The Christian Bookshops Blog

2010: how was it for you? The question’s a little premature, of course: we’ve still got a few days to go. But from a web stats perspective, here’s how it’s been in this little corner of the blogosphere, with the top ten posts as follows, set out as post date, title, page views.

1. 26/01/10 Living Oasis: A new and exciting vision for your local Christian Bookshop: 2101
2. 21/01/10 Nationwide Christian Trust Confirmed as Bidders for Remaining Wesley Owen Stores: 1047
3. 31/05/10 Kingsway Polls: Because the questions won’t go away…: 948
4. 08/01/10 Wesley Owen: Beginning of the End as Nottingham Branch Ceases Trading: 860
5. 28/5/10 Kingsway: John Paculabo Responds: 824
6. 02/03/10 Living Oasis: 20 Shops, Meetings and Openings: 820
7. 17/05/10 Kingsway, Cross Rhythms and the cost of Christian music: are retailers being priced out of the market? 789
8. 03/01/10 Wesley Owen and CLC: Looking to the future…: 758
9. 10/08/10 For I am ashamed of the Gospel? Concerns raised as Living Oasis declares plans to “de-Christianise” shop windows: 727
10. 24/02/10: Living Oasis: Nationwide rollout plans gather momentum: 713

Two stories have clearly dominated: the rise of Living Oasis following last year’s collapse of Wesley Owen, and the shenanigans over Kingsway’s pricing practices. Thankfully, of course, Kingsway came to their senses before it became necessary to refer the matter to the OFT, but I must confess that I found the whole episode deeply disheartening and have yet to understand how a Christian organisation could treat both government guidelines and its trading partners with such contempt: a very strange attitude indeed.

As for Living Oasis, the questions I raised a few weeks ago about their future plans remain open. Andy Twilley has stated that he will “happily give [any enquirers] the actual position” but has yet to actually do so openly. The apparent plan to grow the business “by a minimum of 20 sites each year” seems an idealistic fantasy at best but until such time as Living Oasis are willing to speak more freely of their game plan the rest of us can only watch and wonder.

The post stats tell only part of the story, of course. The top five pages over the past year are:

1. Home page: 62,621
2. Wesley Owen: 6,838
3. About: 932
4. Belfast: 908
5. Manchester: 820

Once again, then, the topic that has dominated visitors’ interest has been Wesley Owen / Living Oasis.

Finally, for those who may be wondering where the traffic has come from, the top 5 referrers over the past year have been:

1. christianbookshops.org.uk: 10,608
2. facebook: 1,462
3. wordpress.com: 777
4. twitter: 758
5. Google Reader: 448

There’s much more data available of course, such as the search terms people have using to find their way here: feel free to ask if you’re curious.