The current readership numbers - Saab is dead, isn't it?
There are people who consider statistics to be bloodless stuff. For others it is life. As is so often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, sometimes statistics can also be exciting. For example when it comes to readership. And about a car brand that should really be dead. But it is not.
The numbers for that alone first quarter 2020 were instructive. It went up on the blog. An effect that could be due to Corona, among other things. Just a passing phenomenon? Or a sustainable trend?
The evaluation for quarters 2 and 3 point in the same direction. The number of readers is above the already good previous year. 341.806 in the 2nd quarter, 257.929 in the 3rd. The Saabblog project is now above the respective annual figures for the years 2016 to 19 and will have more than 2015 million visits per year for the first time since 1.
It's crazy because it goes against every trend and zeitgeist. Saab is definitely dead as a car brand, the story is over. What will happen to the legacies in Sweden is more unclear than ever. Evergrande has the potential to be a flash in the pan. Or, under different circumstances, to take off after all.
What is exciting about a blog project that is becoming more and more of an old car and classic site? Why are people reading here, why is the number of subscribers increasing? I don't have an answer to that. Not even about the further development of the blog. Because, regardless of the number of readers, things are not easy.
Challenging future
The project became a one-man event again in 2020. This is far from pleasant and something I definitely wanted to avoid. And what I saw as overcome a year ago. A state that is far beyond the optimum.
It will be challenging to find topics for the future. As the last Saab blog project that was launched among many in 2010, the blog is still publishing. Yes, I always like to experiment with the project. With foreign topics like Volvo or Evergrande. Neither direction seems to be really sustainable and fascinating. Volvo will soon be absorbed by Geely and Evergrande gets lost more and more in an unmanageable mix of things.
In general, the question of the future viability of the car topic may arise. Away from sheet metal and engines, it is increasingly becoming a transport solution. For temporary service, for a mobile flat rate that streams, communicates and drives.
But what is future-proof with a core topic that the world said goodbye in 2011?
@ Gosh,
good point. At most Saab-related companies, sales with Saab will probably be degressive and exceptions only confirm the rule.
Still, I'm a bit stubborn - almost like a toddler.
Anyone who is really enthusiastic about Saab also has something to tell on the subject. Business people also have a private self, a private nature and may still drive a Saab themselves - even if it's just a third-party car.
The fact that they would also benefit from a guest post (no matter how small or large) is an incentive that other authors don't even have and still write.
Beyond such considerations, I find it simply regrettable what we readers are missing out on. Alone on the basis of one (my) friendly friend, I can think of many possible guest posts that I would like to read.
Be it about the owner's tuned and exhausted aero, the staid and long-term replacement workshop vehicle and its long-term qualities, experience from the workshop with whichever Saab, what significance trading in used Saab has today, or, or, or ...
There's so much up your sleeve that you just have to shake it a little. It's a shame that the beneficiaries put on cuffs and so show they are buttoned.
@volvaab driver
I am not that far removed from your point of view and for the most part I share it.
However, I fear that “the beneficiaries” will not believe in it. The comparison with the willingness to donate is certainly not the only indication of the media willingness or reluctance of the beneficiaries.
In this context, I would be interested in what percentage of Saab sales in the companies really has?
@ Old Swede (willingness to donate),
there is sure to be something. It is sad and shameful that a relatively small number of donors finance the blog and that the annual appeal is a tremendous match.
Conversely, this should not prevent any of the financial beneficiaries from placing advertisements here or submitting guest contributions.
The blog is the best advertisement for them that I know and they all know that the number of readers is far higher than the number of donors.
Several readers have already commented that they would probably no longer drive Saab without this blog. Readers can find suggestions in articles and comments here every day to get more done on our Saabs than absolutely necessary.
Be it retrofitting and upgrading brakes, clutches, chassis and engines, meticulous technical and visual care inside and out, or an extended range of services for the engine and body.
The blog generates sales for the beneficiaries and this is where the cat bites its tail. If the beneficiaries have such a critical eye on the willingness to donate and the commitment of the readers that they shy away from the expense of a guest contribution, for example, what should a reader think who 1. wrote a reader contribution, 2. donated to the blog and 3. just now again paid a 4-digit amount to one of the blog inactive beneficiaries?
You can easily turn this tables. I would like to see and read here what enthusiasm one or the other beneficiary has for Saab. It is not enough for me when someone pushes a bill over the counter who neither advertises nor writes here and more and more often does not drive a Saab at all.
Appealing to the willingness of us readers to donate is good and right. But that's not enough for me as an explanation or even an excuse for the inactive behavior of beneficiaries.
The blog is excellent. Thank you for the effort, the time and the many ideas that are “delivered” here. That the blog has existed for so long is a miracle. Respect.
The only reason I can think of why no professional, no Saab-trusted company is or will be active here is the expected return. That is probably estimated to be close to zero. And nobody is willing to sacrifice time for this, let alone money. Understandable from a business point of view, a shame from Saab driver's point of view. But let's think back to the fundraising campaign, the number of those who like to take euros into their hands to support the blog, to whom the listeners are sobered and that will certainly also be looked at closely by the “commercial”.
@ Tom,
that's what I meant when I wrote that I know little and think aloud. I do not have the many years of everyday life and the experience of this blog.
It's a shame that there are so few gaps for suggestions and that so much has already been tried and exhausted. I am now completely at a loss ...
To conclude positively: My admiration for the way the blog and its publisher keep finding a way has grown again with this realization. And that very clearly.
@ Tom,
I only think that's consistent, good & right.
Advertorials without reference to the editorials and blog topics would be dilutive and counterproductive.
I wanted a different shape. More like a kind of guest post from the perspective of those who have Saab in the broadest sense for their profession.
Articles about their suffering, experiences, joy, history and motivation from their own point of view. From our perspective a kind of insight and something like a dialogue between us consumers and the people who take care of parts, tuning, service and repairs.
Such articles / guest posts would hardly have a monetary value for potential senders compared to the effort. Conversely, clearly economically motivated advertorials are usually an imposition for readers.
In my opinion, the sweet spot for both sides would be if relatively small and Saab-affine companies and entrepreneurs had the chance to publish guest posts here free of charge.
Perhaps one company will write an article about tuning, another about a restoration and a third about which Saab, with which engine and equipment, is in its opinion the most straightforward of all?
Maybe someone even writes with a wink and is worth reading about why and in what way his customers are all crazy and why he loves them and Saab so much?
The consideration would be a certain amount of publicity for a company that certainly does not have a professional PR department and therefore could present an authentic guest contribution from a different perspective, perhaps a publication would be worthwhile.
This is what I was getting at. There is no such thing as one advertorial and there is no uniform price for it ...
I wrote “advertorials” myself, which the editors found so good that I got the next ad for my client on the condition that I again deliver an “editorial” page about my client. Incidentally, my advertorials have never been marked as such.
Be that as it may, I see good "guest posts" as an opportunity for exciting content and a relief for the editorial team and publisher.
@Volvaab -> That's the theory. In practice, it looks like I've been offering Saab-affine companies to post here for years. For free, regardless of whether it was a workshop, restoration or the sale of spare parts and special offers for Saab drivers.
Not a single one took advantage of the offer, in the meantime I've struck gold. In Bavaria there is the word “sour beer”. I don't know if you can do anything with it. It describes the permanent offering of something that interests no one.
That is the reality, the scene has remained far below its potential for 10 years. But that is remarkably consistent.
PS one-man event
I wouldn't have a problem with advertorials either. So if spare parts dealers, tuners and workshops told us something about their work, their history, their experiences with Saab and us Saab fans in articles they wrote themselves and approved and published by the blog.
Interesting information would certainly come across and the editorial staff would be relieved.
I know advertorials have a bad rap. But few black sheep have produced it. When, for example, daily newspapers publish “car tests” from their favorite advertisers once a week, which apparently never took place. Except on the keyboard of the PR department or an agency of the manufacturer or importer himself. This is of course cheap, outrageous, easy to read through and annoying. If the “well-known” daily newspaper then claims to be the author instead of labeling the advertorial as such, then the barrel is full and again a few clever readers cancel their subscription.
But there is another way. If, for example, a workshop writes about itself, the publisher does not conceal the author and there is interesting information in the article, then I would like to read it.
Just an idea.
@Volvaab: A very difficult topic. There are weekly requests for publication, nothing has ever landed on the blog. And that, although advertorials would be a solid partial financing of the costs.
Why is that?
In short, it is always the “wrong” companies who want to advertise their products. And I ask myself the question, would I be interested in the content, would I want to read it? So far, the answer has always been a resounding no, so I don't expect the reader to read this content.
Especially in times like these, the blog is incredibly good. Every morning with espresso and blog, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., it's a pleasure and sometimes a surprise. Exactly - the daily surprise egg! What is Tom digging up again now?
I look forward to it every single day.
I too would like to join the prescribers and thank you for the so varied articles that deal with such different (auto) topics. The numerous trips to other areas are always very interesting. The blog is what we all do with it, on the one hand the blog needs donations, but also contributions from us. So I think it's a shame that the blog has become a one man project again in 2020. I would have wished for one or the other guest contribution from one or the other reader during the lockdown period.
Dear Tom (“one man event”),
since I read this - unfortunately not unclouded - success report on the number of readers, it has not let me go.
The role of publisher, editor-in-chief and columnist, who shapes the style, determines the topics, but does not have to do every single move alone, would have long been appropriate and deserved.
Saab = x * (y² - d + CO2) * s² / politics
That means roughly that we all drive Saab according to a rather complicated formula. Even worse …
No formula is valid for more than a few weeks. As soon as we have somehow calculated something, something happens again ...
Saab, spare parts, biodiesel and E85 are disappearing, a toll and driving bans may or may not come, a new scrapping bonus, exchange bonus and subsidy for EVs as well as a new CO2 study appear every second.
As a Saab driver you have to relocate yourself again and again in this complex and dynamic field of tension, make sure why you are doing something or not doing something, recalculating your Saab formula. Your driving performance is just a harmless variable. But by no means without relevance.
If an EV means more CO2 in production (even if it is only 1 gram), then the CO2 emissions of a combustion engine would have to be infinite in operation so that the EV would also have an advantage regardless of the route. Otherwise you just have to use the variables and recalculate them depending on consumption and mileage.
But I talk and digress. What I really wanted to say is that there are many question marks and many interesting topics about Saab and us fans that Tom addressed more or less directly, often and always intelligently.
Since we come from different professions (despite all clichés), have different private interests and expertise, are we perhaps also able to submit a number of articles without the right to publication?
I think aloud right now and don't know much. Since this blog has no financial interests, it does not depend on donations. On the contrary, the financial question is as natural as water in an aquarium.
Nothing going on without moss, no fish without water. The ultimately exciting question (I know that unfortunately the financial question is not irrelevant) seems to me what we can do beyond that and how exactly to support and appreciate this honorary position?
@Volvaab Thanks for the many thoughts! Currently, or rather for a few months now, I am rethinking the project in principle. It will be 10 years old and should grow up slowly. A lot will have to change in order to advance this maturation process.
This is also one of the reasons why the High Mileage Club has not yet gone online, and neither will it this year. I think there will be an outline of what the future might look like in November. Because even if Saab is just a hobby and one of the nicest side things, every project needs certain foundations.
As long as I drive Saab, and that will probably be a long time. I'll stay true to you and always look forward to great stories from you ... Thanks for that
Thank you for the hours you dedicate to this page.
Your topics are always very interesting.
Please publish account number with BIC for the donation so that we from Vienna too
can transfer.
Best regards from Vienna
What else can you say?
The blog lives thanks to Tom / Mark and a little, of course, through its readers and SAAB crazy people in the most positive sense 🙂
The daily readers / visitor numbers on the blog and their development are amazing and that after this long time after the final OFF of SAAB!?
A “negative” aftertaste in this context could, however, follow the great number of readers again by the end of the year at the latest !?
And I know that I don't just make friends here on the blog - I'm talking about the discrepancy between blog users and the necessary financial support for the blog operator 🙁 ..
I hope, of course, when Tom “asks” for a blog donation again, that the enthusiasm is just as great as with the daily visits here on OUR blog!?!?
Just think about it….
Nice WE all of us and greetings from Thuringia
Unadulterated joy
I unreservedly and enthusiastically agree with the previous thanks.
The style is great and really makes any article worth reading. That's why I didn't even subscribe to the newsletter in the first place, didn't select any topic, didn't remove any.
I would be doing myself a disservice if I missed what Tom knows how to weave so elegantly and compactly anywhere and anytime.
For example, if I didn't read along with the model cars, I wouldn't get any information about their role models. I always found all the other articles about everything to be enriching.
I am saddened, however, that Tom’s joy in reading the number of readers does not seem quite as untroubled as the enjoyment of reading here.
Yes, the style does it. I have to say thank you for the many years and for persevering! I had a lot of fun with everything here. Without it, I wouldn't drive Saab anymore.
There is nothing to add to dersaabler!
If it gets too much, just lower the frequency, but please keep the great quality!
I join in the thanks !!!
I unreservedly join the two outposters!
Thank you, Tom, for this great site.
Yes, Tom you, with your writing style and the incomparably interesting choice of topics, are the ones who fill the blog with life and keep it alive.
Chapeau and keep it up!
Well, I see a very decisive reason in the reading numbers in your (Tom) excellent reports, your writing style, which deals with the great, often completely unexpected topics on an upscale car and often related problems, approaches, topics, journalism who is far from “normal” blogging. It is a readable pleasure to read your reports.
Thank you again and again for that.