The Ultimate Blog Exchange Experiment
Well, that's what I'm going to find out. I signed up at BlogExplosion months ago and surf it on a relatively regular basis. I've even used their "purchase credits" feature to direct some traffic to the blog. Now, I'm going to go the whole nine yards and, for $130, purchase 25,000 credits, which will equal 25,000 hits from BE surfers.
So, how will I be measuring my popularity in the Blogosphere?
- Page Hits
- Comment Volumes
- Technorati
- Emails from blog visitors
On a regular basis (not sure whether it'll be monthly or weekly yet), I'll be comparing these stats versus my pre-experiment stats. In the interest of keeping my control group as pure as possible (since it seems to me that this post itself could spawn some interest) I've decided to do this now, rather than right before I start the experiment. So, here are the numbers for the Blurred Line Blog:
Page Hits: 40.58 per day (seven day average from Aug. 15 to Aug. 21)
Page Hits (Peak Period*): 90.57 per day (seven day average from Jul. 26 to Aug. 1)
Unique Visitors: 32.71 per day (avg from 08/15 to 08/21)
Unique Visitors (Peak Period): 72 per day (avg from 07/26 to 08/01)
Comment Volume: 1.29 per day (avg from 08/15 to 08/21)
Comment Volume (Peak Period): 1 per day (avg from 07/26 to 08/01)
*Note: This peak period is only the highest since I switched to StatCounter, since my old Bravenet hit counter doesn't go further back than a week.
Google: 25 relevant results, 631 total ("Blurred Line Blog)
Google: 22 relevant results, 24 total (www.blurredline.com/blog)
Technorati: 9 links (www.blurredline.com/blog)
Technorati: 5 links ("The Blurred Line Blog")
Emails: 0. Not one. Ever.
I'm hoping that, given the nature of the blogosphere (what with all the blogrolling and such), the popularity of this blog (however temporary it may be) will filter out beyond BE sites.
Coming September 2005.
9 Comments:
BE will give you hits, Cavan, but that's all. To gain readership, other methods are necessary...
I wish you better luck than I had with BE. I did get a slight jump in sustained readership, but not what I was hoping for.
From what I can tell, most BE surfers are not interested in finding new blogs to read... they only want to stick around the minimum to earn credits so that people will surf their blogs.
On days where I had a really good entry up (i.e. a DaveToon), it translated into more sustained traffic, because it caught attention enough to get people reading past the first entry. On other days, I don't think people even bothered to read me, thus wasting my purchased credits.
Good luck!
Clive,
I think your point is 99% accurate. However, it should be noted that without BE, I probably wouldn't be associated with the WBA - after all, that's how I found both your blog and John's (and vice versa, I assume). It's also how I found Dave's blog, which I read on a daily basis.
So, if I assume that, say, 1% of these people are potential regular readers, let's say that of that 25,000, one hundred people (thanks to repeat hits) are potential readers. That's a number that could have significant impact on the popularity of a blog.
http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/2004/06/how-to-blog-by-tony-pierce-110-1.htm
True, Cavan, and I admit that I have found many worthwhile blogs through BE (hopefully a few have found me, too). But it's incredibly expensive of your time for so little return. There's the payment option, of course, but the return is still so tiny that there has to be a better way. I still use the traffic exchanges although I am scaling them down as I find better ways to use my time.
I think it is crazy to pay but that's me. I am not really interested in marketing a blog in any significant way so there in may lie the difference. I do a daily ten blogs nd read maybe five of them if I can. Most of the people I read regularly are my links and most of them I got to via other links. I used to actually pay my roommates in starbucks coffee to search BE for me so I wouldn't have to do it.
Again - you guys are right. While I do expect to gain some regular visitors through this experiment, I don't necessarily believe that it'll ever equal my investment. In fact, this is probably the last time I'll use BE. At this point, though, my interest in this experiment is as much academic as it is practical. I just want to see how the results come out.
Of course, by gaining credits by surfing, you also (a) get to see what other people are writing about and possibly get ideas for entries of your own, and (b) commenting on other people's weblogs leaves a link back to your site, which can lead more people to it... :)
Interesting experiment ... I for one will watch.
Personally I've suspected BE's chief value is as a tool for actively searching for like-minded sites to make contact with. (As opposed to a tool for passively hoping people discover my site.) For that reason, I haven't paid for traffic ... but perhaps that's been a mistake. Thus the interest in your test.
My own strategy for seeking quality visitors (which, I might add, is very labor intensive and has had only limited success) is to find sites that have some commonality with mine, then reach out with a note or comment. If even one out of say 20 of those "outreach efforts" (for lack of a better term) spawns a link back, I'm thrilled.
Truth be told, I'm surprised and dismayed how non-savvy some people are: Routinely people fail to respond or acknowledge a note left, and in addition surprisingly often comment recipients don't bother to click back through the link to my site.
It adds up to a missed opportunity in the battle to build readership, it seems ...
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