As I was navigating through the John Locke Foundation’s web-traffic software this afternoon, preparing some data for a new draft of our strategic plan, I noticed that the current version of our internal site tracker went online on July 29, 2004 — exactly three years ago yesterday, which is obviously the most recent day for which we have full data.

I couldn’t resist running some numbers to compare the two points in time:

? During the three years measured, JLF’s suite of web sites attracted a total of 3,375,415 visits from 1,624,206 visitors accounting for 8,421,154 page views.

? During the first full month under the new tracker, August 2004, JLF sites attracted an average of about 1,500 visits and 3,600 page views a day. In June 2007, JLF sites attracted an average of about 4,500 visits and 11,400 page views per day. If my math is correct, we’re talking about roughly a tripling of JLF’s online audience in three years.

I’m thinking of adjusting my time horizon in bit in evaluating JLF communications staff. No longer will I reconsider their employment status on a daily basis. I may put them on a week-to-week contract, in honor of their excellent performance.

Go team.