I was checking TOD semi-hourly during the Katrina/Rita storms. Nowadays maybe I check in a few times a day. Just like CNN gets super ratings when a war is on and then after a while I just turn it on a few times a week for a quick update.

The key data is not "hits", it is "unique visitors". I have no doubt that everyday, this site is generating more and more awareness of peak oil and all of its complexities. I'm not sure exactly how many TOD users there are but I'm sure it has continued to increase over time.

IMHO, this is the best oil depletion site on the web considering the outstanding work done by the editors and some stories done by us contributors and some excellent guest posts. I look sometimes at the other forums but find that their discussions do not meet the high standards TOD tries to meet.

The ASPO-USA conference was a real eye-opener for me. Most people were familiar with the information services provided by TOD and all commments were positive.

By and large, I would say that peak oil issues are still rather marginal in American culture as a whole but are getting more widely known due, in no small part, to websites like this. Still, it's an uphill battle, there's no doubt about that.
I'm guilty of helping with the decline.  I've gone from 8 checks a day (during the storms) to 2 or 3.  I agree, plot "unique visitors/day" over the same timeframe and I'll bet the drop off doesn't look nearly as bad.