As I last posted the Winston-Salem Journal showed me a little love on Saturday by printing an excerpt from one of my blog posts in their "Bits & Pieces" section of their editorial page on Saturday. A commenter noted that I should see a spike in traffic to my site, which I assumed as well. Here's the thing: my traffic went up this last Saturday and Sunday compared to the previous weekend, but only a little and it was still lower than the traffic I had on Friday. In other words there was a little more traffic, but not enough that I'd say that the Journal's love had a real impact.
On the other hand when Esbee links to me I see my traffic double, minimum. I'm not trying to slam the paper here, after all I'd assume that Esbee's readers are more likely to follow a link to another blog than people who read the paper or visit the paper's website are to actively go and find my blog. Still I think it shows that in the evolving world of online media the media hierarchy is different than in the offline world. I hope local advertisers and marketers are paying attention.
Oh, and a word of advice to the Journal: there are these little things called hyperlinks that have been used online as long as there's been an online. You might want to consider using them in your stories seeing as it's considered good manners in the online realm AND the search engines give you credit for it.
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So Lucy is the real power here in Winston-Salem. Will she use her power for good?
I too see the same effect when she links back to me on a post or two. Better than Technorati I must say.
Hey Jon… when you said that you hope local advertisers and marketers are paying attention… I think you hit the nail on the head. We have tried so many extremely expensive advertising venues in the triad that resulted in very disappointing results that it has promted me start my own media venue for the triad. So please stay tuned!
I’ll keep an eye out for it Neil. I should also point out that expense isn’t the only variable here. I think by their very nature sites like Esbee’s offer better targeting than broad interest sites like the newspaper or the TV sites. It also doesn’t hurt that she has almost zero overhead and can charge significantly less for the ads
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