According to the Alexa web analytics site, 43 per cent have a college degree a further 44 per cent have a master’s.

S: Astrology sites usually attract high-school dropouts, but my readers are very upscale. P: The technical nature of online stats and mobile platforms seems rather at odds with the mystery of the stars. But then I realised it’s because everyone’s started reading me on cell phones, and I don’t have those figures. We’re been hovering around 6 million uniques and 100 million clicks per month. S: Recently I’ve been wondering why my traffic hasn’t been building. The way I write, the readers will come back.” And of course, in five months I was up to a million page views. When I went to meet the webmaster of their Pathfinder site, I was told, “We’d like something short for women, every day,” and my response was, “No, it should be for men and women, and it should be every month. S: Five hundred when we launched in 1995! But you know, that was a condition of my contract with Time Warner. P: When I started editing a website in 2001, I was told nobody would read anything longer than 800 words. I have to stay up day and night to get them finished. This month I wasn’t done until the 25th, which was terrifying. I have to be done on the 20th of the month to get them edited and posted in time for the 1st. It takes me twice as long to write difficult news, since I have to really check that I’m right. S: It’s more that I don’t enjoy writing the hard aspects. P: Do you find some signs more difficult to write than others? Yes, I’m averaging a total of 42,000 to 48,000 words per month, but I never know how long each sign will take until I get under the hood. S: Oh, Leo, you’re having your good year. Your horoscope for my sign – I’m a Leo – ran to 3,385 words on Astrology Zone this month. P: I notice you’re a fan of long form in general. They have a very nice tea from 3 o’clock until 6, and editors rarely have to return to their desks, since all my interviews are long. It’s in my neighbourhood – I was born two blocks away in Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side – and it’s quiet. P: Do you always meet press here in The Carlyle hotel? You want to dress up for the artist out of respect, and if you go to a great restaurant, for the chef. I think that’s probably a New York thing – the opposite of going to the opera in jeans.

If I could vacuum in a ballgown, I would. I mean, there’s a man who attends the astrology conferences in a pointy hat. Did you make a conscious decision to distance yourself from astrology’s hocus-pocus associations? Penny Martin: You’re a glamorous ambassador for what you do, Susan.

Astrology zone