August 2001
NYSSCPA.ORG Use Growing in
Popularity
By David Cho
The NYSSCPA.ORG website is averaging more than 1.5 million hits per month and even topped 2 million hits a few months ago, indicating that the site is growing in popularity with New York State Society of CPA members, according to recent figures compiled by independent tracking software.
Last month, the site recorded a 42 percent increase in hits over the same time last year, totaling 1,706,863 hits, compared to 1,202,236 hits in July 2000, according to the NetTracker v.4.5 Enterprise software. While hits examine traffic rather than the actual number of visitors, NetTracker estimates 64,035 visitors came to the site in July, compared to an estimate of 56,685 visitors during the same time last year.
NetTracker is award-winning monitoring software developed by North Kingstown, R.I.-based Sane Solutions, LLC, that analyzes website traffic.
The software allows for the independent monitoring and reporting of Internet usage from the NYSSCPA website. Other NetTracker customers include IBM, Motorola, Kodak, the City of New York, and the Internal Revenue Service.
This past April recorded the highest number of website usage statistics, with the Society’s tracking system recording a total 2,247,571 hits from 90,600 estimated visitors.
April’s record numbers stem in large part from the access of tax information and forms in the NYSSCPA website’s tax professionals area, which includes federal and New York state tax forms and instructions that visitors can easily download.
NYSSCPA members are using the website to learn about available Foundation for Accounting Education continuing professional education courses. A January 2001 poll of members revealed that nearly one-quarter of respondents found their information about FAE courses from the Society website.
The current figures show a steady growth in the use of the NYSSCPA.ORG site. In comparison, the website recorded only 47,000 hits and an estimated 4,629 actual visitors in September 1998, the first month the Society began tracking its website usage data.
NYSSCPA.ORG’s usage figures indicate that the number of CPAs utilizing the services offered on the website continue to grow despite the lagging economy. NYSSCPA officials credit the growth in site usage to constantly expanding services offered on the site as well as the opening of the website to all visitors, rather than password protecting areas of the site.
Some accounting portals have turned to partnerships to help ride the ebbing tide of the economy. Accounting portal AccountantsWorld said earlier this month that it is joining forces with America Online’s Netscape Netbusiness to create an online community and referral network for accountants and small businesses.
“The agreement with Netbusiness will give our community of accounting professionals and their small-business clients even greater value and competitive advantage by providing access to Netbusiness’ extensive business leads, links and user network,” said Dr. Chandra Bhansali, president of AccountantsWorld.com.
CPAdirectory.com, another CPA-related site, partnered with InsynQ, Inc., in June in an attempt to provide more application solutions and services to CPAs.
Website usage data is not readily available from other accounting and CPA-related Internet sites. A spokesperson for CPA2Biz, for example, a web portal launched by the American Institute of CPAs in June, said usage statistics were not yet available for their site, located at www.cpa2biz.com. Some CPAs, however, are reporting problems with accessing the CPA2Biz site and easily making purchases.
Claiming the June launch was a “soft” launch that did not coincide with a major public relations and advertising campaign, the portal’s spokesperson said usage data probably would not be available until the end of this year, when state CPA societies across the U.S. are expected to have to decide whether to continue their relationships with the portal.
