Viral stories boost theorion.com traffic

It started with last month's video of Chico State faculty reading their ratemyprofessors.com reviews. Last week, it was a review of a new electronic coupon service on campus, Pocket Points, driving a traffic spike for theorion.com. Stories that go viral, sometimes attracting 10 times the traffic of a typical news story, are bringing record numbers of visitors to The Orion website.

That Pocket Points story, and a companion column by Veronica De La Cruz, helped draw 18,482 total visits to theorion.com last week, putting traffic on a pace to exceed 40,000 unique visitors in October. That would bury September's best-month-ever number by about 10,000 visitors.

Here's a list of the top traffic-generating stories so far this month:
1. Pocket Points hits Chico State - 20,379 views
2. AS to build $130,000 statue - 1,919 views
3. The tolls and triumphs of long-distance relationships - 1,634
4. Driver in creek crash faces charges - 1,039
5. In the closet a fate worse than death - 988 (in two days!)
6. Yes means yes full of holes - 925
7. Pocket Points feeds brains and bellies - 837
8. Students shouldn't suffer for Blackboard's faulty technology - 835
9. Humans of Chico State: life decisions - 744
10. Faculty stage rally for new contract - 716