I launched www.CruiseMarketWatch.com last August as a way to highlight my research and marketing skills in a practical and demonstrable way. Since then, the site has had 54,000 page views from 14,500 unique visitors and ranks first for the search term "Cruise Market."  I have been published in the Travel Trade Gazette and Cruise Shipping Miami Today, attended the Cruise Shipping Miami convention, surveyed over 600 travel agents and created an iPhone app for cruisers.  Not bad for a part-time pleasure. But perhaps most importantly, it has helped me stay emotionally connected to the love of my life, to whom the site is dedicated, as she travels the world.

I started out knowing I wouldn't out scoop the cruise sites that post news releases onto the web.  If it already exists, it's not unique - so why should you visit?  I try to find cruise trends that have an impact from a marketing perspective and actually write something insightful.  Moreover, I provide market data for free that simply can't be found anywhere else.

Since my passion is applying analytical and strategic thinking to the development of remarkable products and promotions, I'd like to share five Google Analytics site statistics from the past year.

Top 5 most read blog posts

  1. Top 5 new cruise ships for 2009
  2. Cruise marketing top 10 greatest moments
  3. Premium Cruise Line Celebrity Generating Buzz with Solstice
  4. Royal Caribbean's campaign "Get Out There" is going, going, gone...
  5. View from under a cruise ship

Top 5 blog posts that haven't been discovered yet (personal opinion)

  1. Get your pod chirping, the video
  2. Why choose to cruise
  3. Cruising past recession island
  4. Relax - cruise lines can go after the spa business
  5. Top 10 cruise port pubs

Top visiting countries of origin

  1. United States
  2. Canada
  3. United Kingdom
  4. Germany
  5. Netherlands

Top 5 referring sites

  1. Boards.cruisecritic.com
  2. Prweb.com
  3. Google.com
  4. Linkedin.com
  5. Surveymonkey.com

Top 5 keywords searched

  1. cruise market
  2. cruise market watch
  3. cruise industry market share
  4. cruise market share
  5. top 5 cruise lines

I hope each visitor has been rewarded for their time and taken away something of value.  I have made a lot of new friends this past year.  I would love to hear your feedback.