Note: This article was written for The Ada Icon. It is modified for Bluffton Icon viewers. The combined viewership of Bluffton and Ada Icons now totals more than 10,000 views per month. To view the Ada Icon, click here.

It’s all about small towns.

Without fanfare, The Bluffton Icon’s sister publication, The Ada Icon, observed its first anniversary on March 15. For the past 365 days, this online news and advertising source has provided the Ada community with lots of information.

The Ada Icon launched on The Ides of March (March 15) 2012, with zero viewers and no advertisers. Many positive things have occurred since our launch. Here’s some information, provided by Google Analytics, we’d like to.

After 365 days online, The Ada Icon now has:
• 33 advertisers
• 2,000 average views per 30-day period

From March 15, 2012, to March 15, 2013, The Ada Icon has experienced the following:

• 19,282 total views
• 8,476 unique viewers (this means many viewers checked us twice a day)
• 47,943 Icon pages viewed
• 2.49 average Icon pages viewed per visit by each viewer
• 1 minute 48 seconds, average time spent per viewer on each visit to The Icon
(Ada viewers average time spend per view is 2 minutes 55 seconds)

After opening the Icon’s home page, here’s the top six pages where viewers go:
1 - Classifieds
2 - Obituaries
3 -Photo galleries
4 - News in Ada
5 - Historical Ada
6 - Icon Advertising Directory

The most viewed individual story clicked on by Icon viewers:
• Melissa McCracken, Ohio Northern University student, named Miss Ohio.
• Every story mentioning Melissa McCracken drew higher than average views in the past 12 months
• The highest number of views The Ada Icon experienced in the past 12 months was the weekend of the Miss America Pageant. Viewers were from across the United States. We assume persons were “Googling” Miss America Pageant contestants.

There’s more.
88 – the number of countries representing viewers who have opened The Icon.
The top country views are:
18,641 from the United States
53 from Canada
36 from India
30 from United Kingdom
29 from Romania
26 from Philippines
20 from Turkey
16 from France

50 – the number of states representing viewers who have opened The Icon.
The top state views are:
14,716 from Ohio
519 from Michigan
468 from Illinois
387 from Florida
320 from California
282 from Pennsylvania
157 from New York
157 from Texas

268 – the number of Ohio cities and villages representing viewers who have opened The Icon.
The top cities and villages are:
3,090 – Ada
1,532 – Lima
1,508 – Kenton
1,341 - Bluffton
1,120 – Columbus
775 – Findlay
484 – Mansfield
178 – Bellefontaine

How viewers find us (top four):
8,668 use Internet Explorer
3,038 use Firefox
2,884 use Chrome
2,749 use Safari

Second and third to computers, the two mobile devises used to access The Icon:
1,047 – Apple Phone
814 – Apple IPad

The Icon creators:
The Ada Icon is a sister online website of The Bluffton Icon (www.blufftonicon.com). The owners are Fred and Mary Pannabecker Steiner of Bluffton. The Bluffton Icon launched in September 2009 and after more than three years in existence experiences nearly 1,000 views per weekday. It has over 55 advertisers.

Why Ada?
Many Bluffton Icon advertisers suggested and encouraged the Icon owners to start an Ada Icon. (These businesses realized the importance of promoting their services to the Ada community.)

After a nine-month study of Ada and offline experimentation of an Ada Icon website, The Ada Icon launched on The Ides of March 2012.

Coming from a lifetime of experience in newspaper, photography and marketing experience, The Icon owners recognize the tremendous energy and activity that small towns in Hardin, Allen Hancock and Putnam Counties offer.

As small business owners, The Icon owners are committed to promoting Ada and Bluffton and its businesses. The owners believe that affordable advertising is key to all businesses in the communities that it serves. While advertising drives the Icon financially, stories and photos about people in Ada drive viewers to the site.

The Ada Icon is a member of:
• Ada Area Chamber of Commerce
• Ada Community Improvement Corp. (CIC)
• Buy Ada First Committee
• Hardin County Chamber and Business Alliance
• Online News Association