05.24.2003
kottke.effect chart courtesy of Re_invigorate
Shey.net’s not exactly a top 100 weblog, and I’m fine with that. Despite a good 5 years of operation at one URL or another, it’s always been mainly a site for friends, and most of the time a half-baked one at that. We had our moment back in 2001 when we posted the nike emails, and managed to keep some readers for a little while (it still gets me, honestly, probably most of my visitors) but then managed to get rid of all that with a post on aluminized fire suit fashion that stayed up for about six months or so. That Jonah deserves more than a share of blame for both posts is not lost on me.
So when Jason Kottke politely asked for a permanent link to one of the postings here (no, he’s not a reader, I’m sure - I had emailed him), I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d see another spike sometime soon. A week or two later, on May 19, a casual link in kottke.org’s remaindered links made my daily hits shoot up about 1500%, as you can see from the chart here. I knew a lot of people read his site, but man, what a way to rub it in how many more people read even the sidebar of his site than most of the rest of ours.
I don’t know what makes Jason such a weblogger’s weblogger: maybe it’s being that right mix of web designer, micromedia celebrity, and thoughtful, likable guy; maybe it’s that his personal and career trajectory has been so much like that of web media as a whole; or maybe it’s just that his links are always pretty good. Either way, I’ve always enjoyed watching him do it. Here’s some proof, as if any was needed, that a ton of other people do, too.
Not to slight other weblogs I’ve also read for years - I’m sure you could make a case for the megnut effect, the plasticbag effect, and many others. I could pull out the april 29 stats sometime to illustrate the widepipe effect, which I’ve watched only get larger over time. Can’t wait to see where all of this is heading.
comments 3I think I can pretty much guarantee that the plasticbag effect would be dramatically less impressive!
Posted by Tom Coates at May 25, 2003 05:18 PMYou get to enjoy the widepipe effect from afar. I have to live with it.
Posted by Sunil at May 27, 2003 09:29 AMmore shey.net
05.24.2003: new to me
Enjoying: Blog of a Bookslut.
05.25.2003: frank rich: we’re all in the matrix now
Frank Rich turns in a Matrix article, but he really wants to dis AOL Time Warner and its ilk.
I think Kottke is successful mainly because he focuses on quality, not quantity—as you said, his links are always good. That said, I’m not sure *quite* why he’s such a superstar. I guess I’d have to assume that it has something to do with the circle of A-list bloggers, which seems to me like kind of a self-perpetuating web oligarchy. In the weblog world, once someone breaks away from the pack a little bit, there’s no stopping them :-).
Posted by Buzz Andersen at May 25, 2003 12:22 AM