Back in May 1997 when we launched WorldNetDaily as an independent newssite, there were already millions of websites around.
I wasn’t sure how we would distinguish this new effort amid all the clatter. We didn’t have money to promote it, brand the name and advertise our slogans. So we just did our best to produce a high-quality newssite with a unique mission – to serve as a true watchdog on government.
The rest, as they say, is history.
This week, WorldNetDaily officially was recognized by Alexa.com as a top 500 website in the world. It is now listed officially as the 492nd largest.
Of course there are tens of millions of other websites that have come online since 1997, but WorldNetDaily’s growth has continued – even while many other similar endeavors, some with far more investor support, are failing.
Recently, I read Salon.com’s annual report. I was stunned to see this competitor has wracked up nearly $100 million in red ink. Salon is smaller than WorldNetDaily in every way imaginable – traffic, revenues, reader time, page views, unique visitors … every way except expenses and debt.
And it’s no wonder.
Salon is an example of a site that imitates the conventional wisdom of today’s establishment media. Its worldview is indistinguishable from the worldview that pervades the newsrooms of the New York Times and CNN. It is not, therefore, an alternative information and content site as it suggests. It is rather a mirror image of that newsroom culture.
WorldNetDaily, however, is really different. It has a different mission – a clear and focused one. It employs reporters and editors who actually think differently than those in other news organizations. Our people believe in doing New Media journalism the old-fashioned way – exposing waste, fraud, abuse and corruption wherever we find it.
And that difference is being recognized in the marketplace – and rewarded with higher and higher traffic.
That’s the good news. The bad news is we have a long way to go.
Yes, the future now looks brighter than perhaps ever before from our vantage point. But we don’t live in the future. We live in the present. That’s where we have to pay the bills. And, despite our successes, this is still no easy task.
About 80 percent of WorldNetDaily’s revenues come from the sale of products in our store – products like Whistleblower magazine, books, videos, etc. We have an extensive product lineup and our store is one of the most successful stores of its kind on the Net. But the revenues aren’t growing nearly as fast as our traffic.
Apparently it takes quite some time for a new reader to become a WorldNetDaily customer – a purchaser and supporter of our business.
WorldNetDaily has more than 5 million readers every month, but fewer than 10,000 customers every month.
If you appreciate this newssite and what we do differently than anyone else, I urge you to support it with the purchase of books and other products from our store. It is so important.
Thank you all for helping to propel WorldNetDaily to the top of the heap of all websites and particularly to first tier of all newssites on the Internet.
You have given me renewed faith in the common sense of freedom-loving people around the world – and particularly here in the United States.
