Dan from Madison has some observations about the click-through behavior of blog readers. I've noticed this myself. You can get linked on a high-traffic blog without seeing much traffic. You could speculate that it's the kind of readers who are drawn to a particular blog. Maybe they just like to hang out with each other and don't want to see what else is out there. Maybe they are just narrow-minded and unadventurous. Or maybe it's something the blogger is doing intentionally.
Kos works to hold readers at his site, by providing lots of places for commenters and diarists. By contrast, Glenn Reynolds won't let you stay long. You can't comment, there's nothing like the Kos diarists, and the posts are really short. What are you going to do? You've got to click on the links. Half the time, you can't even understand the point of his posts unless you click through. Sometimes clicking is irresistible. He's sending you away. Kos, will often quote so much of the post they're linking to that you don't feel you need to bother to click. There, you don't click, you clique.
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This may be why I cut Glenn some slack even when I disagree. His method is about saying, 'It's not about me, go look it up yourself.' Whereas, don't you get suspicious when someone is contiually talking about themselves, no matter what the topic?
Ron: "Whereas, don't you get suspicious when someone is continually talking about themselves, no matter what the topic?"
You are asking this on Althouse?!
Thanks for the giant laugh.
I encourage you to be suspicious of me. Just don't leave me. Me, me, meeeeeeeeeeee.
(Did I ever say I was like Glenn?)
Matt: Yeah, bloggers need to be concise. Some seem to think that spelling things out at length is a good idea. It's a real pitfall for academic bloggers. I just want to smack them.
I promise, Ann, I'll always be suspicious of you as long as you wear those waffle-cut green French Birkenstock-wannabe shoes!
I don't think that there are any rules for post-length. If someone is a good writer and has something to say, you can take longer posts. Mark D. Roberts, for example, is an outstanding blogger who posts longer pieces in serialized form--something I do occasionally. In Roberts' case, I have never gotten the itch to click away from his brilliance. His lengthy epistles are precisely right for him. Not everybody--including me, most of the time--can get away with that.
Glenn Reynolds has several sites where he posts. At GlennReynolds.com, he can go on at length. Instapundit is more of a blogging clearing house spiced, as the blog name implies, by some instant punditry. To me, two of the reasons people click onto Glenn's site so often are: (1) He seems to read everything. He's like a high-tech Reader's Digest for the rest of us. (2) They want to confirm that the avalanche that's just hit their site came from Instapundit.com. Those are the two reasons I routinely go to his site.
Mark
I would give Glenn even more credit than that...I think he recognizes his unique position in the conservative blogosphere, and has used it deliberately to foster other bloggers. (Read his Yale interview if you're not convinced)
I certainly didn't start reading Althouse regularly until after Ann guest-blogged at Instapundit, and was linked several times by Glenn over a short period.
Question for Ann: how much, if any, credit does Glenn deserve for your current blog readership?
"How much, if any, credit does Glenn deserve for your current blog readership?"
A lot.
Youve got to be pretty interesting in the first paragraph or two for me.
I need to comment too.
Mind games? Psychology? Style? Or all of the above?
Old hat.
Brian: Hey, you followed the link!
Kos is konspicuous and the traffic is huge. I've been linked there and gotten almost nothing. I found that quite striking. Also, I'm interested in watching what's happening with Kos. Less so with Malkin.
The differences you mention between Kos and Instapundit are, of course, discussed in my post. Why is your comment written as if they aren't?!
It's true I could have cited Malkin too. I've gotten links from her and they don't produce much traffic.
Ann, I've found that your readers are pretty good about clicking to links made in the comments, at least. Stubborn Facts, the new blog that regular commenter here Simon and I have started with 2 other folks, has gotten quite a bit of traffic when we've put links here to our relevant posts. I'm not talking thousands, but a nice number for a new blog like ours. From our perspective, we have nothing but kudos for how well your readers click through links!
Now, I can't yet speak to their behavior when you, Ann, put a link on the front page, but if you ever do, I promise to report back on how much traffic it brings us!
Of course, some of us don't click through to you because we read your blog first.
:^)
Oh, and do you get clickthrough when we click on a link in an RSS feed? That's how I do my first pass of Instapundit and Althouse these days.
Brian: Fair enough, though clearly what I'm doing is more like Kos. I'm creating a community here in the comments. And I don't link that much. Glenn is being super-magnanimous. Clearly, I'm not blogging like that. He often links to things based on email that I too received and didn't think was worth linking and sending my readers to. In fact, Kos is more magnanimous than I am, because he includes other bloggers and he's focused on helping various political candidates. I'm just here expressing myself, hoping to have some readers. Now, when I do link, I send a higher proportion of my traffic that Kos or Malkin does. You can try to figure out why that is. Maybe it's because I don't link that much, but it's also that I try to write the post in a way that makes you want to click.
FYI:
I found this site about two years ago through a Google news alert on blogging and bloggers. Ann was profiled in an article on blogging that appeared in a Madison newspaper, I think. Oddly enough, I follow the links from Instapundit less than half the time. I'm not sure why.
Mark
Click-through from blogs is dependent on the trust and loyalty you've built up over the years.
I have a fairly high click-through ratio when I post a link. I hear that from everyone I link. I think it's for several reasons: If I say something is funny, my readers believe me and click through. I also think that like likes like, and many of my readers like the same things that I like.
Blogs like Glenn's or Michelle's are going to get the click-throughs of people who are only interested in the subject of the link. Because there's less of a personal relationship with the blogger, I think there's less loyalty, and less trust.
Which is not to say the readers dislike them. Just that they have very different types of followings than you or I.
Excellent entry.I enjoyed reading your article.You did an excellent job illustrating your points.
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