Tutorial Traffic - Quality vs. Quantity
- January 6th, 2008
- COMMENTS 18
I’m sure that all my subscribers and most of my readers have seen the 2 tutorials I have written over the course of the last week or so. 3 days ago I submitted my first tutorial to Good-Tutorials and then this morning I got my second one onto Good-Tutorials.
I’m trying to follow Vic’s advice to not post my stats, but I’ll just say that in the 3 days that my tutorials have been up, my daily views have more than quadrupled and I am already getting close to surpassing last months visits and uniques. I’ll be the first to admit that it has been great to see the numbers go up and to see my charts literally spiking straight up. However, after a little exploration in Google Analytics I’ve discovered that my average pages per visit has gone down, my average bounce rate has spiked, and the average depth of the visit is going down.
If you think about it, all those statistical results are completely normal. People are visiting my tutorial and then leaving. They read what they came to see, and then they’re gone with very few of them sticking around to see more. But the question is: do these hundreds and thousands of visitors count as quality traffic? Actually, what is the definition of quality traffic? I’ve seen people talking about it, but no definite explanation. Is it the time people spend on the site, is it repeat readers, is it more page views per visit?
I am getting thousands of uniques, but each of those visitors are usually only viewing my tutorial. Does that mean that those visitors are not “quality” visitors? Is it a bad thing that they are leaving and raising my bounce rate? Is it really so bad that they aren’t becoming repeat readers?
I know that those are a lot of questions. But maybe a “definition” of sorts should be established to define the boundary between quality traffic and poor traffic. What are your thoughts?
Brian also remember that the older your blog goes the bounce rate will increase. When you get a new reader he will go through the whole site. But once that reader becomes a core base reader he might just stop really quick to see if there is a new post or comment to a post you already have. I always say Brian the most important thing is do not worry about stats. When I setup a new niche I do not even install a stat software until the site is mature so I can tweak and see where I am at. The important thing is you have a full outline of what keywords you will be targeting to bring in organic traffic. Once you do this you just apply what needs to be done to take the position in the SERPS once this is done the most important traffic will come.
Thanks Vic for the comment.
So does this mean that there really isn’t such thing as quality traffic?
I’m not worrying too much about stats, I just like to see growth and progression. But you make a point - they can be distracting sometime.
Right now, I’m working on some keywords with some of your advice. I guess it will just be time now.
Thanks again for the words.
Brian my bad yes no doubt there is such thing as quality traffic but I find it best to narrow it with direction. So for example organic traffic pretty much target traffic so they normally are quality. Entrecard crap traffic. And Brian let’s be clear I am a pure stat guy that is all I do crunch numbers but I find sometimes bloggers spending way to much time looking at stats and worry to much. Traffic is predictable. You can target a niche select a keyword and even before you buy the domain you already know pretty much what my traffic will be.
For example because of my sincerely lack of time I sometime just glimpse on blogs so where you you put me in as quality or crap? Bounce is really really tricky.
Quality traffic is going to mean different things to different sites. It depends on the goal of the site. For a commercial site it would be a conversion, in the form of a sale or a lead. Since Web 2.0 it may be a comment, a posting, or an upload, to a blog, a forum, or a social network.
I agree with Dale. Quality traffic to me is someone who reads my posts and gets something out of it. If they leave a comment, even better. However, for most people, this is simply not enough.
Vic is also right that we shouldn’t worry too much about stats. Sometimes our numbers can spike through a few great Stumbles or well-placed articles on the social media sites, but all in all, it’s usually consistent and can be predicted with some accuracy
To me, quality traffic is if I am completing a goal as Dale said. Am I getting subscribers? What about comments? How about Technorati favorites or Del.icio.us bookmarks? Am I making money from it? How many repeat visitors am I getting or direct traffic? Are people blogging about it?
As to what Vic said about EntreCard, I don’t see it as ‘crap traffic’. There are many people who use it to try and game the system by just stopping by, dropping a card and not even bother reading the main headline. However, there are others who actually stop by, comment and check back now-and-again even after you stop using it. An example? Me. Without EntreCard I would have never found EliteByDesign. To call traffic from EntreCard crap is generalizing way too much. If you find a better way to monetize the 125×125 space on your blog, by all means, more power to you. But that doesn’t mean it is crap. To many who are just starting out it is a great way to get readers, even if it is just 1 out of 100 who comment.
Say your blog is a week old, you use EntreCard and you have an amazing article up but you know no-one in the marketing game. Someone from EntreCard comes along, sees it, comments, favorites, adds to Digg or Reddit or whatever and you somehow make it to the front-page. Tons of traffic. And without EntreCard it wouldn’t have happened. To this person, EntreCard is much more than ‘crap traffic’. But like I said, to each his own.
@Vic - I understand what you mean. I try not to concern myself with stats and numbers, but stats can be important to consider when you are looking at who your visitors are and where they are coming from. For example on google I am rank 3 or 4 for the search words “photoshop freebies” and that is where I get most of my google traffic. Without stats I wouldn’t know how all those people are finding my site.
@Dale - You make a point that it would be different goals for different companies, but still, does that count people that just read the articles without commenting to be crap traffic?
@Jason - Thanks for commenting! You make some points. If you already have your goals laid out - all the better for you. However I will admit that I don’t have a quality traffic “goal”. I don’t think it is possible for me to define whether a person is crappy traffic or quality. I have waaaay more subscribers than I do commenter’s. So which group is quality? The subscribers or the commenter’s?
@Gary - So you lay out goals too? I guess thats good as long as they are being completed by your readers. It seems to me that a goal such as subscribers and comments - while worthy - is unpredictable and could change too quickly…
As for Entrecard - I guess then that Entrecard traffic isn’t crap if it is how you found EBD. However I think that the other side of the argument should be seen that hundreds and even thousands of “carders” aren’t like you and just simply drop the card. So perhaps we should start classifying Entrecard traffic as Semi-crappy traffic
@Brian - Sure I lay out goals. It is a great way to see what pages are working, what traffic is working, etc. Subscribers and comments can be unpredictable in a sense that you don’t know for sure which article you are going to publish will receive more. But, I think that subscribers from types of traffic isn’t. Just compare subscribers/comments from one source to another for the exact same page.
Entrecard can be monetized just like any other source of traffic, and I don’t think it is any worse than StumbleUpon right now. Just give them a reason to respond. I am holding my second contest currently, and it is doing well IMO. If it wasn’t for Entrecard both contests would have failed, well, one of them at least since it was for Entrecard users. Do a contest and edit the click-through URI to the contest page. Give them something in return for a link. That way even if only one person does enter, it is still a link. And of course one way to do it is by gathering credits and offering them as a prize.
If you are getting traffic that isn’t entirely spam, it isn’t crap traffic. If you aren’t getting anything in return for it, that is because you are a bad marketer. Not because of the traffic source.
Errr, the Entrecard thing was meant to everyone, not one person specifically. Sorry about that.
Good point again Gary.
I know that goals are great, no doubt about that, I have some myself.
As for Entrecard, I guess this can be an ongoing debate, but I agree that it can be helpful for contests where you are trying to build backlinks.
Thank you again for your comments. I think I will try and highlight some of them in an upcoming post.
Gary Entrecard traffic is crap traffic period. Want to see how good it is put adsense up and see your CTR go below .50% If you are writing for fun and just to have a place on the net where to express yourself then traffic does not matter right? So hey Entrecard would be great. You are looking to monetize a site Entrecard traffic is worthless.
I have not being doing this for 1 year I have played this game with other rules for over 20 years. Banner exchanges are nothing new when they first came out I owned one and at a given moment I had I had over 50k users. I wrote a complete article on why Entrecard is as flawed as the other 5k banner exchanges that have started and dies soon after. If Microsoft could not make it work why would you think Entrecard will. If you would like to see why it is flawed you can read my post Entrecard Another Loser.
Also please keep in mind that any time you see me comment here or at another site, I never look at things as having more comments or stumbles I see it as how can I increase my revenue. Who cares if you have 5000 Unique Visitors and make $5.00 the whole day. One of my niches yesterday have 27 visitors and I made $65. Who cares if you got 200 comments in one day and make .50 cents all my comments and views are focused on making money not sitting in front of a computer wasting my time.
I think then Vic that perhaps if we are trying to define quality traffic, we should take a step back and first analyze the blogger. Like Dale said, quality means different thing to different websites. For example, I don’t have adsense so I’m not worry about conversion rates and all that and instead, for my purposes, I shoot for building subscribers and comments.
Am I wrong?
Brian you are quite right. The fact of what you do is web design I think in your case Entrecard would be extremely valuable as such I change my point of view and modify it to it depends on the niche you are working. I will make a post letting my readers know that you have made an incredible point and as such I change my position with respect as to what niche Entrecard would benefit.
Perhaps you are right Vic. I quit Entrecard a few weeks ago and I haven’t really regreted it. Perhaps the system has grown larger and it would be easier to get my name out.
Considering a few thouand “1-second” traffic I’m getting from stumble, maybe it wouldn’t be so poor to deal with a couple hundred and hopefully get a higher conversion rate of Card-droppers to EBD readers…what do you think?
Brian as a designer it is crucial you make a free theme and do what i told you in the email. All the people that I have talked privately the bounce rate with Entrecard are ridiculous so again it is worthless traffic but with your niche the fact is that all bloggers need themes and you might have a really good point as I stated before on how you might be able to convert that worthless traffic to actual worth. I would make a free theme and a banner the same site as your Entrecard widget on the sidebar and place your Free Theme banner right under that this way when the Entrecard traffic comes and looks for your Entrecard widget on your sidebar you will be having people click on your free theme banner before they leave. Again I would not think is that is quality traffic but more of a you making it quality.
I’m working on it Vic.
I know you’re a busy guy, but I’m going to try and contact you via email sometime here soon in the next couple of days. I have some general questions I’d luck to discuss.
Until then, thanks for the help, I guess I’ll try and jump back into entrecard in a couple days also.
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