Written on March 17th, 2005 at 11:03 am by Darren Rowse
How Long Do Your Readers Stay at Your Blog - Length of Stay Statistics
Warning - the following ‘research’ is not intended as anything too serious - the statistics generated are pretty loose and there are some serious problems with how I collected them (see below for the shortcomings of these stats) - but they might be helpful in thinking about your blog. Here’s my original post:
How long does the average blog reader stay on a blog on any given visit?
I searched for the statistic on Google but couldn’t find it so I decided to do some of my own investigations.
According to Site Meter stats the average reader spends 96 seconds reading the average blog.
The blogs surveyed came from across the board in terms of their traffic levels. (ie I took results from everything from Instapundit (who reportedly has 80768 visits a day) through to The Trouble with the Baby (who has 1 visit per day).
- The top ten blogs on the list had an average length of stay of only 37 seconds where as the bottom ten averaged 83 seconds.
- Apart from the ‘top ten’ there was not a huge difference between blogs receiving high and low traffic. For example - blogs receiving 60 visits per day had an average visit length of 100 seconds which was almost the same as blogs averaging 2000 visits a day (ave 97 seconds).
- Blogs with comments scored a higher average than those without. (this might partly explain the ‘top ten’ scoring lower as most of them do not have comments) I did not collect data on this, but it became very clear anecdotally.
96 seconds is not a very long time. It is quite disillusioning to realize that after slaving over a post for hours (or days as this one has taken me) that it is likely to be skimmed over in less than two minutes)
My study is by no means conclusive in terms of comments adding to length of stay on blogs - however it does indicate that if bloggers allow for their readers to respond and interact with the writer and each other that they will stay longer. Therefore an interActive approach might be a wise move for bloggers desiring lengthy visits.
- Does blog design/loading time impact the the length of stay?
- Does blog topic impact the length of stay?
- Do bloggers from certain countries (with high local readership) have different lengths of stay?
- Does posting length have an impact?
- How are News Aggregators impacting length of stay?
- How do these figures compare with other websites that are not blogs?
This brief survey is limited by the accuracy of Site Meters measuring of length of stay The way they do this is by measuring the difference in time between page views on a site. Accuracy is a problems as some readers will only view the one page on a site - thus registering a time of 0 seconds for their length of stay. Once again this may partly explain how the ‘top ten’ have low averages as I guess that they would have more readers surfing in throughout the day to check for updates and not surfing through links. As a result of this my ’study’ is not something to base life an death blogging decisions on - but is something I’m posting more out of interest than anything else. Rachel’s written a good piece on the shortfalls of Length of stay statistics. So keep this in mind - I’m not saying 96 seconds is THE average - I guess what I’m hoping to communicate is that people don’t stay very long - and its worth considering how you can lengthen their stay.
The 96 second window of opportunity
So we’ve established that the average Joe spends about 96 seconds at your blog. Its not long in the scheme of things - but when you think about it its actually a real opportunity.
- The average TV commercial is 15-30 seconds long. (you could fit four in that time!)
- You can learn the Tango in 60 seconds
- You can Learn to be more creative in 60 seconds
- All it takes is 60 seconds to change the world
- All it takes is 30 seconds to become Famous
- It only takes 30 Seconds to make half a gallon of ice-cream
- The world record for speed reading is 1347.81 wpm. (she could read 2156.496 words in 96 seconds!)
Get the picture? - 96 seconds is actually a real window of opportunity!
Written on March 17th, 2005 at 10:03 am by Darren Rowse
Adsense - How much do you earn?
Ever wondered how much people earn using Google Adsense? Can I recommend you head over to the forums at Webmaster World and check out a thread by the name of Adsense - How much do you earn? It’s worth noting that no one that shares their figures say they are bloggers - keep that in mind as you read.
Yes it is a bit of a ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ type thread at times - but it could just be the inspiration that some of you need as to the types of figures that some are earning from the program. The numbers range widely from ‘loose change’ to $78,000 per month from one webmaster (Marcus007) who runs 11 major sites, outlays nothing on advertising and earns another ‘few grand a day from PPC/affiliate stuff). He later hints that industries worth getting into are finance, travel, poker and web cams but understandably doesn’t reveal too many details.
I’d like to extend an invitation to Marcus007 to do an interview with us here on enternetusers (have emailed him). Lets hope he’s in a mood to share a few tips with some of us.
Written on March 17th, 2005 at 09:03 am by Darren Rowse
State of The Blogosphere - Volume of posting Up
Sifry continues his State of The Blogosphere series of posts and looks at volume of posting.
‘On average, Technorati is tracking about 500,000 posts per day, which is about 5.8 posts per second. In October 2004, we were seeing about 400,000 posts per day.’
Written on March 17th, 2005 at 04:03 am by Darren Rowse
7 Practical Tactics to Turn Your Blog Into a Sales Machine
Marketing Sherpa has an article with 7 Practical Tactics to Turn Your Blog Into a Sales Machine that might be useful to business bloggers wanting to increase the effectiveness of their blog to drive sales.
‘Call us cynics. Blogs may be hip and trendy, but they don’t do diddly-squat for most people’s businesses. After four years of research, MarketingSherpa reporters estimate only.03% of the 34.5 million existing blogs are driving sales or prospective customers to their bloggers. (That’s less than 1,000 that we’ve been able to find.) Want your blog to be the one that works? Discover seven practical secrets from a real estate blog that gets prospects to raise their hands and beg to be contacted.’
- Tactic #1. Seed your blog posts with keywords
- Tactic #2. Report exclusive news and insight
- Tactic #3. You don’t need to blog daily
- Tactic #4. Add easy contact links to every single post
- Tactic #5. Jump on incoming leads super-swiftly
- Tactic #6. Measure by qualified prospects, not total traffic
- Tactic #7. Blog elsewhere
Read more details of this article at 7 Practical Tactics to Turn Your Blog Into a Sales Machine
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 11:03 pm by Darren Rowse
enternetusers Interview??
A few of your have emailed to ask where this week’s enternetusers interview is. Good question friends - and one I’m asking to. Hopefully some of those who I’ve sent questions to will get something back to me shortly and we’ll keep learning from the Pros! Til then you’ll have to put up with my ramblings I guess.
By the way - who do you want to see me interview? Nominate the names of those enternetuserss or Web entrepreneurs that you’d like to see interviewed (with any questions you might have for them if you like) below in comments - I’ll see what I can do.
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 08:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job
Debbie Weil over at Marketing Profs writes a good article on Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job. She writes quite an extensive aricle - but her main points are:
1. Start with a topic you’re passionate about
2. Concentrate on shorter, more frequent entries in your blog
3. Let your authentic voice emerge
4. Use correct grammar and syntax (no misspellings allowed)
5. Purposefully organize the content of your blog
6. Post a new entry at least once a week, preferably two or three times a week
7. Include your key contact information on your blog
Its a good list not only for bloggers looking for a job out of their blog - but for other bloggers whether they are blogging for money or not.
I’d especially echo her call for shorter and more frequent entries. Long rambling entries are a mistake that I see many beginner bloggers making the mistake of going with.
Of course this will depend upon the topic you choose - but in most cases people are not looking for major essays when they surf the internet - rather they are looking for specific information on a specific problem, opportunity or question. Often this can be provided very quickly in a short post. Keep it punchy, on a single topic and to the point.
Read Debbie’s full article at Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 05:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Yahoo 360 - Blending Blogging and social networking
It looks like Yahoo! is getting further into the Blogging Business with their new venture to be released later this monty - Yahoo 360 - a service that combines a number of functions including blogging and social networking. Here’s how its explained at Yahoo News.
‘Yahoo Inc. is preparing to introduce a new service that blends several of its Web site’s popular features with two of the Internet’s fastest growing activities — blogging and social networking.
The hybrid service, called “Yahoo 360,” won’t be available until March 29, but the Sunnyvale-based company decided to announce the product late Tuesday after details were leaked to The Associated Press and other news outlets.
Yahoo is testing the service with a small group of employees, some of whom have been working on the project since last year when the product was operating under the code name “Mingle.”The service is designed to enable Yahoo’s 165 million registered users to pull content from the Web site’s discussion groups, online photo albums and review section to plug into their own Web logs, or blogs, the Internet shorthand used to describe online personal journals….’
Read more at Yahoo! News - Yahoo Tests Blend of Blogging, Networking
Yahoo 360 sounds very much like Google’s attempt at social networking - Orkut which was an invitation only service only whereby members could invite others in a virus like manner.
Update: You can see the Yahoo 360 website here
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 10:03 am by Darren Rowse
What Could Yahoo! do to make you Switch?
The announcements today by Google Adsense of new features (see last three posts) seem to have been strategically timed to preempt the launch of Yahoo!’s new contextual ads for small publishers. It seems that Google might be trying to strengthen their relationship with publishers by giving them new payment options and revenue streams (things they’ve been asking for for some time now) in the hope of stopping them switching to whatever Yahoo! offers in the coming weeks and months.
This has got me thinking about what Yahoo! could offer to make Adsense publishers switch to their system and give it a try.
I thought I’d open it up for some discussion. Those of you who use Adsense - what would it take to get you to switch over to Yahoo!’s contextual ad system when its released? What features would you like to see that Adsense doesn’t have? Is it just about earning capacity or are other features important to you? Will you give it a go temporarily to see how it works or would you wait to see what others say about it? interested in your thoughts and ideas.
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 09:03 am by Darren Rowse
Adsense allows revealing of total income earned
Just looking over the new Adsense rules of use which were also released today and I noticed this in the confidentiality statement which SEEMS to indicate that we can now talk about the total of what we earn. It might be worth checking with Adsense before you do this publicly - but it seems to be a change.
‘Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose … (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to You by Google; and (c) any other information designated in writing by Google as “Confidential” or an equivalent designation. However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program.Google Confidential Information does not include information that has become publicly known through no breach by You or Google, or information that has been (i) independently developed without access to Google Confidential Information, as evidenced in writing; (ii) rightfully received by You from a third party; or (iii) required to be disclosed by law or by a governmental authority.’
Written on March 16th, 2005 at 09:03 am by Darren Rowse
New Google Adsense Ad Links Launched
Google have also launched a new form of text advertising today - Adsense Ad Links where by readers of your pages are offered a list of topics that are relevant to your page which they can click to find relevant ads for that topic. Its a pretty interesting system that actually gives readers the chance to CHOOSE to see ads. I’m yet to try it out but will see what its like shortly.
‘Ad Links are a new form of text advertising that we’re offering to our AdSense publishers. Using the same contextual targeting algorithm that targets Google ads to your content pages, Ad Links units display a list of topics that are relevant to your page. Each topic, when clicked, brings the user to a page of related advertisements.
The result is advertisements that are closely targeted to the interests of your users. By selecting the topics through interaction with the ad unit, users are presented with useful information in the form of related advertisements. Their direct involvement with the evolution of the ad unit guarantees an interest in the ads that are presented.’
Update: Just looking over this option now - they offer you a few options of sizes and formats. You can display 4 or 5 links in four different sizes (120×90, 160×90, 180×90 and 200×90). I’ve added one to my sidebar to see how it goes. If you do, make sure you set it up as its own channel so that you can track its results to measure if its worth doing.
In reading through the conditions of use of Ad links its worth noting some of the following:
- publishers receive payment not for the initial click on the topics in the links, but for clicks on ads after the initial click
- they are also testing (on about 2% of all ads shown) ad links and normal adsense ads combined into the one unit. A number of us have observed that they have been testing this previously also).
- in your statistics for that channel/ad an ‘impression will be logged each time an Ad Links unit is shown, and an additional impression will be reported when a page of ads is loaded due to a click on an Ad Link topic’. Clicks will only be counted for clicks on ads, not clicks on the initial topic.
- you may only place one of these Ad Link ads per page in addition to the normal limit of three Adsense ad units per page.
- the ad filter option does not filter ads shown using this system
- if Adsense cannot find a relevant topic for your blog and you don’t specify an alt ad it will serve a search box instead.
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