2016 — Toldot.ru in Review!
Over the past few years, we started a tradition of reviewing the statistics and happenings on our website at the year-end. Here is our review of 2016!
2016 had not been a very calm year for the Jewish world; much has happened that, truthfully and understandably, one would rather quickly forget. This is not surprising at all. At Toldot.ru, we tried to publish responses and prayers that would support and encourage the Jewish People during these difficult times.
In 2016, 5.8 million unique wisitors visited Toldot.ru and viewed more than 13.5 million articles, audios, and videos! Out of these people, 100,000 were regular monthly visitors!
The most popular search on our website was about Jewish roots — namely, our Jewish surnames database saw extensive use. In first place were the surnames «Abramov» and «Yudin» with 5,000 views each (not much has changed since 2015) and «Schmidt» followed with 4,000 views.
One can get a feel for the hot topics of the day by the questions our «Ask the Rabbi» forum received, such as «How are Jews different from other nations?» «Why are Jews hated?» and, reflecting the uncertain times in which we are living, «What happens to a person’s soul after death?»
Just like last year, the most popular piece on our website was «Shacharis — The Morning Prayers» (after all, we are trying to be useful…), followed by the forever popular «Jewish Traditional Clothing» (how can we explain that?). In third place is «The Bedtime Shema» and in fourth place with 14,000 views is «A Prayer for Health and Success» (which we also attribute to our uncertain times).
Among our audio selection, Rabbi Asher Kushnir’s series continue to traditionally take the lead with «Secrets of Family Happiness,» «What Happens after Death — the Path to Hell» (again, not surprisingly), and, as a supplement to the first series, «Principles of Childrearing.» In addition, Rabbi Chaim Burstein and Rabbi Moshe Pantelat continue to inspire their many loyal listeners with unique and diverse lectures on Tanach.
Unfortunately, the number of readers and especially listeners decreases year after year, giving way to an increased preference in video viewing. We try to fill the niche so that our viewers constructively spend their time on our website. The most popular videos were «Learning Hebrew» (maybe this is connected to the popularity of the Jewish surname database) and Rabbi Asher Kushnir’s new popular lecture series based on the book Chovos ha’Levovos. Among exclusively women, the most popular videos were «Decoding Relationships» and «How to Avoid ‘Loss’ in the Kitchen.» The majority of our viewers watch our video lectures through Youtube and Facebook and our webinars through WebEx.
The vast majority of our visitors are young and middle-aged people who have families or will soon start a family. In the «Family» forum, popular questions and concerns included «My husband looks at pornography. Should we get divorced?», «I love my husband very much, but I barely enjoy being intimate with him.» «I noticed that my husband converses with other women. How can I stop myself from losing trust in him?» «The wife desires intimacy more frequently than her husband. Is this normal?» and «What can I do if my husband isn’t tender toward me and doesn't give me compliments?»
We see that our viewers’ interests have not changed much since 2016 (at least something in this world has been stable…). We at Toldot.ru didn’t sit idly; this whole year (actually, the past two years), we having been working hard at getting ready to revamp the website in virtually every area. Soon, our dear readers, listeners, and viewers, you will be able to get to know a new and improved «Toldot.ru!»
We especially want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our website visitors and all of our friends who have contributed in order to keep our website resources going. We can see how G-d is blessing and supporting you and us in this noble effort of bringing Russian-Jews the light and purity of Judaism in Russian!
