Friday, March 18, 2005
Blog Traffic: How I Arrive at Blogs
I have a pretty random (I think) collection of blogs that I visit regularly. Why did I visit them in the first place?
These are the ways that I arrive at blogs (ordered from most to least frequent blog discovery technique):
1. Randomly. Usually this is through del.icio.us. Yes, I browse the most popular tags, but I also usually look at del.icio.us and click on random links that look interesting. Sometimes I' m influenced by the number of other people that have bookmarked something, but often it is the title and/or description that grabs me. I also use my inbox a lot, subscribing to tags and friends and random people with interesting bookmark collections.
2. Vague Recommendations. In other words links from other pages. These other pages are not necessarily pages I visit more than once. They could possibly be links from a page that I randomly jumped to, which I hate and am trying to escape from but don't want to back out of. However, if there is a link on my favourite blogs or friend blogs, then I will most likely visit it at some point in time.
3. Specific Recommendations. If a friend recommends a blog I will almost always visit it. It is easier if the recommendation is by email, but it is more effective if the recommendation is verbal and the result of an interesting conversation.
4. Search Engines. Maybe it's just me, but I rarely arrive at a blog through a search engine. I don't know why. I'll think about it and let you know.
Friend blogs. I don't think this counts as a discovery technique, but I always regularly read blogs written by friends. Fortunately I don't have that many blogging friends.
These are the ways that I arrive at blogs (ordered from most to least frequent blog discovery technique):
1. Randomly. Usually this is through del.icio.us. Yes, I browse the most popular tags, but I also usually look at del.icio.us and click on random links that look interesting. Sometimes I' m influenced by the number of other people that have bookmarked something, but often it is the title and/or description that grabs me. I also use my inbox a lot, subscribing to tags and friends and random people with interesting bookmark collections.
2. Vague Recommendations. In other words links from other pages. These other pages are not necessarily pages I visit more than once. They could possibly be links from a page that I randomly jumped to, which I hate and am trying to escape from but don't want to back out of. However, if there is a link on my favourite blogs or friend blogs, then I will most likely visit it at some point in time.
3. Specific Recommendations. If a friend recommends a blog I will almost always visit it. It is easier if the recommendation is by email, but it is more effective if the recommendation is verbal and the result of an interesting conversation.
4. Search Engines. Maybe it's just me, but I rarely arrive at a blog through a search engine. I don't know why. I'll think about it and let you know.
Friend blogs. I don't think this counts as a discovery technique, but I always regularly read blogs written by friends. Fortunately I don't have that many blogging friends.
// posted by suze @ 12:15 AM 
