Read MoreWhat!? This reader count is wrong
No it's not
OK, we're not that hot headed really. But the majority of these complaints come from people comparing Comic Rank to their other statistics. e.g. statcounter, google analytics or project wonderful stats. This just wont do.
Why? Because those sites base their statistics on unique visitors per day which is best for sales/advertising information. If 1 person visits your site once a day does that give you 7 readers per week? We think not. Comic Rank actually tracks real people, we don't just mash up other server statistics.
"Unique views" just don't cut it
It's impossible to properly determine a reader count from "unique visitors/views". In the short time we've been on the web we've already seen comics whose readers is 80% of their uniques, to those whose readers is 10% of their uniques. It all depends on how much you update, your site features, notification types and the demographic of your readers.
So how does Comic Rank do it? Well, it's hard to explain unless you're a web developer yourself. But you know how you can log in to a forum, and when you visit it next week you're still logged in? Yeah, it's that kind of thing. We track real people!
Traffic does not equal readers
A big problem in our line of work is the subjective nature of the term "reader". We've devised a system that can count people who frequently read your comic, and not those who have been linked to your comic a couple of times. Sure, we could tweak the system to give bigger numbers for you all, but what would be the point in that? You came here to know how many readers you have and that's what we're giving you. If you want to know how much traffic you have then you already have services like statcounter, google analytics and project wonderful's stats.
Troubleshooting your reader count
How long ago did you put the Comic Rank buttons on your site?
It can take 2 to 3 weeks for your reader count to stabalize properly, so make sure to wait for a bit.
How often do you update?
Comic Rank is designed for webcomic sites that update once per week or more. If this isn't you then you're not going to have much luck with Comic Rank.
How regular are your updates?
Reader counts are determined by regularly returning readers. They don't have to come back the same day every week or something silly like that but the more irregular you are at updating, the more irregular they will be at visiting your site and the more innacurate your reader count will become.
I still think it's wrong
OK, get in touch. I've had many conversations with some really clever people on this subject (and changed a few things because of it) and I'm always excited to talk to more. Just don't expect me to "fix" your reader count.