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February 10, 2005
Blogging 2.0 Redux
Posted by Stowe Boyd
Yesterday's post -- Blogging 2.0 -- caught the eye of Jason Calcanis, who commented on my comparison of Always-On Network and Corante:
Jason Calcanis
Stowe,
Come on, beating Always on means nothing we both know that (sorry Tony). always on is one tiny niche B2B blog... it's not a network. :-)
Take a look at Corante vs. just two of the Gawker and Weblogsinc.com blogs--it's not even close! These charts show just two of each networks blogs... I'm leaving out a dozens of other domains! I'd be surprised if Corante had 5-10% of the traffic WIN or Gawker have.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=2y&size=large&
compare_sites=engadget.com%20corante.com%20&y=t&url=weblogsinc.com
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=2y&size=large&
compare_sites=gizmodo.com%20gawker.com&y=t&url=corante.com#top
Technorati links are way overrated when determining the value of a business. Media business are--and have always been--driven first by traffic. Traffic=influence... not links.
All this mumbo-jumbo, Dave Sifry, new age, "links=a business" is just silly--for real. People are gaming Technorati all day long, and technorati ranking are more a function of how long you've been blogging then how popular you are.
Show me the traffic! :-)
Well, I agree and disagree. I buy that traffic is a good metric of the number of folks you are attracting today, but I also believe that links (a la PubSub and Technorati style rankings) represent an indication of merit -- a vote, if you will. And, search engines like Google also evaluate links in determining search order, not just traffic.
Also, Tony Perkins raises the question "what do the numbers from Alexa mean?":
Tony Perkins
Everyone who makes over 33% profit margins on their network selling to IBM, Sun, Accenture, Audi etc. raise their hands!
BTW, Our biggest month ever was January, up 100% for a year earlier, so I am not sure where those numbers are coming from.
Be sure to watch for our blogozine due March 1st - it is pretty kick-ass (and profitable).
Love to all my *friends* in the blogosphere.
Now, now, Tony. I think of you as a friend and colleague, no matter what Jason says.
We are actively searching for a media-savvy "executive producer" who can negotiate deals for us with the Suns, Audis, and Xeroxes of the world. (Please contact me if you are that person, by the way.)
This discussion comes at a great moment for me, since I am in the middle of working with Hylton (my partner at Corante) on a business plan -- which is why I had the graphic handy for Always-On. These guys are helping me with data and justification for Corante's growth projections!
Here's the graphic contrasting Corante and Weblogsinc, once again using an Alexa graph:
What this shows is Weblogsinc growing by about 2X over the period, and Corante growing 3X since October. We are speeding up, and given this rate we should catch up pretty quick -- even leaving aside the new wildly new cool things we are planning to launch in the next few months.
Comments (4)
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1. Jeremy C. Wright on February 10, 2005 02:16 PM writes...
"even leaving aside the new wildly new cool things we are planning to launch in the next few months."
... Hmmm, love to hear about that... Maybe next week in Vancouver? I should have room on my car on the way up from Seattle on Friday.
Permalink to Comment2. Jason on February 10, 2005 05:17 PM writes...
Are you kidding me Stowe?!?!
1. You used just the Weblogs, Inc. domain--we have another 25 domains.
2. You used the six month view.
Let's take a look at the ~1 year-old Weblogs, Inc. and Engadget.com domains and the, what, three year old Corante... shall we??!
http://tinyurl.com/5chdu
or
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=2y&size=medium&compare_sites=weblogsinc.com%20engadget.com&y=t&url=corante.com#top
Also, let's add alwayson to that chart and make it nice and big so we can compare 1-year of WIN and 9 months of Engadget to 2-3years of corante and alwayson... shall we???
http://tinyurl.com/52ge8
or
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=2y&size=large&compare_sites=weblogsinc.com%20engadget.com%20alwayson-network.com%20&y=t&url=corante.com
Stowe, I repect Corante a whole bunch... you know that. I read every day, but let's not be SILLY here. We have at least 20x your traffic across our network.
You're spinning you blog posts and playing with the real view of the data. Be proud of the fact that you have a tiny, elite audience.... that is your value in the world: elite thinkers. Putting yourself up against Weblogs, Inc. or Gawker is laughable!
You'll catch up with Weblogs, Inc.... sure, right. I could totally see that happening if I was dead or you guys bought Fleshbot :-)
Seriously... you brought this all up Stowe, so you should at least get it right.
btw: you know blogs a business when the brainiacs at Corante start getting nasty about traffic numbers!!! :-)
all the best,
jdawg
Permalink to Comment"A wise man told me don't argue with fools
Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who
So stop with that childish sh&t n$gg#a i'm grown
Please leave it alone don't throw rocks at the thrown
Do not bark up that tree, that tree will fall on you
I don't know why ya advisors aint forewarn you
Please not J he's not for play I dont slack a minute all that thug rappin and gimmicks"
--- Jayz
3. Ted Rheingold on February 10, 2005 06:37 PM writes...
Re: Alexa numbers
Who even uses the tracking toolbar anymore? Who used it in the first place? Have they got some better way to track internet traffic these days or are they still relying on generous geeks, open-minded home computer users and people unfamiliar with uninstalling plugins to determine the numbers they display?
As far as I can tell the only reason people use their numbers is there is nothing else to use as benchmarks. Heck, I use them, but I would like to know how valid they are.
Permalink to Comment4. Jason on February 11, 2005 12:17 AM writes...
>> What this shows is Weblogsinc growing by about 2X
>> over the period, and Corante growing 3X since
>> October. We are speeding up, and given this rate
>> we should catch up pretty quick -- even leaving
>> aside the new wildly new cool things we are
>> planning to launch in the next few months.
Also, since you haven't figured this out yet, moving from 10k to 5k on Alexa is 10x the traffic as moving from 40k to 10k.
Anyone can move fast from 80k to 40k. you move slower the higher you get. The difference between a site at 4k and 2k is 2/2.5k the traffic!!!
The difference between 10-5k is also double the traffic.
The difference between 80k and 40k is like 10,000 pages a day. the difference between 4k and 2k is 300,000 pages a day.
We know this because we have dozens of sites and we watch them grow from 500k to 1.5k.
so, again, you guys are 100% wrong about you position in relation to Weblogs, inc. but i'm psyched that you don't understand all this!
Permalink to Comment