March 12th, 2008Are Social News Sites Useless?
This is a community!
On March 6, 2008, I posted a nice article about the Top 10 All Time Youtube Female Singers. I spend some time on Youtube and I love to watch musicians perform in their videos (I am a musician myself). I searched around the internet and to my great surprise, I could not find a Top 10 list of Youtube Female singers. These performers all have an incredible talent and deserve to get a little publicity! As you might know, top 10 lists are very popular on the web, especially on social news and bookmarking sites.
From a marketing point of view, my article should have had some success on social sites
- It’s a top 10 list so by definition, it’s shows you the best
- It asks and answers an interesting question: Who is the best Youtube Female singer?
- It features good looking girls (all marketers know good looks sell!)
- The ranking comes from the most famous video site on the Internet, Youtube
- There is interactivity built into the blog post; you can click to watch videos, vote for your favorite singer and leave a comment
- The 10 descriptions are complete with name, rank, biography, statistics, links and best video
- Everybody likes to listen to good music and learn about the performers especially if they can “relate” to them
- The article is compressed and summarized. More and more people want to read summaries and excerpts to get the most valuable information in the least amount of time
- There’s a list of interesting statistical facts
- The blog post is user friendly, clear and easy to read
Promotional work done around the article
- Wordpress automaticly pings a list of 20 servers; blo.gs, pingomatic, feedburner, blogsearch etc…
- 14 sites display my RSS Feed: Technorati, Faves, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, myFeedz, Rojo, Idiotvox, Blogoria, Digg, ReadaBlog, Genwi, 9Rules, Kinja, Wikio
- I bookmarked the link into 6 social bookmarking sites: Delicious, Furl, Blinklist, Magnolia, Simpy, Blogmarks
- I added the story to 9 social news sites: Digg, Shoutwire, Reddit, Stirrdup, Plime, IndianPad, NewsCloud, Mixx, I am Bored. On Digg I shouted my story to my 45 mutual friends.
- I sent an email to each girl on their Youtube account, Myspace and their Official site if they had one to let them know they were on the top 10 Youtube singer list. Always nice to hear you’re the best!
- I left a comment for everyone to see on their Youtube and Myspace page. I ask the fans to come vote for their favorite singer and I include the URL linking to the blog post.
- A couple girls had forums for their fans so I left a message with my link and asked the fans to come and vote
Six days after I publish the post on the Internet, here are the traffic statistics
According to Google Analytics (total in 6 days):
- Pageviews: 576
- Unique Pageviews: 439
- Time on Page: 00:04:36
- Bounce Rate: 73.96%
- % Exit: 60.76%
Pageviews - Peak of 160 on March 7
Unique Pageviews - Peak of 113 on March 7
Time on Page - Peak of almost 6 minutes! I think that’s a lot.
It’s interesting to multiply the number of pageviews by the average time spent on the article:
576 x 4:36 = 158,976 seconds = 2,649 minutes = 44,16 hours
Wow! I’m impressed! More than 44 hours have been spent on the article in the first 6 days! Sounds like a lot.
Where are the visitors coming from?
| Source | Pageviews | Unique Pageviews | Time on Page | Bounce Rate | % Exit | |
| 1 |
|
348 | 273 | 0:05:23 | 79.45% | 63.51% |
| 2 |
(direct) |
117 | 83 | 0:04:55 | 64.41% | 50.43% |
| 3 |
msplinks.com (Myspace) |
29 | 17 | 0:04:29 | 61.54% | 44.83% |
| 4 |
digg.com |
16 | 14 | 0:02:12 | 83.33% | 75.00% |
| 5 |
yahoo |
13 | 12 | 0:00:38 | 81.82% | 84.62% |
| 6 |
community.esmeeworld.com |
10 | 6 | 0:00:23 | 80.00% | 50.00% |
| 7 |
dashboard.wordpress.com |
10 | 9 | 0:07:28 | 16.67% | 40.00% |
| 8 |
live |
10 | 5 | 0:04:27 | 0.00% | 20.00% |
| 9 |
blogcatalog.com |
9 | 6 | 0:01:28 | 0.00% | 11.11% |
| 10 |
terranaomi.forums.umusic.co.uk |
9 | 9 | 0:02:09 | 87.50% | 88.89% |
| 11 |
chantelle-louise.co.uk |
8 | 6 | 0:02:13 | 50.00% | 25.00% |
| 12 |
mixx.com |
8 | 8 | 0:14:13 | 83.33% | 62.50% |
| 13 |
shoutwire.com |
8 | 8 | 0:05:46 | 40.00% | 62.50% |
| 14 |
plime.com |
6 | 6 | 0:05:14 | 80.00% | 83.33% |
| 15 |
toluna.com |
6 | 3 | 0:01:12 | 0.00% | 33.33% |
| 16 |
esmeezone.com |
5 | 4 | 0:10:49 | 0.00% | 20.00% |
| 17 |
search |
4 | 2 | 0:00:41 | 50.00% | 50.00% |
| 18 |
images.google.it |
3 | 3 | 0:01:13 | 0.00% | 33.33% |
| 19 |
indianpad.com |
2 | 2 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 20 |
myspace.com |
2 | 1 | 0:01:11 | 0.00% | 50.00% |
| 21 |
10.7.207.5:8675 |
1 | 1 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 22 |
aol |
1 | 1 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 23 |
dogpile.com |
1 | 1 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 24 |
faves.com |
1 | 1 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
| 25 |
fuelmyblog.com |
1 | 1 | 0:00:00 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Analysis of the Entrance Sources
- 55% of the visitors come from Google
- 19% of the visitors come Directly
- 5% of the visitors come from the 4 fan sites and forums
- 4.5% of the visitors come from Myspace
- 2.5% of the visitors come from Digg
- 2% of the visitors come from Yahoo
Thank you Google! As usual, my traffic comes from Google. Every other service should be ashamed of itself! The results are very disappointing!
It’s interesting to notice that users from “Mixx” have stayed an average of 14 minutes! Users from the fan site and forum “esmeezone” have spent 11 minutes per user. Those two sites have high quality users.
6 days after I submitted my story to Digg, I have received a total of 10 diggs.
My Expectations
I was expecting to get some good results from Social News sites like Digg, Reddit etc… which is why I spent 2 hours adding my story to the 9 social news sites: Digg, Shoutwire, Reddit, Stirrdup, Plime, IndianPad, NewsCloud, Mixx, I am Bored. After 6 days, my 2 hours of work brought in 40 pageviews which represent 5% of the total traffic received. I kinda feel I wasted 2 hours of my life!
The Possible Problems
I do not know exactly why my story did not get popular on social news sites but I’ll try to list all the possible causes:
- My accounts and profiles on the social news sites are not strong enough and my communities are weak. Meaning I could not have enough friends, maybe I did not vote enough on other stories, I didn’t spend enough time on the social sites to show my interest and devotion.
- The social news sites thought my story was spam
- People could be tired of Top 10 lists
- People don’t actually care about my story
- Maybe some spammers buried my story
- My server is too slow (I don’t think so!)
- My domain is banned (Don’t think so either)
- There is an evil spirit stopping my success (I don’t believe in those things)
I have to admit I do not spend much time on the 9 different social news sites except on Digg where I have 45 mutual friends since April 9th, 2007. I even have the iGoogle Digg widget!
Facts about Social News sites I would like to know
- What percentage of users have at least one submitted story made popular? I’m pretty sure the results would be between 10% and 15% of the total user base.
- Of that percentage, what is the average time spent on the sites per week per user? I would say 5 to 10 hours.
The Truth about Social News sites
It makes sense that the more active you are within a community, the more your opinion will count. But to be considered an “active” member of a community, how much time must you spend participating? I believe this amount of time is constantly rising! I feel we have reached the point when only the people who are “addicted” to sites like Digg and spend a considerable amount of time can have their submitted stories made popular. How can you be more active then someone who is “addicted” to the site? It’s impossible! And it’s only going to get worst. Pretty soon, you’ll need 10,000 friends to Digg your story so it becomes featured and popular. Stories are no longer made popular because of their content, but because the user submitting the story has a lot of “friends”. This degrades the quality of the content and the overall site. I think sites like Digg are aware of this problem and are trying to improve that aspect but let’s be realistic, it will always help to have a strong community to digg your stories! And even if your account grows, so does every other account. The only way to reach the power users league is to have a faster growth rate. That’s sound practically impossible since their growth rate is exponential!
Questions
Is it fair that only “addicted” users get their submitted stories made popular?
Would it be possible to create a community where everyone is equal?
I’m really curious to know how marketing experts sell social internet marketing to their customers. How could they possibly use social news and bookmarking sites to promote their customers? They would need to use “fake” accounts that already have great popularity and strong followers and once in a while they would slide in their customer’s story? Would they do that? Are the top diggers selling their services to promote stories? Has it ever been done?
Are the systems already saturated? <– that was my last question
Conclusion
I wrote this article cause I’m pissed and disappointed. I’m not the type of person who will ever spend more than 1-2 hours per week on social news sites and because of that I am doomed never to get a submitted story made popular. Hopefully I’m wrong and the next story I submit will get 2000 diggs, 200 stumbles, 50 Stirs, 100 Reddits and 30 mixx! 
Let’s not forget that if an “addicted” power user submits your story from his profile, you’ll have a lot more chances to get featured. But it did not get popular from your own puny account! You need help!
I re-read my blog post and I’m quite happy with it! I’m teaching myself to spend more time working on my articles. Quality not Quantity. You’ll be a lot more successful with great blog posts not so often than lots of mediocre blog posts.
One last word of advice, if you want to succeed on social news sites, do not bash them like I’m doing!
Just for kicks and giggles, I’ll submit this story to a few social news sites. I’d greatly appreciate your support! Add me as a friend too!
Additional information about Social News Sites ::
- How NOT To Manipulate Social News: A Sphinn Experience
- 10 Useless SEO Worries
- 48 Social News Websites: General and Niche
- The Importance of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it
- Social Traffic: Useless Gossip or Powerful Word of Mouth
- Media Killed the Bookmarking Star: del.icio.us traffic falls below StumbleUpon, Reddit
- Bookmarking and social sharing trends
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Main Feed
March 13th, 2008 at 2:04 am
That was a fascinating read…makes me wonder about all the social networking I do too. Amazing stats!
March 13th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Are Social News Sites Useless?…
This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot….
March 13th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Did you consider that maybe your article sucked?
March 13th, 2008 at 3:44 am
@Coldbladed
Yes I have! You must have missed that part.
The Possible Problems : People don’t actually care about my story
They don’t care cause it “sucked”. It’s possible!
At the beginning of my article I also say why it shouldn’t suck. Don’t you think the pros out weight the cons?
March 16th, 2008 at 12:09 am
“Top 10 All Time Youtube Female Singers”
That’s what I got…
Alex
March 16th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Hey Alex!
That’s impressive! 38 sites with the excerpt from my article! Looks like I did a good promotion! Too bad it’s not enough!
Cheers!
March 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Xarj, here is a rundown of the things I think are responsible for your post’s failure to become popular:
1. You have AdSense ads slapped right on top of your blog and they pretty much occupy all the important parts - all the ‘above the fold’ area. Remember that most social media users are vaccinated against ads! If they see that much AdSense, you’ll get buried. Instantly.
2. AdSense works for websites which get A LOT of traffic and whose user base is composed of many non-web-savvy users. If you pay close attention, all successful, big-earners’ blogs don’t have any AdSense ads on them but rather targeted image ads on their right column.
3. Even though you have excellent articles (like this one), the ads make your blog look spammy.
4. You were right about your social media websites profile to be weak. You have 45 mutual friends on Digg. That’s just not enough. I have more than 350 mutual friends and about 200 fans. That’s how you get your Digg submission to the front page. Sometimes not even then. And I have got 15,000 visits just because of Digg. Every other social media website just followed in.
Which means: you have to have a strong profile only on one or two social media websites to generate good traffic. And time spent on them isn’t time wasted, because that’s MARKETING. And it’s FREE. You don’t have to pay for it, other promote you! So actually you definitely should spend your time there.
And I check Digg in the morning and in the evening. I digg other people’s stories, submit something if I find it Digg-worthy and that’s it. Actually, you don’t have to spend a big amount of your time there to become a power user.
So, re-think about those ads, re-read my article on Digging to become a power user and you are well on your way to expand your readership.
Good luck!
March 26th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
@EverNerve
Thanks for the great analysis! You are the first to mention the adsense ads and I think it’s one of the main reasons why I am not very successful on social media sites.
When I weigh the pros and cons of having those adsense ads, the pros win over the cons simply because I get an average of 15,000 page views and 5,000 unique visitors every day. This amount of traffic converts into a nice profit at the end of the day. My blog is not a niche site as I post all types of articles so it is very difficult to get loyal readers.
Unlike more serious blog writers like yourself, I do not have the motivation to constantly write great articles about a specific topic. But as a semi-marketer, I “know” what the MAJORITY of people are interested in and try to give it to them.
I am the type of person to learn about something but never in extreme details and then move on to a different topic. I guess I could say my blog reflects certain aspects of my personality. All my life, I’ve been moving around, changing geographical location almost every two years! I can’t stick around in one place very long! I’m in France now and I’m planning to move back to Canada pretty soon.
To be honest, the social media sites are more of an experiment to me then a real “passion”. I use them because others are using them and not because I am personally interested in them. I know it’s a strange thing to say but that’s just the way I am!
So my lack of success does not bother me too much. I probably say that because I have a good alternative to Social traffic.
The main reason why I wrote this article “Are Social News Sites Useless?” was to see if some people agreed with me and maybe were also disappointed by their personal experience with social news sites. Also, I like controversy so saying the opposite that everyone else is saying seemed like an interesting idea! Very little people will say Social News sites are useless!
It’s important to note that in my article I DO NOT say they are useless, I’m merely asking a question. In my conclusion I simply state that I am disappointed. I would be too afraid to actually conclude that social news sites are useless! I do believe they are NOT useless and offer a great service. I just don’t have much affinity with their service.
I’m surprised I have not attracted Social News site lovers to come and bash my blog because of my controversial article! It is very dangerous to create enemies who have strong social profiles! The only thing more dangerous on the internet than an online mob would be a government! Two very powerful entities!
Anyways!
Thanks for your message EverNerve! btw, I sent you an email a while back but never got an answer. Did you get my email?
Cheers,
Arnaud aka: Xarj
March 26th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
that “too many friends” issue is realistic i think… it’s the nature of competition that the bar should always be on the rise