SEO basics can help, but great content — and telling people — is what really counts October 18, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGreat post on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by Derek Powazek (who ought to know): "If someone charges you for SEO, you have been conned. […] The problem with SEO is that the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work, and it’s poisoning the web.
[…] the One True Way to get a lot of traffic on the web. It’s pretty simple, and I’m going to give it to you here, for free: Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.
That’s it. Make something you believe in. Make it beautiful, confident, and real. Sweat every detail. If it’s not getting traffic, maybe it wasn’t good enough. Try again.
Then tell people about it. Start with your friends. Send them a personal note – not an automated blast from a spam cannon. Post it to your Twitter feed, email list, personal blog.
[…] It’ll take time. A lot of time. But it works. And it’s the only thing that does."
UK news sites see 54% increase in hits from USA September 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentRobin Goad of Hitwise sets out the figures, noting that the Drudge Report is the second-largest source, sandwiched by Google Search (top) and Google News (third):
“UK Internet visits to News and Media websites grew by 8% last year, but British news sites aren’t just being successful at home. As the chart below illustrates, US Internet visits to UK News and Media websites have increased by 54% over the last 12 months.
BBC News ranked as the 21st most visited News and Media website in US during August, while the Daily Mail was 47th and the BBC Homepage 65th. Other British sites in the US News and Media top 200 last month included: the Telegraph (71st), the FT (115th), The Sun (117th), Times Online (131st) and the Guardian (134th).
The growth of British news sites is somewhat slower in Australia, but then they are starting from a larger base; BBC News ranked 13th in the Australian News and Media category last month, for example, while the corporation’s homepage was 18th.”
Print is still king: Only 3 percent of newspaper reading happens online » Nieman Journalism Lab April 29, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentMartin Langeveld does some estimates to get to this three percent figure and concludes:
"So whether you look at page views or time spent reading, only around 3 percent of newspaper reading happens online. I’ve made a few estimates along the way to reach that conclusion, but only a drastic and unwarranted change in my few guestimates would change that result signficantly.
Is it any wonder then, that online revenue is stuck at less than 10 percent of the print revenue? Given the online share of audience attention, 10 percent looks high, actually."
Focus on your target readership March 20, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentFocusing on your target reader — here, morning free paper Metro:
"We used the term 'urbanite' to describe our readers – between the ages of 18 and 44, in the ABC1 bracket, white-collar workers," says Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers' free newspapers division.
"It's a demographic which has been on the rise in the last 10 years, these young affluent workers who really like to live in the city and enjoy the city. We came up with the term first and it's been used primarily by advertising agencies and clients."
Each year Metro recruits 4,000 readers to a panel and conducts seven major surveys with them, plus mini-polls, to find out in detail about their attitudes, opinions and lifestyles.
NeuroLogica Blog: Dowsing for Journalists October 10, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentDo journalists have a responsibility to educate people about science? Clearly they do, says Steven Novella, writing about a New York Times feature about dowsing:
“[E]very now and then I run across a piece of journalism at a major outlet that is so horrific I have to comment.
Yesterday in the New York Times, Jesse McKinley published a terrible piece about dowsing that was virtually devoid of any useful information. […]
McKinley missed the real story here. He could have taught his readers about the need for controlled observations, the potential for self-deception, and the nature of the ideomotor effect. […]
…any such story, even if the topic itself is not consequential, is an opportunity to either educate the public about science and critical thinking or to confuse them. It doesn’t really matter what the topic is if the reader walks away less critical and more confused about science in general.”