CreativeCOW.net exceeds the combined traffic
of every post production industry trade magazine.

Yes, you read that right ... their combined traffic.

Don't believe us? Good, we can prove it — and we will.

Who does CreativeCOW.net outperform?

We outperform the combined web traffic of magazines like Studio Monthly, DV Magazine, Videography, Post Magazine, Digital Content Producer, Government Video and Event DV. Add them all up and they simply do not total the traffic of CreativeCOW.net.

Don't believe us? Good, it pays to be skeptical. Read on, we'll prove it.

Don't take our word for it -- verify it yourself using publicly available statistics
compiled by the three major industry web traffic tracking sites --
Amazon.com's Alexa.com, TrafficEstimate.com and Compete.com

The basis of our claim is further verified by additional sources like Google Analytics.

Outperforming all industry trade magazine combined web traffic?
Is it really possible? "No way!" say some of our critics.

But it's a matter of fully verifiable public record, using the sources cited,
and if it weren't true, we'd be sued for making the claim.

According to Google Analytics:
CreativeCOW.net gets as many as 46,144 visits a day,
from 37,612 absolute unique visitors in a single day!
Totaling over 665,067 absolute unique visitors monthly!

Let's look at the Google Analytics report for December 26, 2007 through January 25, 2008.
In the latest month, 665,067 "absolute unique visitors" visited CreativeCOW.net.
With over a million visits! Visiting 4,253,669 pages during the month.

According to TrafficEstimate.com:
CreativeCOW.net accounts for nearly 60% of the market traffic,
while all other industry trade publications split the other 40%

How on Earth can this be true?

We like to say that Creative COW is built around and reflects its community membership. With over 665,000 unique users logging in each month -- as calculated and tracked by Google Analytics -- that represents a lot more people than the combinded readerships of all the named industry trade magazines. Using Creative COW, these people now directly share ideas, support, real-world reviews, critcism and other things with fellow like-minded professionals -- all in realtime. This user empowerment has had a profound effect on the way that users now glean their information and support, as well as researching possible purchases, etc. The COW is part of an on-going shift of readers away from traditional publishing and towards a more user-centric community-based information model.

Of these monthly 665,000 unique users, Google Analytics reports show that there are just 3.9% that log-in using modems. (Most of them come following links to our tutorials.) That leaves 422,400 that log-in using various kinds of broadband accounts like T-1, cable modems and DSL. Many of these members use static IPs and we see the same addresses logging-in month after month. A good conservative guestimate is that 300,000+ people make up the regular visiting membership of Creative COW. Of these, 44% (or 132,000 people) are on-going members who log-in regularly and 56% (168,000 people) are new visitors who come from Google, Yahoo and other search engines, looking for answers to specific problems. As stated, our regulars account for 132,000 people, far more than the strongest magazine in this industry. It's actually far more than most -- if not all -- of the industry's trade magazines added together. Add in our visitors and it's a far greater number than all of them combined.

According to Google Analytics figures, our average visitor stays just shy of five minutes per visit! (This is an average based on ALL of our users, along with the search engine log-ins that come looking for just the answer they need and then leave.) Of our That is a high average and is the one that we are most proud of.

We have been building media professionals communities since 1995 and at the time of this writing, Creative COW's leadership team has over 12 years of experience building media professionals communities. What started with hundreds of users in 1995, is now hundreds of thousands of users in 2007. During that time we have watched the video industry change, with end-users who once looked to magazines for their news, reviews and techniques -- now exchanging their own real-time feedback and straight-talk no-nonsense reports online. This kind of net-based user empowerment has had a major impact on the industry's legacy publishers who are scrambling to try to find their footing on the Net. Once successful magazines have closed, some under-performing titles have been consolidated together and few hold the sway they once did years ago. Why? Thousands of users will always find the power features, advantages, limits and bugs regularly missed by a single reporter -- even a great one. Software publishers and hardware manufacturers are finding that user peer-to-peer support saves them huge amounts of money and also gives them an engineering "test body" that quickly finds bugs, etc., to speed the development process. Supporting Creative COW is not only a great way for these sponsors to reach their advertising goals but they can now do so while getting the added bonus of helping their own customers, while cutting costs in the process.

There are tutorials in the COW Library that could fill an entire magazine, were they to be taken out of their streaming video form and reformatted to fit a print magazine. There are also organically-built community "reviews" of tools across our forums that explore the ins-and-outs of the tool or product from a myriad of angles. This is one of the real powers of a vital community like Creative COW. Sure, we have many reviews in the COW Library, but our forums are filled with reviews of nearly every tool imaginable. With nearly 1.4 million posts in the COW forums today, it is likely that your question has been answered somewhere in Creative COW.

Creative COW has been leading the pack online since Q3 of 2002 when the Cow really began to take off in what many called a "phenomenal level" of growth.

Creative COW's monthly traffic levels are like
5 NAB expos happening simultaneously!
(See the NAB traffic comparison chart/paragraph below, near the bottom of the page.)

And the COW's incredible traffic level -- according to a survey compiled by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs School of Business -- is made up of approximately 80% working professionals who make their living with the tools they use. Tools like Apple Final Cut, Adobe After Effects, Avid Media Composer, Sony, Panasonic, Canon and other cameras. Done by users whose work is seen daily on major networks and in film. In the areas of editing, compositing, post production and distribution, the COW is unmatched for traffic and high signal.

According to Google Analytics, Creative COW now gets over 665,067 unique visitors a month -- yes, over a half-million unique monthly visitors -- who make 1,075,176 visits in a month*.

* These Google Analytics numbers were taken from our Google Analytics report for Decemeber 26, 2007 through January 25, 2008.

In fact, on January 22, 2008, the COW watched as 37,612 people visited the COW in just 24 hours. That is more than many magazines have as their entire subscriber base and it was just another day at CreativeCOW.net.

And when comparing the amount of time spent during an average visit, the Compete.com report shows that users stay an average of 18 minutes at the COW, while staying only about 3 minutes per visit at the industry trade magazine sites listed below. That is about six-times the amount of time spent in an average visit to the industry trade publication sites, according to Compete.com figures.

What makes Creative COW the leader for media production professionals? We like to point to the COW Team, a team made up of the largest body of media professionals that we've found anywhere on the Net, or in print. Drawing from a wide range of real world experience, these leaders offer Creative COW members access to an incredibly rich body of ideas, feedback and expert support. In the crucible of tight deadlines and high expectations, this kind of peer-to-peer back-up makes the COW an indispensible ally when the heat is on and deadlines loom.

The COW has grown over the years until today, in early 2008, its Compete.com comparative analysis shows remarkable performance when examining statistics compiled by Compete.com.

Alexa.com:
Creativecow.net compared with other
magazine/forums sites like DV.com and Studiodaily.com

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
School of Business Report on CreativeCOW.net

In 2003, two PhD professors from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs School of Business approached us, asking to put the COW under the microscope as the subject used in a study they were doing to create statistical models and analysis structures that would end up in a major academic publication. They surveyed many of our members and compiled the information in their report shows that the Cow has roughly 80% professional users that visit, who are very positive about the COW and what it brings to them.

Alexa.com:
CreativeCOW.net, like 5 NABs happening simultaneously, each month

While compiling the comparative statistics for this page, Tim Wilson and I began to put the COW's incredible traffic numbers up against many other industry benchmarks. One of the most important benchmarks used in this industry is the National Association of Broadcasters conference and expo held in April of each year in Las Vegas. Currently, NAB reports numbers just over 100,000 for the event. Comparing their number to the COW's Google Analytics "Absolute Unique Visitors" ranking of 503,427 for the period of October 18, 2007 to November 17, 2007, you might say that based on traffic numbers, we are like five NABs happening simultaneously, every month.

In fact, when viewing the last three years of statistics from Amazon.com's Alexa.com traffic monitoring site, even at NAB's peak time of year, the COW remains well ahead of even this traditionally important industry event, as seen here in this chart...

You don't reach these kinds of astronomical numbers without picking up critics along the way. The COW has not been without its critics, but over the years we've made it a point to listen and some of the best ideas in the COW today, have come from these critics. That too is part of building a vital community like the COW.

As we wind down to 2008, we have a great many changes to implement in the days ahead. No doubt, as we continue to add the kinds of features that answer our market's needs and demands, there will continue to be strong growth to support here at Creative COW. We would welcome your sponsorship and are always avaiable to answer your questions.

We look forward to working with you and thank you for your interest in CreativeCOW.net.