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It’s not the eyeballs, it’s the brains

Started by mathewi · 10 months ago

Bobbie Johnson wrote a Techmeme leaderboard roundup post in which he divulged that being on Techmeme — gasp! — doesn’t drive a whole pile of traffic, and both Robert Scoble and Nick Carr have jumped into the fray, talking about what Scobleizer calls the &% ... Continue reading »

8 comments

  • Jim Kukral

    1 year ago

    Yes, you don't get "traffic" from TM. What you get is influence. When your blog starts showing up next to your peers, it's branding. Has to measure direct, but it is valuable.
    reply
  • Frederic

    1 year ago

    Mathew - Jim - I think you both hit the nail on the head with this. I have had stories on Digg and Reddit, but it didn't do anything for my feed subscriptions or longterm readership. Showing up on Techmeme always means interesting comments and readers that stick around.
    reply
  • allen stern

    1 year ago

    Here are my thoughts:
    http://www.centernetworks.com/the-bottom-line-a...

    And I found your story via TM :)
    reply
  • Bob Warfield

    1 year ago

    This fits broadly with my view that the blogosphere is generally more about brains than eyeballs. Let's just hope the vast unwashed don't invade us any time soon!

    http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/the-...
    reply
  • anonymous

    1 year ago

    "When your blog starts showing up next to your peers, it’s branding."

    No, what you get is unintelligent "me too" commentaries with little to no original thought.
    reply
  • Bobbie Johnson

    1 year ago

    Funny thing was I never said not driving traffic was this big horrible thing (though reading Dave and Scoble's posts now they seem to be a bit defensive about it). I just thought it strange that nobody ever mentioned that Techmeme doesn't have a very heavy critical mass, especially in the context of this whole leaderboard thing.

    To me, it seems a strange thing for aggregator to drive only a little traffic - and it makes me wonder if Techmeme is a little different from the other aggregators. Anyone but the main headlines (not the subheadings) gets barely a whisper of traffic, which is interesting for those of us who make our living publishing content.

    Of course it's a branding thing; of course it's an influence thing. What isn't in blogging? But branding and influence only gets you so far, and there's only so much space on a site like Techmeme. I write for a pretty mainstream audience - few of them are likely to know who the big Techmeme hitters are, or care. Does it help me? Does it help them?
    reply
  • Mathew

    1 year ago

    A fair point, Bobbie. I wouldn't claim to have the answer to your question about what Techmeme achieves exactly. Maybe Loren is right and it is just a big circle jerk. But if it works the way I think it does, good content filters out from Techmeme to other places -- such as your blog, for example -- and from there into the broader mainstream media and the world at large. Theoretically, of course :-)
    reply
  • Tish Grier

    1 year ago

    I find the traffic I get from Techmeme is often not much higher than a link from someone's blog, but the Techmeme readers definitely stick around and read the posts. And, for someone of extremely low traffic (and a girl, and not in the v.c., development, or certified/licensed journalist end of the tech industry) it's nice to see those readers. Some, I think, have even subscribed--although I wouldn't know. I don't keep the little vanity buttons that tell me any of that stuff;-) But I think it's brought a bit more influence. And for some of us, influence is *far* more important than huge traffic numbers.
    reply

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