Welcome back to #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I publish an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I have had sporadic offerings since the November general election but now am committed to weekly offerings to be published at dustinczarny.com so we can understand the political landscape and work of the Onondaga County Board of Elections. This week I take a brief look back at my informational website, dustinczarny.com.
I started dustinczarny.com in January of 2022. I wanted a place to host not only the content I have been creating since 2020, but the media appearances in my work at the Board of Elections. In 2020 I expanded my seldom used platform, Commissioner in a Car, to a weekly podcast on election news. I also added a weekly interview show, Zoom with Czarny to talk to Democracy advocates and Democratic candidates in Onondaga County to make up for the lost community forums during the pandemic. Also, in 2020 I added this weekly column, now known as the #weeklywonk. These endeavors continued beyond the pandemic on various platforms, and I wanted a single space to collect them and document my other media appearances and serve as a central informational hub. Thus, on January 1, 2022, using my own money and resources I designed and launched dustinczarny.com. Data in this article will examine dustinczarny.com on its 2nd anniversary January 1, 2024.
I have three main categories that my website posts break into, Media, Podcasts, and Writings. The media is a collection of all my appearances in the fourth estate, including features and individual articles. In 2023 I collected 67 media appearances and have collected 689 appearances catalogued on dustinczarny.com dating back to 2013 when I was first appointed Elections Commissioner of Onondaga County. This is my 2nd most catalogued event in 2023 as and first all time. My most frequent contribution to dustinczarny.com in 2023 was my series of podcasts. I had 90 installments in 2023 and 409 installments going back to 2016, but mostly since 2020. Finally, I contributed 51 writing contributions in 2023 and 190 contributions going back to 2013, but mostly again since 2020.
Inside the three main categories I have different subcategories of content. In Media there are interviews, normal media appearances in print or on tv, and features, which are longer appearances on news programs. I did 53 interviews and 14 different features in 2023. The Podcasts are broken into my weekly 48 Commissioner in a Car episodes (48), 38 Zoom with Czarny Interviews (38) and 4 Czarny Seminars (4). Finally, the writings are in 4 different subcategories. I produced 36 #weeklywonk episodes, 9 general blog posts, 4 pieces of testimony to government bodies, and 2 editorials to major publications.
When I look back at the monthly activity The largest amount of activity was in the month of August, with 25 posts. It is also the most balanced month, since it was not the biggest month for any category. The largest month for writing was January with 8 offerings as I wrapped up the 2022 election year and had a few pieces of testimony. The largest month for podcasts was October with 10, as I tried to get as much information out about the general election as possible. The largest month for media was November with 17, as might be expected. As election results are released over the month of November, I tend to be asked to be part of interviews during the post-election period.
The last piece of data I am going to analyze is web traffic at dustinczarny.com. My goal in creating the website was simple, continue to provide content and hope it grows a little each year. In relative terms the reach of dustinczarny.com is small, but it did experience growth in it’s first year. In 2022 dustinczarny.com saw 7,272 views, and in 2023 it grew to 10,506 views. In terms of unique visitors there was growth as well, rising from 4,548 in 2022 to 6,190 in 2023. That is a rise of 44.47% in views and 36.10% in visitors. I am happy with this rise as 2023 was in general a less active political year and I look forward to what dustinczarny.com can do in a Presidential year.
That is, it for the #weeklywonk this weekend. Starting next week, I am going to be changing up when I release the #weeklywonk and my other weekly content, Commissioner in a Car and Zoom with Czarny podcasts. I will be releasing my Commissioner in a Car on Monday evenings starting on FB live and moving onto my other platforms. #WeeklyWonks will be released on Wednesdays with next week’s look at the Fayetteville and Baldwinsville village elections. Finally Zoom with Czarny interviews will be released on Friday mornings. Meanwhile you can subscribe to dustinczarny.com to get all content and election news updates.
Dustin M. Czarny 