It happened again–that surge in traffic on Friday following the posting of Bender’s Big Score part 4: Mona Lisa men have called you was repeated this past Friday as I posted The Examiner temporal anomalies analysis of the Futurama movie, the one about the bodiless head, Bender’s Big Score part 6: Hermes ain’t got nobody. The surge was not as dramatic this time, but the Saturday decline was, and since then traffic has been running a bit higher, although that’s only two days.
It might be because both titles are reminiscent of songs, and it occurs to me that if you didn’t know Bender’s Big Score was a movie and you saw it connected to the title of a song you were seeking, you might think that someone named Bender had written some sort of opera or symphony incorporating the song you wanted; but even though my article came up first in Google for a search for “Mona Lisa Men Have Called You”, I find it difficult to imagine people clicking on it thinking they were going to get a copy of the song.
It might be because both articles published on Thursdays and the surges were on Fridays, but that doesn’t explain why my pages surged relative to other Examiner writers in addition to the raw increase in traffic.
So I’m at a loss–but a not unhappy one, if it means more readers. It’s just that I wish I knew what I was doing right so I could do it right again.
Meanwhile, the latest installment, Bender’s Big Score part 7: cut to the chase, has appeared, starting the discussion of murderous Bender’s pursuit of Fry.
–M. J. Young
November 5th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Of course there’s a surge of traffic right after you post the article MJ. Some people are following the series, and and soon as they see the new posting, they hop on it. Once they read the next installment, they go back to their normal routine until the next installment. It’s nothing you’re doing or would be likely to be able to reproduce. You probably had the same kind of surges every time you posted a new movie on the Temporal Anomalies site, and just never noticed.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Ah, but it happens on the Thursday posts and not on the Monday posts. That’s the puzzle. That is, I post on Monday and Thursday, but I get a surge on Friday, and never on Tuesday.
But maybe it’s still just building.
–M. J. Young
November 5th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
And MJ needs it explained to him why more people are sitting at their computers on Friday at the start of the weekend than are sitting at their computers on Wednesday….. I thought you were a Mensa member. You can’t figure that one out?
November 5th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Oh hey, that sounded rude. It was more meant as a chiding sarcastic kind of thing. Of course you have more hits on Friday night. More people are online, looking for dates, looking things up, doing homework, etc. A Friday surge would be expected I would think.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
That’s an interesting analysis, John–but the “day” starts around three in the morning my time (it is apparently on a west coast server), and I check it early in the afternoon, so it’s Friday morning visitors mostly. Of course, I sometimes check it later, too, or the next day.
Also, you overlook a critical point: what I am saying is not that traffic on my pages surge (which it does) but that it surges RELATIVE TO OTHER EXAMINER ENTERTAINMENT ARTICLES. Sure, if my traffic went from (say) ten to a hundred, and the average went from fifty to three hundred, that would be interesting (because my traffic increased by a greater percentage than the average). But what I’m saying is that the average traffic increased from (say) fifty to a hundred, and mine from ten to three hundred. It it were merely that more people were hitting more pages, that discrepancy would not exist.
So a Friday surge would be expected across the board, but one which hits me harder than most of the other site writers is not expected.
–M. J. Young
November 9th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
I’m still not ready to abandon my “Surging just because it’s Friday” theory. Time travel is a popular topic. Are there any other time travel writers with whom you could compare surge rates? Maybe I’m totally wrong, but if all time travel pages surge, it could be you’ve got a hot topic for Friday checking. Check your surge rates against any other time travel writers. Perhaps all time travel pages do that.
Oh yeah, and the time of day means very little. As Jimmy Buffet said “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”
November 9th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I notice you said “most” not “all”. What’s the common thread? Figure out which have the highest Friday surge rates. What do they have in common? The key to the mystery is there.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Ah, I don’t have that data. I know how many people hit my pages (all of my pages as a conglomerate, not any individual page), and I know the same stat as an average of all Entertainment Section writers and of all writers across the board (which is considerably higher).
It is conceivable that people unaware of my series are finding it on Friday when they start looking for a movie to watch over the weekend, but that’s quite a surge particularly given that none of the movies I’ve done are in theatres now nor when I did them. It also does not explain the sustained tendency for Friday to be high–those people would either become regular readers (in which case they would also catch the Monday posts on Tuesday, and today’s numbers are not at all elevated), or they would realize that my articles aren’t going to help them find a movie for the weekend and will stop coming at least until I start writing about another movie.
My personal theory is that some individual somewhere is posting links to my new articles on Fridays, probably a blogger somewhere who writes once a week or who writes on a subject that incorporates my work once a week (writing about other things on other days), but tracking down such a link is a bit of work I’m not really in a position to pursue–too much to do, too little time, and I’ve got to get something written for Butterfly Effect soon.
And no, if you try to help me I will stop reading your posts. Thanks anyway.
–M. J. Young
November 10th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. The important thing is people are reading your pages. That HAS to be a good thing, right?
(Doing Therapy)
November 11th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Oh, yeah. The point really is wanting to know what I’m doing right so I can do more of it.
–M. J. Young
November 12th, 2009 at 1:48 am
And what I’m saying is that there is nothing “right” to do. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and hope it keeps getting bigger.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:04 am
MJ, ya know what I was saying about “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”? Find out what part of the world that would be, which would be in the daytime at that hour. Three am here is 5 o’clock, where? Maybe time travel is really big in England or someplace, and you could do something specific to appeal to that market. Just a thought.
(Doing Therapy)