April 2015 was the highest traffic month for Open Borders: The Case, even though we had a much smaller number of new posts than usual, and we did not have any special events such as the Open Borders Day we had last month.

Social media successes

The following pages and posts published this month did best on social media:

• Our Wedding and Immigration Disaster by Justin Merrill, April 6, 2015, got 151 Facebook engagements and 27 Twitter engagements. It got a lot of traffic from a MetaFilter thread mentioning the post. We spent $10 on Facebook promotion of the post.
• Open Borders and the Hive Mind Hypothesis by Nathan Smith, April 27, 2015, got 27 Facebook engagements and 6 Twitter engagements.

In addition, an earlier post by John Lee, Literally refusing to rescue drowning people: your taxpayer funds at work, putting immigrants to death, January 9, 2015, was promoted on Facebook and posted on Twitter in light of heightened interest in the subject of migrants dying at sea in the wake of the April 2015 Mediterranean Sea migrant shipwrecks. The post now stands at 267 Facebook engagements and 26 Twitter engagements. It also led to Jasmine Coleman, a journalist at the BBC, contacting John Lee for comments on the issue that were published in this article.

Our total Facebook spend for the month was $20: $10 on Merrill’s post and $10 on Lee’s old post.

Search interest

Users who come via search (which constitutes about 60% of our traffic) generally go to the site’s background pages rather than blog posts, but there are some blog posts that get a decent amount of search traffic. These have remained fairly constant since January, albeit with a few changes. Data below is from Google Analytics, using the integration with Google Webmaster Tools.

• In the wake of the 2015 Nepal earthquake (that hit the region on Saturday, April 25, 2015), there was a substantial increase in search-driven traffic to Vipul Naik’s blog post Nepal and India: an open borders case study, published March 21, 2014. However, this traffic seemed driven largely by people looking for material on Nepal rather than people specifically interested in open borders, and its engagement with our site was minimal. We therefore did not promote the post on social media. The page was shown in 75,000 Google Search queries and was clicked about 2,500 times (a 3.33% CTR).
• The blog post Bangladesh and India: move towards open borders by Vipul Naik, January 15, 2015, was shown in 40,000 search queries and got 1,600 clicks (a 4% CTR). The search interest was sustained rather than based on any topical events.
• The blog post Immigration and the US Constitution by Ilya Somin, March 18, 2013, was shown in 6,500 search queries and was clicked 400 times (a 6.15% CTR). The search interest was sustained rather than based on any topical events.

Open Borders Action Group highlights

The Open Borders Action Group, a Facebook discussion group created for more free-flowing discussion of issues related to migration, has continued to grow in size and remains active. Some of the top posts there for the month are listed below:

• Bleg post by Bryan Caplan, April 27, regarding the economic effects of low-skilled immigration, as requested by a friend who is a Persian Gulf economist. 4 likes, 10 comments.
• Post by Vipul Naik, April 21, linking to ‘Send them back’: Hillary says wave of illegal immigrant children should be ‘reunited with their families’, June 17, 2014. 1 like, 12 comments.
• Post by Nathan Smith, April 3, with an updated and near-final draft of his paper on the global economic impact of open borders. 5 likes, 39 comments.

Site traffic: details

Pageviews for Open Border: The Case:

Month and year	Pageview count (WordPress)	Pageview count (Google Analytics)
April 2015	40,238	38,824
March 2015	38,289	36,826
February 2015	26,205	25,351
April 2014	16,601	17,483
March 2014	22,808	23,329
February 2014	14,964	15,409

Here is the WordPress traffic by day for the past few weeks:

Here is a Google Analytics screenshot for the month:

Other membership and engagement numbers

• The site’s Facebook page reached 4476 likes at the end of April, compared to 4399 at the end of March.
• The site’s Twitter account reached 1203 followers.
• The Open Borders Action Group reached 1031 members.

March 2015 has been one of the two busiest months for Open Borders: The Case, tying closely with November 2014 for top spot. The highlight of the month was Open Borders Day, observed on March 16, and our publication of the Open Borders Manifesto on that day, which has received about 150 signatures so far.

Social media successes

The following pages and posts did best on social media:

• How my day in Wagah led me to rethink borders by an anonymous blogger, March 11, 2015, got 953 Facebook engagements and 6 Twitter engagements. The post, that used the border between India and Pakistan as a jumping point for rumination about borders. It received $10 worth of Facebook promotion (targeted at India and Pakistan), and much of its engagement came from Pakistan. This is the most engaged blog post on the site so far.
• The Open Borders Manifesto (site page) got 827 Facebook engagements and 309 Twitter engagements. This has been our most-engaged-with page on Twitter. It did not receive any paid promotion.
• The Open Borders Manifesto blog post, March 16, 2015, got 101 Facebook engagements and 31 Twitter engagements. It did not receive any paid promotion.
• Confusing public and private: the nonsensical private property argument against open borders by John Lee, March 31, 2015, got 51 Facebook engagements and 8 Twitter engagements.
• Three years of open borders, March 15, 2015, got 44 Facebook engagements and 13 Twitter engagements.

We also had some success with older posts. There was a surge of interest in the post Bangladesh and India: move towards open borders by Vipul Naik, January 15, 2015, after the publication of the anonymous post about the day in Wagah alluded to above. The Bangladesh-India post rose to 118 Facebook engagements from about 45 at the beginning of the month.

Substantive, highly appreciated posts

Sebastian Nickel’s blog post Overview of the Open Philanthropy Project’s work on migration liberalisation, published March 18, 2015, got 24 Facebook engagements and 7 Twitter engagements. It was based on a thorough review of the work on migration done by the Open Philanthropy Project, a joint initiative of GiveWell and Good Ventures.

Open Borders Day

We already did an Open Borders Day 2015 roundup post that lists reactions to Open Borders Day from around the web. In our review of traffic for the month, we discuss the surge of interest due to and during Open Borders Day.

Open Borders Action Group highlights

• Posts in the Open Borders Action Group that included drafts of the Open Borders Manifesto, and discussion of those drafts: Nathan Smith’s on 6 March 2015, John Lee’s on 6 March 2015, Nathan Smith’s on 9 March 2015, and John Lee’s on 14 March 2015.
• Post by John Lee linking to and quoting from the paper Efficiency gains from liberalizing labor mobility. 3 likes, 27 comments.
• Post by Nathan Smith linking to his Powerpoint slides The Case for Open Borders with Migration Taxes. 10 likes, 15 comments.

Site traffic: details

Pageviews for Open Border: The Case:

Month and year	Pageview count (WordPress)	Pageview count (Google Analytics)
March 2015	38,289	36,826
February 2015	26,205	25,351
January 2015	28,149	25,702*
March 2014	22,808	23,329
February 2014	14,964	15,409
January 2014	17,521	17,709

^*Google Analytics was dysfunctional for a few days and a few hours on other days, causing that number to be an underestimate.

Here is the WordPress traffic by day for the past few weeks:

Here is the Google Analytics traffic by day for the month:

January 2015 has been an interesting month for Open Borders: The Case, albeit a relatively laid back one.

Traffic patterns: overall summary

In November and December, we saw our highest traffic of all time. The trend began with a revival of interest in migration policy in the United States due to US President Obama’s November 2014 deferred action announcement, but continued due to interesting and timely content, and clever promotion strategies.

January, in contrast, was a relatively quiet month. A number of our posts did well, but we had no smashing hits, either on social media or on search. On days that we didn’t publish anything new, our traffic was largely search-driven. Since traffic was driven by enduring interest rather than current events, January’s traffic levels are likely a lower bound for traffic levels in the months to come.

Social media successes

No posts of ours matched the extraordinary performance of December’s social media successes. Nonetheless, we did quite well when compared year-on-year. Our top posts published this month:

• Journalist Stephan Faris: Modern border regimes are apartheid by John Lee, January 30, 2015, received 171 Facebook engagements and 20 Twitter engagements.
• My Summer in the Orchard: How I Came to Support Open Borders by Justin Merrill, January 20, 2015, received 126 Facebook engagements and 7 Twitter engagements. This is the first post in a series on the author’s personal experience with migration law. We anticipate future posts in the series being even bigger successes.
• Literally refusing to rescue drowning people: your taxpayer funds at work, putting immigrants to death by John Lee, January 9, 2015, received 49 Facebook engagement and 16 Twitter engagements.
• A rose by any other name: open borders, freedom of movement, and the right to migrate by John Lee, January 16, 2015, received 43 Facebook engagements and 15 Twitter engagements.
• Bangladesh and India: move towards open borders by Vipul Naik, January 15, 2015, received 30 Facebook engagements and 14 Twitter engagements.

We had a much lower Facebook spend than the past two months. Of the posts published this month, we only spent a small amount of money promoting Lee’s interview of Stephan Faris, Merrill’s post, and Lee’s post on drowning people.

We also had some success posting and promoting some of our older content relevant to current events. Two of our older posts that we reposted to Facebook and Twitter in light of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office:

• Open Borders, Terrorism, and Islam by Joel Newman, May 7, 2013. The post received the bulk of its Facebook engagement in January. It currently has 7 Twitter engagements and 131 Facebook engagements.
• Free speech absolutism versus viewpoint-based immigration restrictions by Vipul Naik, October 8, 2012. This post also received the bulk of its Facebook engagement in January. It currently has 5 Twitter engagements and 52 Facebook engagements.

Search interest

Our list of most visited pages that people arrive at via Google Search is fairly constant over time. Most of these are site content pages rather than blog posts. Of the blog posts, the top ones are:

• Immigration and the US Constitution by Ilya Somin, March 18, 2013.
• Why the Cuba “wet feet, dry feet” policy should continue by Vipul Naik, December 26, 2014. Published late in December, this post became a significant contributor to the site’s search traffic in January.
• Lifting the Cuban Travel Ban Is Good for U.S. by Alex Nowrasteh, October 16, 2012.
• Nepal and India: an open borders case study by Vipul Naik, March 21, 2014.

Economist appreciation

John Lee’s post Krugman and Cowen on immigration; or, rallying the economic profession around open borders, published December 12, 2014, received fresh attention when economist and blogger David Henderson blogged about it. Henderson wrote:

But the spirit of his analysis is correct. Welfare in the United States is unlikely to be a huge magnet for immigrants and what is likely to be a much stronger magnet is the chance for a much higher-paying job.

I recommend reading the whole long article. I recommend it for not only the content but also the respectful tone. Were I teaching a class in rhetoric, I would use this as a reading. Indeed, two economist friends were the ones who recommended the piece and both of them highlighted the tone.

Open Borders meetup

The third Bay Area meetup was held on Sunday, January 11. You can read the proceedings of the meetup here. The list of all past meetups, along with links to proceedings where available, is here.

Site traffic: details

Pageviews for Open Border: The Case:

Month and year	Pageview count (WordPress)	Pageview count (Google Analytics)
January 2015	28,149	25,702*
December 2014	35,318	34,374
January 2014	17,521	17,709
December 2013	12,270	11,931

^*Google Analytics was dysfunctional for a few days and a few hours on other days, causing that number to be an underestimate.

WordPress traffic by day for the past few weeks:

Google Analytics traffic by day for January 2015 (note that Analytics wasn’t working for January 16 and parts of the previous and next day):

WordPress traffic by month, since September 2012 (earlier months don’t fit in the picture):

Google Analytics traffic (sessions and pageviews) by month, since March 2012:

As we can see, there was robust year-on-year growth, but a month-on-month decline, and the year-on-year growth was weaker than that for December. This is because of the unusually high traffic in December 2014 because of the topicality of migration.

We also turned on age/gender tracking on Google Analytics. Here are the results by age/gender combinations:

And here’s our distribution of traffic by geographical location:

Facebook and Twitter metrics

• Facebook likes for our Facebook page stayed fairly steady over the month, increasing from about 4120 to about 4180. We did not spend any money on page promotion, and the slow growth this month suggests diminishing returns with respect to audience outreach.
• The Open Borders Action Group expanded quite a bit, from 713 members to 867 members. Most of the new additions were passive members, though, and about half of them appear to have been added by Eric Schmidt. Controlling for that, the number of new members was similar to the number in December 2014.
• Our Twitter account @OpenBordersInfo saw its follower count increased from 1014 at the beginning of the month to 1048.

Here’s a graph of our Facebook reach and likes, comments, and shares: