Emeth -
Most websites have internal measurements that they watch to see if they are reaching the audience they seek. Some of my websites don't rank well at all on Alexa, but do I care? Not a bit. What I like to see is after I post a new article and I get 15,000 hits over the next 48 hours and then see that 100-200 people per day continue to read some of the article for weeks. JWSurvey.org consistently gets 2500 to 5000 unique vistors a day, and Cedars ranking on Alexa is not good at all.
But if you know that 500-3000 individuals are coming to your website daily to at least see what is new or to read your most current article - that is really quite satisfying.
Many current websites also deliver their articles directly to their readers via email subscriptions. So subscription readership is hard to track, but is still gratifying if you have 500-1000 subscribers.
I don't think that most JW discussion editors and webmasters are all that concerned about daily and weekly readership. I think most of us are more concerned about response after a new article goes online and how the comments trend. Facebook is the 2nd most popular site after Google, but individual accounts (essentially personal websites on Facebook) would be very happy to get 50 hits a day.
You mentioned JWFacts.com. Remember that it is an information site, more like an encyclopedia of information, not a daily news site. So its audience is made up of visitors looking for information about some aspect of the Watchtower or JWs, not for news. The same would apply for Barbara Anderson's WatchtowerDocuments.org (and .com). Their purpose and audience is entirely different from a site like JWN that is constantly being updated and expanded by the minute.
It's called "apples and oranges." Like the previous comment, none of us have 7+ million members who feel they have to check in every couple of days to see what's new and have also been told to avoid reading all other worldly websites. I think it is interesting that all of my websites are visited by someone at Watchtower HQs in Patterson and Wallkill every couple of days - so someone that matters is checking us out. In the past, Ex-JW.com and WatchtowerWatch.com would get about 8-10 hits a day just from WT Brooklyn HQ. AAWA.co gets hit by the WT about 6-8 times a week. Those are hits that I care about, not some goatherd in Turkistan or a Tibetan monk with a smart phone.
JV
...OUTLAW