So, what’s the best conclusion I can draw from all of this? I need more data. More importantly, I know that more data will be useful because even this small experiment showed that it is very possible to harness the power of blogs in a simple grass roots way. With a little bit of careful instruction, I hope to plan future experiments to target the relative importance of specific variables.
Here are some of the things I’m wondering:
- Does it matter whether a blogger includes some embedded audio? Would that send more traffic? How many people would stream the audio from their blog without coming to TheHighCalling.org?
- Do users who come to us through blog referrals tend to use our site in the same way?
- What could we find if we compared a blog’s statistics with TheHighCalling.org’s statistics?
- Does it matter how old the blog is? Does it matter how old the blogger is?
- Does the blogger’s gender matter? Does the blogger’s profession matter?
- Is there some way to measure the relationship between a blog’s top tags and the amount of traffic a blog sends?
- And finally a question from L.L. and Every Square Inch: do readers not participating in the blog tour click through the links at the end of posts? And if so, how much bigger is the spike for the blogs at the top and bottom of the list.
That’s it. Everything about the anatomy of our blog tour that I know to tell you. At times it felt a little bit like gross anatomy, I suppose. Hacking and sawing at these numbers like med students hack and saw at corpses.
“Master! Fresh brains!”
“Thank you, Igor. Let’s take the afternoon off.”
“What should we do about our secret formula, Master?”
“It’ll be safe here. Nothing’s public yet.”
“But, Master! Without the formula no one will know how powerful their blog is? If you don’t give the formula, then the title of this whole series is just cheap bait.”
“Igor, maybe you should go look for fresh brains again.”
Dumb lab assistant. But he’s right. If I don’t tell you the secret formula, I’ll become Evil Cliff Hanger. After all the ridiculous build up, I’m afraid it’s terribly simple.
Take the product of Google PageRank and Technorati Authority. There are ways to tweak it more, but that’s the basic gist of it.
Just for kicks, let’s make this elegant.
If t = Technorati Authority
and g = Google PageRank
and b = the amount of potential traffic a blog can send
Then we could have this formula:
b = tg2
And now you get the goofy little title.Â
Maybe someday I’ll even create a little widget to compute it for you. Wouldn’t that be neat? If only I knew how to do that.
Now I’ll go ask my father-in-law what huge statistical errors I’ve made here.
“Hey, Igor…”
4 comments ↓
Why don’t you come to NY and we’ll have tea instead of formula, scones instead of fresh brains? (I hear it’s going to rain on Monday, so I hope you bring your big ole Texas umbrella.)
Okay, also, am I just totally missing the point here? Or is it that people who have more blog visitors send more blog visitors forward?
Still, I say, don’t underestimate the little guys. Because, in the end, it also matters WHO a blog sends forward. If it sends even one big influencer, one great cheerleader, this is worth a whole bandstand of snoring spectators.
Oh, I agree with LL on her last point - it seems to me it also matters WHO a blog sends to your site.
Also, I don’t get what “b” really means. Would you define it more specifically? Does b give you a prediction of the actual number of people a blog will send (meaning, if my PR=2 and TA=21, then my blog would potentially send 84 people)? If not, then some sort of score on “blog potential” - and what does that score mean?
L.L., boy it was great to see you in New York. I can’t tell you how much fun we had. Wonderful food too. Thanks for your generosity and inspiration and goodwill.
As to the point of this particular formula. I’ll need to write a whole post on that. So let me get back to you.
Tina, absolutely the who traffic matters the most. Some audiences are going to align more than others–that’s why one would need to evaluate the blogs before ever using the formula to rank them.
And “b” doesn’t equal direct blog traffic. Rather, it is simply a number that has a high correlation to high blog traffic.
My next task is to put together a table that shows the scale of traffic predictable within a certain range of “b.”
For example, if 100 < b < 200, then the potential traffic may be fifty people or something. This is definitely a work in progress.
And I’m an English major with an MA in English. So this math stuff can get a little fuzzy.