Web traffic to various Objectivism blogs/sites

[softwareNerd]

An interesting blog post about the traffic to various Objectivism-related sites.

Not sure how good the data is, because I just checked the last month and our "uniques" are more than double the number reported in that post.

However, Elle's larger point is a good one and stands: i.e. that even if the numbers are three, four or ten times those, there is no Objectivism-leaning site that gets anywhere near the traffic of the top commentators. I guess no Objectivist has done a "site for the masses" yet. It would be a good project, if done well, (and funded well).

Edited October 15, 2010 by softwareNerd

[Grames]

She certainly figured out a way to run her own numbers up.

[softwareNerd]

She certainly figured out a way to run her own numbers up.

Ha ha! That's capitalism: offer a value and you might get word-of-mouth.

Of the comparison sites that Elle lists, some (like HuffPO -13million and DailyKOS - 1 million) are way outside being a reasonable target to shoot for. Christian Broadcasting Network - 1 million is also too high. However, there are some others in her list that ARI ought to target (obviously this is a small, tactical target, not the tail that wags any dog). For instance,

• Von Mises Institute – 337,278 uniques
• Cato Institute – 200,254 uniques
• Ann Coulter – 190,400 uniques

Compare, the figures for the Objectivist sites. Firstly, Using compete.com's own numbers -- to keep the comparison apples to apples -- The Objectivist Standard and Solo are around 4000 uniques, so they do not figure near the top). AtlasSociety has Objectivists as its specific target. The Lexicon has a narrow focus. I don;t know much about "NobleSoul", but it appears to be a reference type site, not one that engages in activism or comments on current affairs. So, we're left with the following top ones:

• Ayn Rand Institute – 48,886 uniques (this is down 43% from a year ago)
• Capitalism Magazine – 21,807 uniques
• Diana Hsieh – 15,272 uniques

In terms of focus, all three of these have potential to compete with the non-Objectivist sites listed above. I should think that Capitalism Magazine's mission and structure makes it the one with the most theoretical potential for a wide audience. Perhaps that ought to be the target of some activist creativity and money.

Edited October 15, 2010 by softwareNerd

[DanielleMorrill]

Thanks for reading the post. @SoftwareNerd, not sure who you are but you must know me from awhile back to be calling me "Elle", I don't hear that much anymore

I definitely don't think those are all good comparison sites for the most part, but they do set the movement in context with what bigger socio/policital thought leaders are driving in terms of traffic. For the next list, I'm working on how to combine traffic data from better sources OR create a submission form so people can give me their Google Analytics traffic data more efficiently.

So far, this post has generated 756 pageviews for me, which is nice but not anywhere near posts like how I built my own door buzzer for my apartment (7,215 pageviews).

[softwareNerd]

Thinking about this a little more, most of the other sites (say von Mises Institute, Cato, HuffPO, DailyKOS) are similar to the Objectivist sites in one sense: a large percentage of their audience already agrees with their broad viewpoint.

I wonder if it is possible to come up with a site of some type that primarily provides some value to people who are not Objectivists but possible candidates to get started with reading Rand.

[DavidV]

Re Mises.org:

[DavidV]

Re ObjectivismOnline Forum (The main site gets 2000 uniques/month)

[DavidV]

By the way, when I was looking for an internship in 2003, I emailed ARI, offering to redesign their website for free. They said no - they had hired an expensive marketing company, the first of a series they use to periodically redesign their site. It was a dumb idea - you can't build a long-term presence with a marketing mindset.

After ARI said no, I made the same offer to the Mises Institute instead. They accepted, and seven years later, I still run their site as part-time hobby with virtually no budget. Meanwhile, ARI, which has has a budget of over twice that of Mises Institute and has probably spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions on their website, gets less than 1/10th of the traffic. It's not just me that's made the difference - it's their whole approach that's problematic. I've mentioned it many times, but no one over there seems to get it.

[DavidV]

Btw, my code blog, which I only use to post occasional samples of my work and is near-dead otherwise, apparently gets about half the visitors of ARI. That seems like a pretty sad situation.

[Grames]

Even I don't visit the ARI website. It is not even in my list of Objectivist bookmarks. If something interesting is posted there, someone will link to it and I'll check it out. It does not pay to check up on it like it does for Instapundit, or the million other frequently updated websites.

The last time I got anything of value from ARI was when they provided Debi Ghate's video lectures on Frederick Douglas. That was actually too much in that if they provided something like that everyday or every week it would be overwhelming and no one could keep up.