I got a lot of comments on the “big post” – many are smart, some are just plain wrong, many however taught me stuff.
I should find the time to answer them – but for the moment I was just keen to see how many readers I had found in Washington DC.
I did find a few. Google Anlaytics allows you to track some user data (region, frequency, time on site etc.) Google tells me that I received my all time record Washington readers (about 200). Almost 80 percent of those had never visited Bronte Capital before.
Great – I am having an impact I thought.
But then I was pegged back a little. The average time on the site was one minute and thirty two seconds for a 5000 word essay.
As said - I received a lot of quality comments. I doubt I received any from people who read for less than 2 minutes.
John
Postcript... I know its just an average, and I know people cut and paste - but the New York crowd read twice as long...
John-- some of us read your posts in their entirety in Google Reader (or similar services) so a 2.5 min visit does mean the article was not read in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteBTW I read 300-400 articles and 1,200+ headlines a day from 200+ feeds, and I find yours some of the most thoughtful, cognitive value-added pieces. Particularly because you present qualitatively new angles, and you have proven to be prescient on many current issues (i.e. the Baltics).
Best,
John - Remember, that's an average. The distribution is slanted by early leavers. Also, a lot of folks just copy and paste into a word doc.
ReplyDelete- Eddy (in Adams Morgan)
Yes, google reader.
ReplyDeleteI use that as well, read all your posts but doubt it is captured on google analytics at all.
average time on site doesn't mean anything -- if they download it and read it and don't click anything else on the site that will just count the download.
ReplyDeletei understood the post and most of the comments but i didn't understand david pearson's comment -- could someone help me out here?
I just use a tab to open an article and keep going to other sites. Don't know if that gets measured properly. Don't trust the numbers.
ReplyDeleteThere's an option somewhere in your Blogger conrol panel that has newsreaders only post the first couple of lines of a piece. That makes them go to your site. You're providing the content and you should get the hits.
ReplyDeleteSecond on what Nick said. I read every day nit through Google Reader so the average view stats might be a bit out of whack.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!
I have to admit that I'm a long time reader from up here all the way in Canada, but most of the time simply read through Bloglines.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd chime in and offer my kudos to the succinct insight you offer.
Cheers,
William
I printed your article out. Reading long pieces on the computer hurts my eyes.
ReplyDeletevachon
Maybe it's a tale of two cities. There are certainly plenty of Manhattanites with lots of time on their hands suddenly. On the flip side, maybe we should be encouraged that the Washintonians are busy and forced to cram. In any case, great post; thanks for the insights.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the long post to my mobile device and then shut down the connection. I'll bet you have lotsa D.C. readers with Smartphones.
ReplyDelete