our exclusive launch of the Walmart white paper. Drug Channels traffic now ranks higher than many well-known trade publications. Cool!

I also launched blog sponsorship in 2010, helping a diverse group of companies to connect with the growing Drug Channels community. More sponsors are on the way. Email me to discuss upcoming opportunities.

As always, I thank you for reading Drug Channels. Please feel free to contact me with comments, complaints, or kudos. You can also connect with me via LinkedIn.

Who Reads Drug Channels?

Based on domain names from our web traffic logs, the blog is read throughout the healthcare and life sciences industries. Click here to view a list of organizations that visited Drug Channels. As you can see, it's a Who's Who of the industry, including:

• Pharmaceutical manufacturers
• Pharmacy Benefit Managers
• Pharmaceutical wholesalers
• Pharmacies (all types)
• Health care providers
• Government agencies
• Large employers
• Law firms
• Institutional Investors

Don’t worry—I can’t see the names of any individual readers, just the organization name assigned to your computer network.

How many people read Drug Channels?

Here is a chart of monthly page loads (views) and unique visitors of Drug Channels since I first started collecting data (March 2007). Click the chart to enlarge it.

As you can see, the site's traffic has grown dramatically over the past few years. In June 2010, page views reached 35,000 and there were more than 20,000 unique visitors. FYI, the big dips in 2008 and 2009 correspond to my July and August blogcations, although traffic was still decent thanks to search engines. No blogcation this year!

I was surprised to learn that Drug Channels traffic even ranks higher than traditional media. Here are the Alexa U.S. traffic rankings for Drug Channels along with selected leading trade publications as of July 6, 2010. (Lower is better—Google.com ranks #1.)

• Drug Channels: #56,503
• Drug Store News: #84,703
• Pharmaceutical Commerce: #240,201
• Pharmaceutical Executive: #358,911
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: #367,550
• Chain Drug Review: #468,824

BTW, Alexa has a neat browser toolbar add-in.

You can view real-time traffic statistics for Drug Channels anytime via Statcounter at the bottom of the right hand sidebar. These summary stats do NOT include domain names.

Sponsorship Opportunities

I am grateful to the following organizations for sponsoring Drug Channels during the past six months:

• ChainDrugStore.net
• Institute for International Research
• Integrichain
• Modern Distribution Management
• Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
• Restat

Sponsorship offers a unique opportunity to reach an engaged audience of professionals from around the industry. Drug Channels sponsors get:

• Premier placement of a banner ad (fixed or animated) in the upper left corner of the blog, i.e., above the fold. This ad can link anywhere—your company’s main home page, a special campaign, whatever. The ads appear on every page and are not blockable by a browser add-in.
• A personalized “Sponsor Welcome” blog post
• Permission to reproduce blog posts (with full citation and URL) during the sponsorship period

Please email me to discuss this opportunity or if you have any questions.