Bloggolalia: Are Blog View Numbers Inflated?

Warning: boring, Quant Jock-style details ahead. Readers may experience narcoleptic attacks.

Recently my good friends at the cobrabrigade.com embarked on a new site design. Overall, I was excited by the changes, with one exception. They, like thebiglead.com, epiccarnival.com and deadspin.com, had added the "More" tab. So anytime I wanted to read a complete post that looked interesting, I had to either open an entirely new window or stop browsing posts and open that post up in the original viewing window.

Now, I had seen this type of format once before on the Internet--SI.com makes you open multiple pages to read their articles. I hated it then, and I hated it now. Why were bloggers deliberately selecting site designs that ruined the readability of their pages? And what about people on dial-up, who now had to load multiple pages at once to get their blog fix instead of just one page? So why does anyone do this method? Sure, it gives you more pages to sell ads on...but could it be that it inflates your page views as well?! Perhaps some of the blog growth we've been hearing so much about is inflated...and if that's so, maybe the blog bubble has already burst and we haven't noticed.

I went back to Deadspin.com to check the source of this annoying new trend. I remembered that even there, a lot of people didn't like the new site redesign when it first came out, and complained. As I said above, the only other reason to have the "more" feature would be to increase ad revenue (see more ads as you see more pages) and increase page views and visits. (Visits might also increase because Google Reader won't always show the "more" part, which forces you to visit the site). Look at Deadspin.com's visit numbers in the last year. Notice the jump?



In the first few months of this year, Deadspin had some ups and downs in their site traffic. Blogging traffic is decent overall, but we're finally starting to see the end of the growth curve and a shift into maturity. (Sadly, some of our favorite bloggers may be laid off as the Internet ad revenue dries up in the soon-coming recession. The problem is, that will probably occur the same time the reading audience stops growing--roughly 10 months from now).

Nick Denton and Co. rolled out a site re-design on (drum roll) June 28th--a site re-design that was not initially popular. And what do we see? A substantial reversal of the trend in July! From a sports perspective, this makes no sense. After all, the NBA and baseball were both taking place in June...and in July, all we have is baseball. Also, school is out in May in most places, not June, so it can't be back-to-school traffic. But we see a jump. Interesting!

And it's not just Deadspin. I went and checked the sitemeter records for all other available Gawker properties--links follow. Gizmodo, Jezebel, and Kotaku all show massive jumps from June to July that are the largest or second-largest of the year. Gawker and Lifehacker show smaller but significant jumps. However, Gawker and Lifehacker use the "More" feature much less on their posts (they have fewer long columns), and, if my research is correct, may have started the site re-designs before Deadspin did.

The flaw in my logic? The site redesign may be a smaller factor, wiped out by a larget trend. For example, October also had a large jump in viewers for many of the same blogs. Was there another site redesign then? Or, was September lower than usual because of the back-to-school effect? If that's true, then I can't say that site redesign inflates viewing numbers. It's an Internet mystery! Any guesses? Of course, it's probably the vernal equinox or sun spots in July, ha, but I kind of like my theory.

Bottom line? There's nothing evil or wrong about inflating your views by changing site design, if the viewer will go along with it. There's no blogger in a devil suit here. But if you're interested in the business of blogging, you should be aware that not all the number jumps are due to an influx of new eyeballs and hands.

For the record, the last two blogging months were the highest views and page counts I've ever gotten; so this isn't bitter "Why won't you read me!" whining. I just want to know why my favorite sites keep adopting irritating site designs.

Much Respect: Sir Edmund Hillary Finishes Man's Toughest Climb

Sir Edmund Hillary, part of the first team to climb Mt. Everest along with Tenzing Norgay, passed away. His death is sad, of course, but it feels good to know that the man who climbed Mt. Everest was able to live for 88 years on this earth. That is the true unconquerable mountain; life itself, and how few of us can truly say we reached the top when we die?

I have to wonder, though, could Edmund and Tenzing be among the greatest athletes of all time? You may scoff at first, but consider how high they climbed with limited oxygen resources. One must be in incredible shape to continue to move forward in such conditions. Add to that the physical labor of climbing a mountain; your legs, arms, and core must all be in excellent condition. That level of all-around strength is not necessarily true for sports like running and soccer (legs only), or basketball. What do you think?

Open Letter to Michael Jordan

Dear Michael Jordan,

We'd like to thank you for the excellent example you set for NBA stars to follow in the years to come. Our coaches and various on-air personalities continually tell us to look to you for inspiration and guidance. We have, and we thank you.

Thank you for your example that yelling at teammates shows leadership and passion rather than camera-friendly exhibitionism and off-putting narcissism.

Thank you for your example that demanding the ball on every play down the stretch is a fundamentally sound strategy rather than easily-defended selfishness and short-sightedness.

Thank you for making NBA fans think that passing the ball to a teammate in the final seconds is a sign of weakness rather than a clever and logical reaction to a tight defense.

Thank you for winning so many championships that no one remembers it took you four years to lead the Bulls to a winning record and six years for the Bulls to win more than 50 games.

Thank you for helping encourage NBA stars to think of themselves as endorsers and brand names first and players who love the game second.

Thank you for making sure that any player in the 6'4" -6'8" height range will be compared to a legend's highlight film rather than a current head-to-head rival.

Sincerely,

Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony.

(Written in annoyance the day after Christmas, after hearing one too many NBA commentators use "Such-and-such should" followed by a Michael Jordan reference.)

Women's Sports: It's Only a Game...

Hope Solo, Cat Whitehill, Abby Wambach, and Natasha Kai all US National Women's Soccer Team players, did videos for Nike on women in sports. My thanks to Martynny, who is a great source of women's soccer videos; subscribe if you like that. For once, I'm not just posting videos for you to watch them; I'd like to discuss them. Is it me, or are the videos troubling?









It appears that the participation of women in sports is being linked to body image issues or equality issues. Even worse, it appears that women's sports can't exist without endless comparison and contrast with men's sports, even by the women themselves. Now, I understand that at first, when women were not getting access to courts and fields, it was necessary to push the equality issue to get them access to said fields. But haven't women's sports grown out of that phase? Can't we let the game be the game, without weighing down women's sports with all this talk of body image, equality, and being role models? The men don't have to bear such a burden. It seems as if the joy is being robbed out of women's sports. And quite honestly, that's a big reason I like women's sports. Their joy and enthusiasm seems so much more natural and refreshing than what I see in the men's game. Why not show that instead, Nike? Maybe there are female athletes out there who can give a better perspective on this than I have, but I don't like Nike's approach here. It seems to be building demand for women's sports on a platform of resentment, mistrust, pride, and envy rather than on the game itself.

Athlete AV: NBA Players and their Dogs

Elie Seckbach is one of my favorite videocasters. You should subscribe to Elie's channel on Youtube. Some of the videos can be a little slow, but it's always fun to watch Elie and the players seek common ground in their interactions.

Below, Elie interviews Rip Hamilton, Maurice Evans, and others on their dogs. By the way, Mo also talks about how great it was playing with the Pistons. Come to think of it, Detroit does have some of the coolest players in the league. Particularly amusing is when one NBA player at the end says he'd want to be a lawyer, and his teammate quips back "Yeah, because he'll be a defendant one day."

NFL Play-off Picks (Yawn)

(AFC) Round 1: Jaguars over Steelers, Chargers over Titans.
Round 2: Patriots over Jaguars (close, though), Colts over Chargers
Round 3: Colts over Patriots
(NFC) Round 1: Seahawks over Redskins, Tampa Bay over Giants
Round 2: Seahawks over Packers (weak Packer secondary), Cowboys over Tampa Bay
Round 3: Cowboys over Seahawks
Super Bowl: Colts over Cowboys

The Beast Rises out of the Water...

This video from NBA.com of Greg Oden's Pool Rehab is oddly mesmerizing. Movie-like, is it not?
The forgotten Greg Oden Monster hides deep below the earth, licking its wounds from its encounter with Couch Man. There it trains with the evil Dr. Trainerhelperus, waiting to heal, learning to swim, learning the dark arts of the center position...It's Amphibious! It's Alive! It's All-Star-tastic!



I don't even want to think of the crush-filled thoughts the shirtless GO will inspire in Miss Gossip. And I think we finally can prove Greg Oden is not related to Moses from the Bible; the pool waters failed to part!