… We’d say a big thank you to the 52,224 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in March.

It’s three months since last the Voice indulged in our statporn, so here’s 2011 figures so far: January (44,998) and February (40,206). This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011) to 766,283, almost double the equivalent figure for 2009-10 of 395,014.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering why we publish our readership figures — is it show-off vanity, or pedantic statophilia? — I came up with a few reasons at the start of last year. The arguments still stack up, I think.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

1. Barnsley Central result: Labour win, Lib Dems sixth (197) by The Voice
2. LibLink: Dominic Carman – What it’s like to be the most despised man in the town political correctness forgot (and come SIXTH in a by-election) (71) by Nick Thornsby
3. Nick Clegg’s conference speech (134) by Mark Pack
4. Parmjit Singh Gill withdraws as Lib Dem candidate for Leicester South (7) by Helen Duffett
5. Election purdah period: what can and can’t be done? (1) by Mark Pack

And the top 5 traffic sources for Lib Dem Voice in March were:

* Google
* Twitter
* Daily Email alerts
* Facebook.com
* Members’ forum

Whether you’re a regular here, or an occasional ‘popper-by’, we’re delighted you looked in.

• If you want to keep up-to-date with Lib Dem Voice in the future, then why not sign up for our daily email alerts: easy-to-navigate links to Voice articles delivered to your inbox every morning;
• If you enjoy reading Lib Dem Voice, why not try writing for the site?
• If you’re a party member, don’t forget to check out our private members’ forum, which also includes being polled for our regular members’ surveys;
• And if you value LDV’s work throughout the year, please consider making a donation to our running costs: this is a not-for-profit website, and the whole team donates their time and effort free of charge. Any money you choose to give will help make LDV even better in the future.

* Google Analytics’ term: it broadly means people using about 51,000 different computers visited LDV at least once. Some people may be counted more than once (eg, home and work computer), whilst some people may not be counted (eg, two different people use the same computer, or someone reads the site through a feed reader without ever actually visiting it).