For a long time I wrote for this site without really looking at who was on the other end. I published, glanced at the clicks in Search Console and moved on to the next topic. This week I opened Google Analytics, asked the insights tool a few simple questions, and the answers surprised me more than I expected.
The first question was where people come from. Between 2 and 8 November, 167 active users came from the United States. That country alone is more than half of the top 10, which adds up to 305. Then Singapore with 28, Canada with 21, China with 20, Brazil with 18, Australia with 16, Germany with 14, the United Kingdom with 8, Spain with 7 and Sweden with 6. Everything I publish on the site is in English, so the US leading is no surprise, but Brazil showing up fifth with 18 tells me the posts travel further than I planned. Add up the US, Canada, Australia and the UK and you get about 212 of those 305, so roughly seventy percent of what I see is English-speaking readers, the kind who actually buy things for their consoles.
Then I wanted to know how many people arrive through Google search. Over the last thirty days, from 10 October to 8 November, 223 active users came from organic search. It's not a number to put on a billboard and I won't inflate it. But these are people who typed a specific question, something like "how much does this game cost now" or "which version is worth it", and landed on one of my pieces in the middle of that doubt. In my experience, someone who arrives like that is much closer to deciding something than someone who clicked a random link.
The monthly chart is the part that made me think the most. The line bounced around for months, with a dip mid-year I didn't enjoy seeing, and only recently climbed in a decent way. October closed at 928 active users, almost a thousand. I don't know yet whether it's a permanent step up or just a good month, and I'd rather say it like that than sell you a trend that may not exist.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I'm opening the site to partnerships. I want to work with brands, shops, indie studios, accessory makers, subscription services, retro gaming sites, anyone with something to show people who like video games. The most natural format is the sponsored article, written by me, published clearly marked as such, and still useful to whoever reads it. There's also room for ad space on the site itself, and I'm open to product reviews, buying guides and comparisons, which is where this audience seems most comfortable. I won't write that a game is fantastic if I didn't think so. That part isn't negotiable, though everything else is.
I'm not putting prices here, since they depend on the format and the time the work takes. Send a message to geral@playstationcouch.com with an idea, even a half-baked one, and we'll see what makes sense. If you're based outside the English-speaking market and want to reach it, fair warning: that's the strongest side of the site right now.
I'm still finding out who all these readers are. If you're one of them, tell me what you come here looking for.