I was intrigued by some comments today that certain people only recently (within the last year) found this site and there was a suggestion or two that maybe it should be better advertised.

The current site has been at this URL since 2001; from 1996 until 2001 it was at grm94.polymtl.ca/~marriott/pyro.html Since I don't get any revenue from the site, I don't actively advertise it anywhere. Despite that, if you google "montreal fireworks" then this site is the top link; the same search on bing.com comes out at #2 (behind the official site); on yahoo.com also #1; on dogpile.com, it is the top non-sponsored site.

So the question is, if you didn't know about it, how did you come across it? A web search? A friend's suggestion? I'm just interested why there aren't more people actively involved in the forum.

Web traffic this year peaked at around 1639 visits in one day - slightly less than last year. The busiest month ever was July 2006 with 27704 visits; this July had only 20707 visits, so down quite a lot. Maybe the longer season has spread out the visits since it's only once a week this year compared to two in previous years. July 4th 2007 had the record number of visits in one day: 1902.

The only figure that has increased over the past couple of years is the transfer bandwidth of the site: July 2009 had 211Gigabytes!

Anyway, any comments would be appreciated as I really don't know how to make my site better than the #1 fireworks competition site according to google

Paul.

Well it's a good thing this forum is free! I'm just kidding. Yeah web search was my main search, because I was wondering if there were any details about what used to be my favorite firework, the aerial salute. And after watching Spain's display two years ago, I had to look up the information, and as I looked it brought me to the glossary on this website. So I looked at forum, thinking it was just talk about whatever, until I found out I belonged to this site And the first post I ever put, you and Trav welcomed me. And still today I think back and wonder if I would have found this site if I wouldn't have saw that display. Your site is top notch #1. Nice changes this year, and I think each year should be a different kind of style. If IPON competes next year, which I really hope they do, the month will probably peak at 40 000 visits. What's your record in a month Paul?

My favorite internet site all the way! : http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/forum/index.php?


Pat

What's your record in a month Paul?

The answer was in my post above:

The busiest month ever was July 2006 with 27704 visits; this July had only 20707 visits,

Thanks to everyone here who does participate in the forum!

Paul.

It's awesome how our love of fireworks are all connected. When I was young, I always thought fireworks were very very small and somehow got bigger the higher they went. Sounds like Pokémons evolving.. Ah it's gonna be boring in the fall and winter without the power of large firework shells. La Ronde should do a fireworks show in the winter. It would certainly give the people stuck in traffic jams during Christmas time and New Years a show for their waiting time.

Pat

Paul,

This website is among my favorites since a very long time and I can't remember how I found it. I know that Suzanne Morin, the person who was in charge of the jury when I was in for the first time, in 2001, talked me about it, but I think I was already aware about it. Likely I am a reader of this website since 2001. At the beginning, it was not so interesting for me: it was so difficult to make sense of all these highly technical reports! It became more enjoyable in 2003 with the opening of this forum and my first meeting with you. I was among the very first members to register! Then, I took a closer look to the reports. As I began to get visual stuff (people should remember that it was very difficult to get video of fireworks before the digital camera era and the rise of multimedia websites), I read the corresponding reports and watch the video to learn these technical terms.

Since I have covered the competition for another website during 3 years, I have an idea about the amount of time required to manage www.montreal-fireworks.com. We all have a life outside fireworks and it sometimes difficult to do all the work within a short time. We are very lucky to have this website and this forum to share our passion for fireworks.

Je profite aussi de l'occasion pour souligner le travail accompli par Mylène qui partage maintenant sa passion et ses connaissances sur les feux d'artifice à la radio, dans un journal et sur le web. Elle aussi doit concilier ce hobby avec ses activités professionnelles, ce qui n'est possible qu'avec beaucoup d'effort.

About the current state of this website, would it be interesting to redesign the home page in order to make it more vivid and more representative of the whole content of the website? To add some pictures, a short video segment, or the interviews (a great addition this year) may be interesting. It may be interesting also to take a look on statistics about the number of visits on your report pages. Are these reports still relevant since the full video are now available to the forum members?

Nevertheless, I also believe that the number of visitors is not the one and only measure that matters. I think that your website is very well-known in the pyrotechnic community and it is the #1 reference for pyrotechnicians who compete in Montreal or dream to do Montreal.

I hope that this website will allow us to read and to discuss about the Montreal fireworks competition once again in 2010!

Fred

Je profite aussi de l'occasion pour souligner le travail accompli par Mylène qui partage maintenant sa passion et ses connaissances sur les feux d'artifice à la radio, dans un journal et sur le web.

I remember reading Mylène's article in the paper (I think it was Metro, or something) and she talked about Royal's display. I read it all and photocopied it, it now is hung in a frame on my wall in my room. Excellent article. I also read an article on last Wednesday or Thursday talking about the nautical firework test's they were doing during the day time. They also showed a picture of the setup of Fiatlux. I was looking a little forward but then I wrote what I had to on the Concept Fiatlux/Closing reviews page.

A HUGE thanks to Paul, Mylène and all the photographers! for their tremendous and spontaneous amount of work on each display. Is Mylène permitted to tell everyone the link to this site? It sure would make some more extra views next year.

Fred has a great point, short video segments and it would be nice add a page of the Interviews. It would be more organized. Would it also be possible to add a page for links of the display or whatnot? It might come in handy. Other than that, a faboulous job on all the work! I love this site!

I wish I had all the members thumbs!

Pat

Since I don't get any revenue from the site, I don't actively advertise it anywhere.

Since I am the one that first started this advertising thing, I was thinking more about referrer links (from other sites related to pyrotechnics) than AdWords or similar commercial publicity. Still, like you said, you managed to get the first place in Google (although you are the third when the french search page is used).

Can't the International make a link somewhere on their site to yours so the visitors would be aware that there is a community that share their love for fireworks ? This might be the slight push that the forum needs (or so you told us) to become again what it used to be ?

So the question is, if you didn't know about it, how did you come across it? A web search? A friend's suggestion? I'm just interested why there aren't more people actively involved in the forum.

I think I came across your site when searching for more info about l'International. I made a mental note to come back this season and I was able to actually remember it when the first displays began.


On a side note, it would be nice that you provide a RSS feed. It's really simple to set up with some regular expressions and PHP if you do not use a CMS and edit your HTML yourself.

STL

Je profite aussi de l'occasion pour souligner le travail accompli par Mylène

Merci Fred. C'est effectivement tres 'time-consuming'. Chaque vendredi je me demande si ca vaut vraiment la peine en réalisant que mon article a ete... "adapté"... .

But see, it does worth it, i'm now framed on Saluteness' wall ! lol !

Is Mylène permitted to tell everyone the link to this site? It sure would make some more extra views next year.

It is on my blog already, but to be honest, Paul is giving me more traffic than i do for him...

THANKS PAUL ! Even tho i complain about some rude comments, it's still very intertaining to read you all...

I found this site back in June 2003 (about when it first came into existence) simply by typing in "Montreal Fireworks" on Yahoo!. I only started participating in discussions by the end of July 2003. There's got to be a way that can effectively advertise this site to increase activity. I mean, there are so many spectators that watch the fireworks that it's hard to believe that so few a number are present here sharing their thoughts of each display!

Anyhow, thanks to this site, I've made wonderful friends over the years. It's hard to believe, though, that some of us, including myself, have been here for just over 6 years now.

Trav.

Anyhow, thanks to this site, I've made wonderful friends over the years

Some friends younger than you as well

I might be 15, but I do know alot about fireworks and about 45% of what I know about fireworks comes from the help of you guys. I might as well say why I chose this account name.

The name Saluteness comes from my old favorite firework, the aerial salute. And when I found this site, I said sweetness!. So I mixed in Salute with Sweetness and gave me Saluteness. Plus Pat is short for my name Patrick. I'm a Irish/Quebecois high school student. It's a real pain for my dad to bring me down to the Old Port, because I live 30 minutes away (Saint-Laurent). So overall, I'm proud to be a member here, and I enjoy welcoming other people who have recentley signed up to this site. But yeah, I've pretty much summed it up for me, and anyone can feel free to give us a bit of info on themselves.

Anyone willing to talk on MSN about pyro stuff, due to the amount of time it takes to write a paragraph you can all reach me at: lariviere_3@hotmail.com

I can even reply emails.

Thanks for confirming my add on facebook Paul!

Pat

i found the site when i searched for pyromusical videos way back in october of 2005.... I remember this site kept coming out, and i always thought that i would find some great videos from montreal. (now i surely can ) That was also the start of my burning passion for fireworks ..... I have to say i learned most of my pyro vocabulary by reading paul's reviews ....

Vander

Merci Fred. C'est effectivement tres 'time-consuming'. Chaque vendredi je me demande si ca vaut vraiment la peine en réalisant que mon article a ete... "adapté"... .

Du point de vue d'un lecteur, ça vaut la peine ! Ça fait changement des chroniques sur le night-life et sur la mode; pas besoin de dire que contrairement à la tienne, ces chroniques n'attirent pas mon attention très longtemps !

Pour ce qui est de "l'adaptation" du texte, ça m'arrive aussi de le faire en tant que correcteur de journal étudiant. Je comprends que le Métro le fasse peut-être d'une façon plus agressive, étant donné qu'ils ont beaucoup de contenu et qu'ils ne veulent sûrement pas prendre plus de pages que nécessaire.

Pour avoir vu combien ça nous coûte à notre journal pour faire imprimer 12 pages en 1000 copies, je comprends pourquoi les gens du Métro pourraient être tentés de réduire le nombre de "cahiers" (en imprimerie, un cahier est constitué de 4 pages) vu leur tirage incroyable ! Ils doivent par contre avoir un meilleur deal que nous avec leur imprimeur !

STL

Du point de vue d'un lecteur, ça vaut la peine !

Merci STL ! Très apprécié.

Par contre, si mon contrat stipule 250 mots, j'aspire à avoir mes 250 mots imprimés, mais surtout non-modifiés... Je me rappelle entre autres, cet article du Canada dans lequel j'ai écrit 'Représentant le Québec/Canada, nouveauté cette année', mais qui a finalement été publié : 'Représentant le Canada, nouveauté cette année'. Ainsi ça ne faisait plus de sens

Enfin, une belle expérience tout de même où j'ai beaucoup appris ! Merci surtout de ta fidélité de lecteur