Comunque, per la prima volta da quando esiste BrickSet (o quantomeno, da quando Huw analizza il traffico sul sito) c'è stato un calo di pagine visualizzate e di numero di visitatori:
https://brickset.com/article/32622/traffic-review-of-the-year
Quello che però e interessante, sono le conclusioni di Huw: da nessuna parte menziona le "Novelty policy" di LEGO, come possibile causa del drop down.
Conclusions
So, why the drop in traffic and should we be worried?
I believe there to be two reasons. The most likely one is the increased amount of advertising on the site. For many years we displayed no advertising at all: revenue from affiliate marketing, particularly Amazon and eBay was sufficient to keep us online. Unfortunately both of these major players adjust their payout structures periodically which always results in a drop in revenue so that is no longer the case. For example, the income from eBay this year will be just 25% of that earned in 2013. Advertising has filled this shortfall and enables us to continue to run and maintain the site at no charge to anyone.
I hate adverts as much as you do but do not feel bad about displaying them here because it's so easy to opt out of seeing them, unlike some LEGO news sites that have recently been rendered almost unusable due to the high number of adverts they now carry. Nobody is forced to endure them here -- they are shown only to users who are not logged in, i.e. casual users, and never to you, our loyal users, who are more likely to support the site by using our affiliate links.
The second reason? Perhaps it's the same one that caused LEGO's profits to drop this year: interest in the brand is waning a little. The LEGO Movie may well have been partly responsible for growth in the years after its release, but the same can't really be expected for this year's movies, which have hardly set the world alight or caused a surge of interest in the brand.
Despite the drop, Brickset is still the third most visited LEGO site with no real competitors and we will continue to enhance it and innovate to ensure it remains that way.