Ron Graham’s Report
— for Apr-May-Jun (2nd Quarter) 2018
This page reports my work on simplybible.com for the information of those who take a special interest in that work.
In this present decade, the Lord has provided an entirely new way by which to go into the world with the gospel. The internet has developed (one might almost say exploded) into a means of instant communication by which to spread God's message. It is possible to take advantage of this open door without having to be millionaires or a big company. You and I, indeed, are able to reach thousands of people by this means.
Encouraging comments from users
One person, who wrote to thank us for the website made this comment: "You make the Bible so much easier to understand you explain the lessons so well, I hope and pray you'll continue doing your great work". Another said, "You did a masterful job in the book of Acts". Another commented, "I enjoyed so much reading from you through simplybible.com." Comments like these not only encourage us, but show that there are people using the website both for their own edification and for their teaching of others.
Services We Offer
We provide around 1400 web pages presenting lessons on a wide variety of subjects but with the focus on Jesus Christ. We also provide pdf downloadable and printable versions of all lessons. We have slide shows of many lessons and these are now being gradually migrated to our simplybible channel on the popular YouTube.
The website provides instructive puzzles and quizzes, as well as a Quiz Master application. We also have a feature called Encouraging Bible Verses in which bible verses are displayed on beautiful and interesting images. This feature is mainly the work of my wife Susanne.
The website is designed to work well on mobile phones and the majority of users view the website on mobile phones.
The website offers dozens of indexes to its contents, as well as an automated clerk who creates a personalised index from a word or phrase entered by a user.
New on simplybible.com
In the second quarter of 2018, I added 10 new Bible study items to the website. Here are the items added...
Webpage, How God Helps the Tempted
Webpage, 17 Principles (Seal of God Overview)
Webpage, “I Am Who I Am”
Webpage, Sin and Prayer
Webpage, Sin and Prayer Quiz
YouTube ~What Happened To Jesus
YouTube ~Unlimited Forgiveness
eBook Acts Facts (2)
eBook Acts Facts (3)
eBook Acts Facts (4)
Website Usage
The figures for page views over the quarter (total of pages opened by visitors) were:
| Month | Pageviews | Visits |
| Apr | 153,729 | 93,005 |
| May | 150,000 | 93,439 |
| Jun | 141,764 | 93,019 |
(Source Awstats).
That is an average for page views of around 148,000 a month or a daily average around 4,900.
For the twelve months to the end of June, the number of page views exceeded 1.6 million: 1,608,753 (Source Awstats).
Page views Apr-May-Jun (Year Comparison)
2015 ❱❱❱❱❱ 252,653
2016 ❱❱❱❱❱❱❱ 381,734
2017 ❱❱❱❱❱❱❱❱ 437,569
2018 ❱❱❱❱❱❱❱❱❱ 445,493
Pageviews per Nation
As an indication of the site's outreach, here's a list of the countries in May 2018 in which more than 500 pages were viewed. (There are of course other countries where less than 500 pages were viewed.)
PAGEVIEWS FOR NATIONS IN MONTH OF MAY 2018 United States.... 64,445 Australia........ 24,047 Nigeria........... 8,141 Great Britain..... 7,433 South Africa...... 6,582 Canada............ 5,084 India............. 4,753 Philippines....... 4,584 Poland............ 3,148 Kenya............. 2,887 Indonesia......... 1,786 Singapore......... 1,665 Angola............ 1,583 Ghana............. 1,478 Malaysia.......... 1,463 Russian Federation 1,453 South Korea......... 939 Brazil.............. 877 Jamaica............. 843 New Zealand......... 806 Uganda.............. 765 Germany............. 743 China............... 661 Zambia.............. 656 (Source: Awstats)
Requests for PDF documents
In addition to pages viewed (as shown above) there were many downloads of lessons in the PDF format: April 1152, May 1206, June 1103 —a total of 3461 downloads for the quarter.
The most popular download is Acts Facts volume 1, with information on the Places in Acts and what happened there. In June I added volumes 2,3, and 4 of the Acts Facts series. These are collections of the verse-by-verse studies in Acts. It will be interesting to see if these pdf volumes are as popular as the first.
Attacked Again
During the quarter the site was breached again rendering the welcome page a black blank. Most people would not have noticed this because it seems that under the secure protocol the page still rendered properly. The website was connected to a WordPress blog, and WordPress has been under sustained attack for some time. I don't know if that had anything to do with the blackened welcome page on simplybible. In any case I uninstalled WordPress because it added little value to the site and I was intending to take it down anyway.
Website 2018 Upgrade Now Complete.
The improvement of file names, and the improvement of page loading time has been completed. Only some bits and pieces of tidying up remain. This upgrade involved around 1500 files. All now have explanatory file names. Furthermore, I finished moving scripts down every page so that much of the page can be rendered immediately rather than waiting for the scripts to run.
When I artificially slow down the loading of a page in the browser. I can see that the elements of the page are “prioritised” correctly. The important content loads first —either an index or lesson. This appears speedily, minimising that blank white window that people on slow internet see. The banner appears next, completing the "above the fold content". Finally the navigation display at the foot of the page is rendered to be visible when the user scrolls down to it. A mobile phone on the slow 3G network will display the whole page in around 3 seconds, but the lesson or index will be displayed in less than a second.
Thank You
Thank you for keeping on helping me in the Lord’s work. Thank you for your prayers also, and your interest and confidence in my work on the website. We reach and teach thousands of people, around 3000 visitors daily around the world. By sharing with me in this work, you make it possible for you and me to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation".
Love and best wishes in Jesus.