Looking back over the 74 posts for 2014, these were the top five most popular in terms of what Google calls "view count":
In the land of the goldbugs who choose to be blind, the one-eyed blogger is king - 6128
Coin shortages and rationing are in our future - 5646
GLD amendment refers to "unforeseen reasons" for unallocated failure - 5624
Fractional reserve bullion banking and gold bank runs - how can I default on thee? let me count the ways - 4367
Fractional reserve bullion banking and gold bank runs - the setup - 4277
In most cases these posts were popular because they got picked up by Chris at GATA and his posts get republished elsewhere, giving more exposure. Even so, these are pretty pathetic numbers as unique visitors is much less than views. So pumpers, you can feel OK that my heretical views on your shtick is only reaching a few thousand people at best, and that my favourite post of the year which deconstructed some of your tricks -
Gold blog writing for fun and profit - only got 609 views.
And what was the least popular post?
Gaming futures and stocks with only 178 views. Hmm, maybe I need to give John Winklebottom a call.
Have a safe news years eve and lets hope for a more at least a more active, if not profitable 2015. I'll be back on deck on Monday. I was going to say I would get back to my 2 week holiday break, but it seems there is a disconnect between my idea of a holiday (sitting around doing mostly nothing) and my wife's (great opportunity for me to do a lot of jobs around the house she had in a list in her head).
The metrics employed by google-type services may seem to indicate your 'marginal' status in Goldburg Bron, but isn't it oft said that "markets are made at the margin?"
ReplyDeleteThose who like the numbers game could well contemplate the serious attrition that alexa shows for the 'top shelf' gold/silver sites in the last quarter. Declines in position ranking ranging from 30 to as steep as 50% since October! Must be some serious muttering in beards going on in the board rooms of the hustler class!
The 'heft' a website has in the community of interest it is oriented towards is impossible to measure - or even infer - using metrics of the 'world o google.' That leaves us only able to 'speculate' on such elusive themes...
I'll wager that in the waters of the 'opaque world o gold,' the looming profile of that deep water visitor Baron "Bron" Barracuda stirs much panicked flight in the shallower depths where the small fry nibble n natter for 'hat tips'!
Onwards O Monocled One... onwards!
Remember many of your posts can be directly read within the email notification - thus there is no need to go to the website. I think your numbers could be impacted by that...
ReplyDeleteI note ZH's top posts get around 250,000 to 300,000 reads http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-31/2014-greatest-hits-presenting-most-popular-posts-past-year
ReplyDeleteAlexa is based on a limited sample, but interesting figures Nutster, that would directly relate to reduce revenue for them. If PM markets continue sideways (which I'm not hoping for) then wouldn't be surprised to see some sites/businesses fold. Maybe that's the bottom signal needed?
I note ZH's top posts get around 250,000 to 300,000 reads/
ReplyDeleteAs you have pointed out, unique visitors are different than "reads"- the heavy engagement of ZHs' readers with the comments component of the site(ZHs' traditional strong suite) gives a distorted picture to the raw numbers analysis. An average post on ZH gets 10-20k total lookins; the figure seldom rises north of 60k.
Most revealing is that it was Martin Armstrongs' offering that drew the most eyeballs on ZH! I've long suspected that they had to start offering his[contrarian]views last year in desperate attempt to bring some much needed variety into a stale n staler mix.
A staleness which is producing the SAME RESULTS for ZH as previous comment alluded to: from the vaunted level of global TOP 1OOO as recently as June 2014, to below TOP 2000 by Oct - smells like the UPPER percentile of mentioned decline!
The hustler sites countered the challenge of 2014 by upping the hyperbole quotient exponentially - $2000 au by December... Shanghai Shock etc., blah blah....
all past BEST before date now! Get ready for the "GREAT LEAVENING" of 2015...
as goldenholders stir from slumber, to throw off the shackles of their controlled "alternative media" handlers!
Popularity is not an arbiter of quality.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, and Happy New Year.
Thank you very much for your efforts. Just because a page gets viewed frequently doesn't make it worthwhile reading (or even truthful... one of the more read threads at silver doctors was about a former cme chief who wanted to take delivery of gold but was defaulted on because he only got a warehouse receipt! pure comedy, sad thing is people gobble it up).
ReplyDeleteFair and balanced is not what silver and gold bugs are looking for, they are looking for confirmation. Those of us who want a better understanding of the mkt in general appreciate your work and your actual knowledge of movements vs. pure conjecture.
Publish n seeking alpha - your articles will be emailed to 50k people in minutes ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, take this as a consolation: this specific post (fun & profit) is the first one of yours I did read and it was so good I had to spend hours reading your blog afterwards. Looking forward for more & thank you.
ReplyDelete