The above chart shows visitors to the site as recorded by Google Analytics over a one month period. The average for the period is 1,129 visitors every day.

Now we see the Page Views for the site. Yes, the totals are over 100K for the period. Why the sudden spike at the end? I added the tracking code to our forums. I made a slight mistake when I added it and made it add to the stats for the www part of the site when I wanted it to track the forum subdomain alone. I think I have fixed that now and I will know by the end of the month.

Regardless, Page Views between both parts of the site hover between 8K and 11K daily. I would not be surprised to see this site generating 300K Page Views monthly in a very short amount of time.

Which leads me to my next question: How do I monetize this?

I'm already running AdSense and AuctionAds but they do not add up to much. I need something that will reach the target audience of PokeFarm AND deliver to my advertisers. The best fit I can think of is web game sites. I just do not know how to reach them!

I also signed up for AdBrite and I'm using their rotation feature to display AdSense ads until they can sell some of my inventory. With close to 10K impressions per day they must be able to do something for me!

If you are an advertiser or an ad network please contact me about this!

The News from the farm is good. The community is really growing fast around this site. We are beginning to run out of Pokemon on farming nights. We have even implemented some new features on the forums that have resulted in increased member participation.

If you have not seen the PokeFarm why not pay it a visit and see what it is all about?

All data was generated 12-Aug-2007 04:13 MST and covers the month of August.

This data shows the overall traffic for the new site. Even though the hits are high the visits are low. Take a quick look at the amount of bandwidth the site is consuming as well. You can't trust the hits number because it also includes bot traffic. Let's delve a little bit deeper.

This graph shows daily usage of the site. Notice the unstoppable upward movement? Indeed PokeFarm is a website in growth mode. Do you know why it is in growth mode? I'll answer that question at the end of the article.

Now we have our daily breakdown chart. Here you can see the raw numbers for each of the data fields. You might be wondering why the last day has such low numbers, the reason for this is that the report is generated early in the morning and not at the end of the day so the day's traffic is not accurately counted.

Wondering about why PokeFarm is seeing such insane growth? There are two reasons:

• Many of the older articles that I moved off of this site were already indexed and bringing in tons of search engine traffic. When I moved them I also create 301 redirects on this site so that the search engines would be able to send the traffic to its new home.
• The new Pokemon games for DS have just been released in Europe and we are seeing a large number of European Pokemon players coming to the site to get rare Pokemon.

When you launch a new website it is always good to look at the niche you intend to fill. Even though their are tons of Pokemon sites on the net PokeFarm fills a new niche that did not exist with the earlier games. By adding Internet trading to the new games Nintendo has created a new niche for Pokemon. We jumped on it first and we provide a great service. We also have a great domain name.

The Pokemon are moving to their new home, PokeFarm.com. Some of the content may stay here but most of it is moving away. I'm writing the 301 redirects so that all of the old links will still take you to the content. The only difference for you is that rather than the URL being hmtk.com it will be pokefarm.com.

Farming will still be happening, it just will not be happening here.

Right now I am spending some time to decide on what open source platform to use.

On the back of the box is a symbol indicating you will need two Wii-remotes. There is also DS connectivity as long as you also have a Diamond or Pearl game in your DS.

Save Games
• 29 Blocks of Wii system memory are needed to save the game.
• Up to four save game files.
• You can not move the save game information to an SD card.

I was worried that they would only allow for one save game (as was standard on the Game Cube RPG games) so I am glad to see that up to four save games will be allowed. Not being able to move the save file to an SD card means don't bother looking online for hacked save games.

Colosseum Mode
• Use rental Pokemon or Pokemon 'copied' from your DS games.
• Multiple colosseums all over Poketopia.
• Customizable Battle Passes.
• Transfer a Battle Pass to your Wii-Remote memory.
• Copied Pokemon also keep their held items.
• Copied Pokemon remain in the DS game (think of it as a clone being made).
• You can battle against 'friend passes' even hen they are not online.
• Playable with the Wii-Remote.

The Colloseum Mode is very much like the older Pokemon stadium games from the N64 days. Pokemon do not gain experience while battling and you don't lose them from your cartridge. It looks like it copies ALL of your Pokemon at once, that means ALL of the Pokemon in your cartridge become available for battling!

When battling you can earn something called "Perfect Points". Thse points are earned by beating a trainer and not having any of your Pokemon faint. You can use these points to re-fight a battle you have lost rather than having to fight all the way through that colosseum again. You can't re-fight all battles and you lose the Perfect Points after you defeat that colosseum.

You also earn Poke Coupons when you win battles. These can be redeemed for gear and...

Mystery Gift
Yes, you read that right! You can get (and transfer to your DS) Mystery Gifts in Pokemon Battle Revolution.

You will be using the "Get Via Wireless" option on your DS game to get the Mystery Gift from the Wii. You then pick up the item from the deliveryman in the Pokemon Mart.

Colosseum Rules
• Lv. 30 Open - opponents Pokemon will be at a minimum of level 30 if your are lower. Otherwise they will all be of a level equal to your highest level Pokemon.
• Lv. 50 all - Everyone becomes level 50.

Some Colosseums only offer the Lv. 30 Open option

Free Battle / DS Battle Rules
• Anything Goes - well, anything goes!
• Lv. 50 all - as in Colosseum mode.
• Editable rules - customize the battle rules as you see fit.

I'll go into the multi-player battling after I have had a chance to play the game. One thing I did notice is that when battling multi-player over Nintendo WFC Pokemon will use their type name not nickname. This takes car of the problem where people name their Blastoise "Venusaur" and then trounce your Fire Pokemon!

• The first online Wii game in the Americas.
• The first Pokémon game for Wii.
• The first Wii game to wirelessly link to Nintendo DSâ„¢.
• The first Wii game that lets players use their Nintendo DS as a controller.

Pokémon Battle Revolution is set to become a groundbreaking smash hit this summer.

In battles using Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection, Nintendo's wireless gaming service, players can use their Wii Remote™ to compete with friends after exchanging friend codes, or against players of comparable skill. The game automatically searches for other players who are online. The sights and sounds of the game bring the action to life as well: The beautiful graphics show each move in full detail, while the action is narrated by the same announcer from the Pokémon TV show.

The game contains a number of battle modes for different kinds of play. In Colosseum Battle Mode, players have 10 different Colosseums in which to stage their epic challenges. In Nintendo DS Battle Mode, players battle Pokémon that they have raised in their Nintendo DS Pokémon® Diamond and Pokémon® Pearl games. Up to four players can use their Nintendo DS systems as a wireless controller, which uses the same battle interface found in the DS games.

"Already more than 2 million copies of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl have sold in the United States alone," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "The arrival of Pokémon Battle Revolution brings those players a whole new set of challenges and, for the first time on Wii, online battles."

Online setup is extremely easy, even for novices. With a few clicks, players are instantly connected, whether they're using a Wii Remote or a Nintendo DS as a controller.

Trainers are fully customizable. Players can select one of three female or three male Trainers and outfit them with clothing, hats and glasses after earning points during competition. Players can even create personalized in-game text for their Trainers to use when they win or lose a battle.

Pokémon Battle Revolution, rated E for Everyone, launches June 25. For more information about the game, visit www.pokemon-games.com. The Official Nintendo Pokémon Battle Revolution Player's Guide is now available at retail.

My Take

I'll be picking up my copy this week as I pre-ordered it two months ago. Once the game store calls to let me know the game is in I will gt in my car and go get it!

This game is more in line with the previous coliseum games rather than the Game Cube games that had an RPG element to them. As such I'm not expecting much out of this game. You can already link up with other trainers for Wi-Fi battling on the DS with Diamond and Pearl. Granted you can customize your trainer and the battles do look cooler but you can't talk to your opponent when battling like you can with the DS games.

Yep, you heard that right, 5 million DS owners are connecting to the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. I'll tell you right now that I am one of them and I can believe it.

Not to bash Nintendo or anything but... I have been having a lot of trouble using the Global Trade Station in my Pokemon game of late. I think it is due to severe server loads on Nintendo's part.

Get it together Nintendo! Pokemon Battle Revolution is only a month away. I don't want to have to deal with dropped connections the way I do now with the Global Trade Station.

Well feast your eyes on these wonderful images and see a few of the Pokemon for which Nintendo has released sprites for.

I added the "more" feature here because I don't want the front page of the blog getting cluttered up with long posts with lots of images. If you want to see the images make sure to hit the more tag!

Click on the images for higher quality views

Nintendo has just released some new screen shots and information on the American release of Pokemon Battle Revolution! With a release date of June 25, 2007 and 1-4 player battle modes (I'm not sure about 3 player) it's looking like time to start hunting for those pre-order deals.

This new game takes place on the island of Pokétopia. There are 10 different Colosseums to battle in. Some of the Colosseums are only unlocked after you beat earlier ones. The objective is to win all the Colosseum battles and become the Pokétopia Master.

Along with battling you can also customize your avatar (or trainer) in different ways.

When playing in multi-player mode (local) each player uses their own DS as the controller. Players can also use the Pokemon they have collected in their Diamond and Pearl games. The Pokemon themselves do not actually move to the Wii, they are only copied.

In regards to copying, when you pick the Pokemon you want to use in Pokemon Battle Revolution , they become part of your Battle Pass. You can then save your personal Battle Pass onto your Wii-remote. This allows you to bring your Pokemon to a friends house without needing your DS. I'm not sure how useful that is but, if you have multiple DS Pokemon game cartridges and only one DS it could prove useful.

Click on the images for higher quality views

If you keep your eyes open you might get one of these Chimchars for a Starly.

How do you know if it is one of mine? Well, if it is from CT USA and has the name "HMTK.COM" then it is one of mine!

PS: The only exception is female Chimchars. If I manage to hatch another female I'll be asking for a Lopunny!