Analytics for our Christadelphian websites – 2016

In different ways 2016 may have been the hottest years since the measurements and international news gathering.

Before 2016 started the fire was already put on the tip of our shoes in 2014 and our shins may have been gone on fire in 2015. Though the financial crash in 2008 took care that our finances got worse and worse, also having to face several costs and having good working computers to do our preaching work.

Whilst the world was busy with economical and political matters, having been confronted with certain things nobody would ever have expected, the Brexit and Donald Trump making it to president elect, we did every effort to preach the Good News of the coming Kingdom.

In the hectic times when terrorists tried to frighten people and made even more people upset by religion, we tried to bring people to their senses and tried to show them that religion is not the malefactor, but that one has to look for the felon by man itself. On the Flemish television several programs spend time on philosophy and religion. Those programs also revealed there may have come some réveil or new awakening in interest in God. All the ‘heisa’, ‘tralala’ or ‘hoopla’ around Islam and faith made that youngsters started to have more discussions about this at school and with their friends who come from different backgrounds and have all sorts of different faiths. The mainstream so called Catholics (62% of the Belgian population being baptised or subscribed in the Catholic faith) mostly non-practising citizens confronted with the 25% active religious Muslim community, made them question their faith and their relation with those terrorists and Jihadi fighters.

In that climate we saw it opportune to start a few new websites to show Who God is and what for role He plays in man’s life. We also wanted to show both religious communities, who seemed to be pushed to come to oppos each other, how Jews, Christians and Muslims should be related to each other and should all be lovers of God, willing to protect each creature of God and not to be haters of man.

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a review of the work of the Belgian Christadelphians

On 2007 March 27 we opened a Google Page “Belgian Christadelphians (Googlepages)”. That site got up to 14 792 views from 5 133 visitors, up to December 31, 2016, which is not much. Between 2013 and 2015 no visitors at all reach our Google site which in total got 6 386 sessions at a bounce rate of 63,08%.

3 140 + 60 (from the Netherlands) Dutch speaking readers came along in that period and 1 450 English speaking readers from the States and 134 from England.

Later Google changed its system and as such we also got Sites Google.com site Belgian Christadelphians which is now the site we normally refer to as our old main website.

That Belgian Christadelphian website got from 2010 onwards 62 918 views from 36 137 users in 41 629 sessions.

The Flemish Christadelphians on the Vlaamse Christadelphians google pages got only 886 views from 565 users. But this is a Google Page we never refer to ourselves.

For the Google Brethren site “Broeders in Christus” which started in June 2007, until December 31st of 2016 we got 1 079 views from 763 users on 823 sessions, with 426 coming from the U.S.A., 152 from the Netherlands, 17 from Dutch speaking Belgium, 2 from French speaking Belgians.

For the Brethren we prefer to refer to the Word Press site “Broeders in Christus“, about we had some serious talks.

For our Flemish Brethren site on WordPress last year we wondered how we were going to do it with that site. We also wondered if all the translation work from Dutch to English was of any value, not seeing it contributing much to adding readers or getting enough views.

The Brethren site started on WordPress in 2011 with 714 views for 145 postings. 2012 got us 6 397 followed by the most successful year for that site until now, giving us 6 909 views from 4 022 visitors for only 43 articles published. This was followed by only 27 articles for 2014 attracting 4 485 views from 3 095 visitors. 2015: 4 459 views for 46 articles which attracted 3 009 visitors.
In 2016 we only found time to publish 32 articles on Broeders in Christus, which got 2 599 people come to look at them and offering us 3 670 views.

The most read article was “Jezus, Heer maar niet God” with 234 views, followed by “Boek der boeken een groot meesterwerk” with 120 views. The first Jewish Roman war also could get some interest, for “Eerste Joods-Romeinse Oorlog” getting 105 views.

Going into our eight year on WordPress, 2016 showed a real dip for the Ecclesia site, though we still published 91 articles last year.

When we look at the views over the past years we see following ciphers:

2010: 243

2011: 2705

2012: 12074

2013: 11772

2014: 14590

2015: 17068

2016: 7212

Totalling: 65664

with respective viewers: 2012: 963; 2013: 7 788; 2014: 9 128; 2015: 10 609; 2016: 4 921.

For the greatest hit in 2016 we had to go to “The Big Conversation – Christadelphians in the United Kingdom” published on November 3, 2015.

“What and why Ecclesia – What is the ecclesia and why use this word” got 145 views, whilst 137 times people looked up who we are and went to see the page “About/Over ons”

In December 2010 we started with the Christadelphian Association website Christadelphia on Webs, which in total brought us 2 678 views until December 31, 2016, coming from 1 096 users and 1 213 session.

Our Webs site “Hoop tot leven – Redding in Christus” (Hope to live or Hope for life – Salvation in Christ) got 3 592 views from 2 984 users from its beginnings until December 31, 2016.

Because Marcus Ampe receiving so much hate mails (in his personal and in the ecclesia mailbox) and letters telling him and us we were going to be tortured for ever in hellfire, because he and we do not want to accept Jesus as God but see Jesus as the son of God, the Messiah and the Way to God, made him decide to show people why it is so important to come to recognise Jesus Christ and to believe in him, him being the promised one from God, who got authorised by God to be a high-priest for God and mediator between God and man. With the new website “Messiah for all” brother Marcus Ampe hopes to show why we do have to accept the son of man Jesus Christ, to be the Way to God, and how followers of this master teacher should be loving people to all sorts of people from all sorts of religious tendencies and all sorts of cultures. For followers of Christ, what Christians should be, there is no place for hate to other creatures of God. Jesus not only showed us the way to his heavenly Father but also showed us how to behave to others. Because many, who say they are Christian, not behaving nicely to us, we thought it important to show them how we do love Jesus and prefer to follow his teachings instead of human doctrines, and to share that love of Christ for his heavenly Father the Only One True God, bringing the same gospel or message of love and about the coming Kingdom of God.

statistics-silhouettes-1430521_1280 — Wanting to bring people together and to unite them under Christ

“Messiah for all” (with 1 716 views for 2015 and 1 849 for 2016) with “C4A” or “Christ for all” (which got 128 views) and C4U (Christ for you + Christadelphians for you) should give an impression about who Christ Jesus really is according to the Holy Scriptures.

Not only have people come to know Jesus Christ. Only by respecting Jesus for what he has really done, having given his life for the sins of all mankind, doing the works and Will of God and not his own will (which he would have done in case he would be God) people shall be able to build up the right relationship with God.

About that relationship with God there is so much to say we were pleased to offer the community a site concentrating on that issue, showing who the Biblical characters are and how they related to God and how we do have to relate to the men of God and to God Himself.

Relating to God (Weebly website) Bible & us page

The website “Relating to God” and the blog with the same name, should give some answers to those who are looking for God and to those who want to know more about God and the sent one from God. Both have the same goal and basically the same articles, but at the blog shall be given space to other writers to and to additional announcements and overviews.

For the Weebly website 1 553 views were generated by 699 users on 933 sessions, whilst the WordPress blog with 58 articles only got a disappointing 237 views from 135 visitors.

The same “Relating to God” wants to do is split up in three sections: searching for God (Op zoek naar God), the Way to God (De Weg naar God) and Finding God (God vinden) in three different websites in Dutch.

In 2016 the three websites in Dutch were created to show people the way to God.

Op zoek naar God (Looking for God) (Jimdo website)

“Op Zoek naar God” (Looking for God) managed to receive 406 views from 219 users in 260 sessions.

“De Weg naar God” (The Way to God) got 986 views from 357 visitors.

“God vinden” (Finding God) got 601 views from 398 users.

In the year 2016 we continued to present our the readers digest and two lifestyle magazines.

The two magazines we present offered us the following amount of views and viewers on their pages

From Guestwriters: in 2014: 3 124 views from 1 847 visitors; 2015: 4 333 views from 2 764 visitors; 2016: 7 782 views from 4 927 visitors
Stepping Toes got in 2013 2212 views from 1353 visitors; in 2014: 5 318 views from 3 838 visitors; 2015: 3 201 views from 2 433 visitors; 2016: 2 651 views for the few articles published (45) from 1 731 visitors.

We do hope we may encounter you there too and look forward to see our amount of readers expanding.

Do you know you too can help to spread the message of the coming Kingdom and help us to show people the Way to God.

2016 leaving us with a negative balance of € -3 572,19 we always could do with some financial support. But please do know we are also happy when you let others know our websites and when you let your friends know about some interesting articles you found on one of our sites. The ‘like’ button and the social media sharing buttons are handy tools you can use to promote and encourage us. Please make use of them.

Wishing you all the best for 2017,

Yours faithfully,

the Belgian Christadelphians

Forgotten to mention in the article (added on January 20, 2016)

We also have the old Bijbelvorsers Blogspot which still could catch some viewers, giving namely 2 228 views;

and Our World (the previous Christadelphian World) which got 172 497 views for 2016.

For Our world the “New articles for October 2011” is the most read article with 39 004 views, followed by Forums ter verkondiging van het evangelie” with 13 410 views. The page “My faith and hope” got 78 pageviews.

Preceding articles

Religious Practices around the world

Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

500 posts being placed on this ecclesia site

500ste posting geplaatst op 27 februari 2015

The Belgian Christadelphian ecclesia sites 2015 in review