Metric	September	October	% Change
Visits	2,203	1,519	-31.05%
Pageviews	3,573	2,380	-33.39%
Pages/Visit	1.62	1.57	-3.39%
Avg Time on Site	0:38	0:43	+14.45%
Bounce Rate	80.44%	79.46%	-1.21%
% New Visitors	91.47%	86.18%	-5.78%

OK, I was prepared for this. Last month, my post about a taxi cab that burned up in front of my office generated an incredible 870 visits and 1,300 pageviews. While it felt good at the time, I was mentally prepared for the stats to drop back down to earth this month. The fall was cushioned a little bit by the Penn Band's Guinness World Record Setting Conductor's Baton, which generated around 180 visits. Also, Billy Joel going back on tour, which has regenerated interested in my most popular post ever, my concert review of his Madison Square Garden show. That post received 352 visits in October, up from just 139 in September (+153.24%).

For a better comparison, I ran the stats last month without September 18-20, the three days that generated the bulk of taxi-related visits/pageviews. Here's how October stacked up against those numbers:

Metric	September'	October	% Change
Visits	1,080	1,519	+40.65%
Pageviews	1,570	2,380	+51.59%
Pages/Visit	1.44	1.57	+9.02%
Avg Time on Site	0:48	0:43	-10.42%
Bounce Rate	83.43%	79.46%	-4.76%
% New Visitors	86.56%	86.18%	-0.44%

Looking at it this way, October was a great month indeed. Traffic was up 40-50%, and my visitors looked at more pages and left after one entry less often. The only site that was down was Avg. Time on Site, which dropped 10.42% (or five seconds). I can definitely live with those numbers.

Here's hoping something cool happens in November to keep the momentum going...