PhotoDude.com

Sun. Jul 21, 2002

Weblogs, Traffic, and Productivity

Weblogs, Traffic, and Productivity – Stuart Buck asks some questions I’ve pondered myself when considering the traffic trends at my site. His reference is the stats for the highly popular Instapundit: "I find it extremely interesting that Glenn’s traffic figures (thanks for making them public!) are so heavily weighted towards both weekdays and working hours. The last chart on this page shows that his weekday traffic is about twice as high per day as his weekend traffic. And the next-to-last chart on the same page shows that his traffic picks up at about 7 am, peaks between 2 and 3 pm, and then declines the rest of the day."

Well, since it’s the weekend and nobody is reading this, let’s answer his questions. But for those bored by stat-talk, I’ll move it off the front page…

1. To what extent are his numbers representative of web traffic in general? (There’s probably no way to know such a thing, given that it appears to be hard enough to get individual web pages to report honest traffic numbers.)

I can only relate it to the stats for this site, and PixelPile.org (and the overall trends are the same for both). In total traffic, there’s no comparison, for more reasons than the obvious. First of all, at a site like mine with a lower of volume traffic, I think you get a lot more variance. Glenn’s traffic varies from week to week, but not wildly (other than his silent week of vacation). I have weeks I average a thousand visitors a day, and weeks I average 350 a day. So my overall average of 500 per day isn’t quite as ”true” a number as Glenn’s amazing 14,590 visitors per day.

Plus, while my weblog gets 15,000 visitors a month (Glenn’s total for an average day), my entire site gets 30,000 visitors a month. The site totals about a quarter million page views per month, but only 30,000-35,000 of those are from the weblog (I use Sitemeter to get stats for just the home page and weblog pages, and use my domain stats for the overall picture).

Unlike most pure weblogs, my site was in existence (and heavily indexed in search engines) for four years before I started this web log two years ago. I get high traffic to Red Rock Road Trip based on searches for the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Antelope Canyon. I get a lot of traffic for my Olympics site (six years old this week). Those two, plus other non-weblog traffic account for about half my visitors.

But when I look at just the stats for my weblog, I do see the weekday trends Stuart notes. My traffic is generally down 40% on Saturday and Sunday, and Friday is usually the slowest weekday. On weekdays, traffic is definitely higher during the ”work day” than at night, and I see specific bulges in the 12-2pm and 4-6pm hours (Eastern Time). I correlate this with the killing time before and after lunch, and the now standard end of the day ploy: ”It’s 4:20, I’m not starting that 90 minute project that’s next on my plate, I’ll hit that first thing in the morning. I’ll just kill this half hour on the web.”

2. What do these figures imply about the effect workplace computers have on productivity?

Looked at the Dow lately?

Just kidding. I don’t work in the corporate 9-5 world, so this is only conjecture. There have always been goof-off employees, who will do as little as they can to ”get by” with the boss. I doubt the web has changed that; people are not going to slough off work the boss considers important, if for no other reason than self preservation.

I would guess it cuts productivity 10% on average, 15% at worst. When paired with the fact American workers put in more hours per week on average than any country in the world, often by a factor of 15-20%, well, it seems to work out, doesn’t it? Various studies (as well as personal experience) have shown the benefits a break can provide in productivity. Whether it’s sanctioned, or actually detrimental, I think employees sometimes are taking those breaks at their desk, on the web.

3. Why don’t as many people read stuff on the weekends? That’s the one time when they wouldn’t have to worry about their boss peering over their shoulders. Because of slower connections at home? Well, it doesn’t take a T3 line to download Glenn’s page or any other news-related page. What’s going on here?

I admit, other than the connection speed, this doesn’t make sense to me either. And it tends to disrupt this site, somewhat, as I often have more time and energy to write on the weekend. Those pieces get seen by half as many people as they would a couple of days later. Although sometimes on Monday, one of those pieces will get linked, often they’ve scrolled down the page, and don’t seem to get seen. It’s not a big deal, but I’ve noticed the trend, and sometimes use it to advantage. For example, I often unload the large ”QuoteLog” entries on the weekend, as they take up a lot of screen space, but by Monday they’ve been pushed ”below the fold” by new entries.

So perhaps it’s a dual behavior. This surfing that occurs at work is largely skimming for info, seeing what’s new, and trying to stay on top of whatever events you follow (some of them even related to … business!). There’s not a whole lot of ”scrolling into the past,” just a check on what’s above the fold. The new stuff. A native search for information, a curiosity about the outside world.

On the weekend, people become more insular. They’ve got things they need to do, some mundane (laundry), some fun (mountain biking), some social (time with family and friends), but mostly things unrelated to the world of computers. The focus is on the inner world, the World of Self. It’s often the only block of time we get to devote to Self.

Monday, we’re ready to open back up to the rest of the world. Surf’s Up!