Thursday, April 03, 2008

Numbers Guy Says, "Obama Blogs Taking Nose Dive"


My, my, they sigh...

It surely sucks to be Kos and AmericaBlog today...

Along with the rest of the newly-Obamafied blogs I used to read every day...

AmericaBlog (leans Obama): As the candidate wars have escalated, AmericaBlog has experienced a 40% drop in peak weekly traffic over the past 30 days. From a pure statistical standpoint, both the traffic peaks and valleys are both lower, and consistently so. That’s what’s significant: the straight-line progression (and angle) of the downward slope.

"Leans Obama," my ass.

Daily Kos (leans Obama): In one month alone, DKos shed nearly 1/2 million unique visitors (on peak traffic days) between the beginning of March and April’s Fool day. Statistically, the 30% drop on DKos is not as significant as the 40% on AmericaBlog, but the sheer numbers tell the story - and again, the straight-line progression of the traffic decline is notable.

I repeat: "Leans Obama," my ass.

It's a daily Barakapalooza over there. 30% seems low, but many of us had already left Kossakistan long before this measure was taken.

Low and behold...

Atrios’ Eschaton (neutral): I’ll give Atrios this: he’s managed to build a nice little empire, and a heck of a stable (traffic-wise) community. Eschaton has taken pains to maintain site neutrality in the candidate wars, even if the community members seem to lean more Obama (but not rabidly so, as is the case on DKos and AmericaBlog). As a result, Eschaton has been able to maintain a relatively flat slope on traffic gains or losses.

Even "leaning Obama" these days can mess with your site hits. While it may not hurt, it definitely doesn't help.

Well, looky here...

Talk Left (leans Clinton): If the Obama-leaning sites have driven off Clinton supporters to other sites, the defection isn’t particularly apparent on the two blogs reviewed that lean toward Clinton. There hasn’t been a significant increase in traffic at Talk Left - but there hasn’t been a decrease, either. Like Eschaton, Talk Left apparently has a community that is more vested in the blog itself and less in a particular candidate, and as a result, traffic has been relatively stable over the past 30 days.

The author of this piece must like life on Planet OH RIGHT SURE if he thinks that candidate preference (in Talk Left's case, Clinton) isn't a factor here.

I have a couple of questions for blogs that "lean Obama":

Will your current readers still be around once the new car smell wears off?

More importantly, will your old readers come back?

If either answer is NO, you'd better find a day job.



Best bar bet in the world: Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19-- and and

2 Comments:

Blogger Sugar said...

"Will your current readers still be around once the new car smell wears off?"

Very, very true! Many people are ONLY flocking to the web right now to get information about this election, but they won't have much to add to a conversation about let's say the latest moves by the new Russian president. I'd better start looking for my next job soon because there are going to be a lot of out of work bloggers on the prowl soon and I don't want to have to fight the numbers game where jobs/interviews are concerned.

11:35 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well, I know that I have cut out a lot of blogs, AAR, etc. as a Clinton supporter because I'm tired of everyone lining up to blow Obama 24/7 and repeating right wing lies about the Clintons. I am first and foremost a Democrat and some of the stuff I've seen the liberal Obamasphere spout in this primary season has been downright Coulterian. Also, as a black woman, the Black People Love Us vibes coming off a lot of these sites is a huge turn off. The only political blogs I still read regularly are Bartcop, Taylor Marsh and Pam's House Blend. I am just tired of the constant negativity towards Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

7:38 PM  

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