An interesting perspective on metrics from Stowe Boyd.
While working at Corante, I had the opportunity to peer at the stats for all sorts of blogs that we had going. And one thing that became really obvious is that sucessful blogs -- ones that were currently viable and vibrant, and those that were on a growth trajectory from their start -- shared a common characteristic: The ratio between posts and comments+trackbacks (posts/comments+trackbacks) was less than one. Meaning that there was more conversation -- as indicated by the number of comments and track backs offered by readers -- than posting articles. I will call this the Converation Index, just to put a handle on itA low index suggests more conversations, a high index suggests more ranting, less discussion.
It's a fun metric, and I'm sure Stowe intends it to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Stowe reckons his conversation index is 80 posts divided by 102 (comments and trackbacks) = 0.784.
FWIW, mine is 1198 posts divided by 1706 comments and 472 trackbacks - 1198/2178 = 0.55. Not too bad.
(For the pedants, I actually have some static pages on this site which are not blog entries and they're excluded from this calculation).
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Comments (5)
I like it -- "conversation index" has a ring to it, and it's a tidy little metric a CEO who is blogging could get his mind around.
Mine is .95 (146 posts/139 comments + 14 trackbacks). I'm no Johnny Moore, but at least I'm less than one (the number, not Johnny Moore). :) And BTW, I just lowered your index. You're welcome.
February 3, 2006 18:14 Permalink for comment
Thanks Jeff. Of course, I now realise that by replying to your comment I am improving the index further... thus exposing a possible cause for not taking this metric too seriously.
February 3, 2006 18:18 Permalink for comment
I know Stowe had his tongue in his cheek, but it’s worth remembering that this is highly dependent on traffic. Stowe’s not exactly in want of visitors to his new blog: he had a healthy audience from day one. For someone with few connections starting a blog today with no connections, there is little guarantee that that blog will be found, but persistence might be the reason for its eventual success.
The lesson, I imagine, is that a successful blog needs a plan or a lot of passion in order for it to become viable, or that a blogger needs to do what Stowe did: be part of another blog before branching out.
After two weeks, I’m ranting on 1·47!
February 4, 2006 01:54 Permalink for comment
I love discussions like this - metrics, especially for new tasks are so nebulous.
I was actually coming in to say also that traffic is a factor as well. Defining interaction is highly dependent on audience size. A speaker who speaks to one or two creates a conversation. A speaker who speaks to 1000 is lecturing/keynoting. One has a different impact and effect than another.
And do comments weigh less heavily than trackbacks? If you assume conversation is stronger the broader it is, the the effect of a trackback may be say, twice as much as a comment. Unless of course the site is Techcrunch - then perhaps the effectiviness of conversation increases in comments over trackbacks.
All good stuff! :)
February 8, 2006 15:36 Permalink for comment
Jake: Yeah, it's always the way with metrics, they are only snapshots of bits of complexity, easily misinterpreted out of context.
February 8, 2006 16:16 Permalink for comment