Image by hongiiv via Flickr
Let's look at the numbers from Google Analytics:
- 32 from 50 visits have been recorded - which leaves 18 visits as Drop & Run visits (36%)
- From the 32 visits only 43,75 % (14) have been NEW VISITS (unique)
- The average time on the site from these 32 visitors has been 1:32 minutes (40 seconds more than my usual average time)
- Bounce rate & Page views (can't be calculated as my code was duplicated and i just changed it to the new Analytic codes on 26th December) - therefore i bought a new spike to test it again :)
- The recorded visits (32) accounted for 3.3% of my overall visitors (946) in these three days.
As we usually shouldn't count Drop & Run visits because there is no real value in them, i paid 20 cents for 32 visitors (0,625 cents/visitors) who stayed longer than the average visitor on my blog.
The longer on-site time could be connected with my article about CMF Ads and the comments from CMF admins as only CMF members visited me through CMF Spikes.
We will see what happen when i don't update or have another topic as myr first article in the future.
As CMF Ads doesn't know which member visited me already from EntreCard or Adgitize the uniqueness lacks in my opinion. New visits have been just 43,75% which means there are more than 50% who visit me regularly from EntreCard/Adgitize/CMF Ads.
At the moment i believe the drop & run visits will increase as there is nothing that stops the member (like EntreCard where you have to "look for" the Drop box or in Adgitize for the next ad to click on), especially if they have already visited me from EntreCard/Adgitize on the same day!
The Bounce rate might increase as well as more and more members have already visited your blog from the previous Spikes purchase, following this the average time on the site will decrease.
Using Spikes as a permanent way to drive traffic to your blog is not the best way if you DON'T UPDATE YOUR BLOG before you buy a new SPIKES.
The Spikes will be used up during the weekdays (and after they are now established) faster than during the last few days as more and more members see this as a way to earn easily money for their advertising campaigns (DROP & RUN TRAFFIC).
Actually there are have been more than 109 Spikes member which would give you already 21,8 Cents if you have visited them (enough to self-fund a SPIKES) and new blogs are added each hour.
UPDATE:
After 4 hours i received -for my SECOND SPIKES- 10 CLICKS from CMF Ad members, only 3 got recorded by Google Analytics with an average time on the site of 0 seconds and 1 new visitor (who also didn't like to read)!
That's being said, i seem to be right that it's more for the incentive of 0,2 cents than for staying and reading the actual blog (after the blog might have been visited in the previous days)!
What should YOU DO?
- Give it a ONE-TIME try, 20 cents is not much for getting up to 50 visitors who stay a while on your page.
- Don't expect many comments (got 5 comments from CMF only members, the other comments were mainly given because i commented on their blog!)
- Write about your experience with CMF SPIKES or a topic related to CMF members/blogger to attract them a little longer on your blog, express your views in the CMF forum :)
- Members with mainly paid post may get visitors but i doubt that Google Analytics will count this visits (after a second Spikes is purchased) as the first impression of a blog counts - similar to Adgitize where many members avoid ads which haven't Adgitize ads on it themselves, members remember "bad blogs".
- Buy a second SPIKES after some days not immediately after your FIRST ONE has expired!
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All true, Martin. I've been really close to the 1000 hits on Adgitize a couple of times, so the spikes pushed me over the top yesterday, I think.
ReplyDeleteWordpress measured 36/50 visits to my blog from Spike. Google measured 39/50 visits. I'm not sure the missing 11-14 visitors were all drop and run. Some may be using java script blocking browser plugins to mask their visit. Especially if they are from EC or Adgitize wanting to load pages as fast as possible. That being the case, they probably would count as drop and run visitors, but some may just be security conscious.
ReplyDeleteIm generally finding that for some reason, I'm spending more time on sites visited through CMF.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Martin. As usual, good analysis.
ReplyDeleteBounce rate is normal, even in search engines traffic. What is important is you get visitors to your blog even through click / drop and run traffic. Traffic is traffic.
Once they are there on your site, it is your responsibility as a blogger to hold their interest by posting good, unique, informative or useful content. Certainly if they could not find anything good to read, or the content is not to their liking, they will just "bounce" by exiting immediately.
I'm still curious about the Spikes. Some made a comment in the CMF Ads Forum about its effectiveness in generating traffic to their blogs.
I think the problem with the Spikes is that CMF Ads doesn't have that many publishers, not more than 1,000, compared to Entrecard who numbers 20,000 or Adgitize who has 5,000 members. Therefore, your 2nd or 3rd Spikes may not have unique visitors, as they are the ones who clicked during your first Spikes.
Anyway, once the Spikes is open to CMF Ads advertiser only like me, I'll try it and see.
@Sharkbytes:
ReplyDeleteFor sure, it might help in Adgitize to get more page/ad views but as the earnings for the TOP members in the Leaderboard are already getting cut, it wouldn't be worth to pay 20 cents for getting 1 or 2 cents more in Adgitize :)
Would be interesting to see your Google Analytic statistics + how many have been NOT recorded?
@Turnip:
ReplyDeleteYou may be right that a lot of members disable Javascript, just looked up my statistic and yes, there are over 20% of the EntreCard members "missing" in my statistics :(
@Eli:
ReplyDeleteI guess it's more effective for the members who just get 10 or 20 visitors/day and not like us who get more than 300 or even 700 like in your case.
I checked most of the CMF Ads member profile pages when i visited the SPIKES member and there are many with less than 1.000 page views. So they will be happy if they can double or even triple their visits with the help of Spikes.
I guess it is depending how many Spikes are available at the time you start clicking them. In the morning i had 20 blogs and then until 3 pm there have been each hour a few more blogs. Between 3 pm - 10 pm there has been no more new blog.
If you see 20 blog at once it might be discouraging to read or comment at all, have to wait and see but seems to be a better time to start a Spikes ad campaign in a more quiet time before the USA wake up :)
Content is King :) That's why i want to see if different posts (not CMF related) attract more of the CMF members to stop/read/comment when i start in 2010 my third spikes.
So far the clicks are used up faster after 13 hours only 30 clicks left.
@Emm:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, some CMF members write that visitor which they receive from their ads on other blogs stay longer and read one or more posts.
Let me add a few of my standard comments here.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you need to keep in mind cross platform advertising effects. While people will click on a given ad to visit a site, their decision to click on that ad may well be effected by where else they have seen the ads. For example, with the introduction of spikes, I've been starting with available spikes and clicking on sites that I know have both EntreCard and Adgitize. That way, I can drop my EntreCard, and then chain drop off the Adgitize ads.
Another thing that needs to be remembered is that bounce rate and low time on site are not necessarily bad. I like it when people visit my site, find what they need on the front page, and then move on. It means higher bounce rates, but it also means they are finding the information they need and hopefully moving on with a positive impression of my site, instead of having to hunt and peck to find what they want, getting frustrated and not coming back.
The same applies with time on site. While I do tend to be long winded, I try to make my posts short enough so that no one should have to spend more than thirty seconds to a minute reading my post, unless it is a topic that is very near and dear to their hearts. Since my writing is very eclectic, I recognize that some people may quickly glance and what I've written and move on, simply to come back tomorrow.
This of course leads to the key aspect. Good content, I believe, has a much greater effect on time on site and bounce rate than choice of advertising platform.
Enough for now.
Aldon
Hey! This is very useful since I am also monitoring the changes CMFADS clicks do to my blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
haha I just bought some spikes. I don't know. I figured I'll give it a shot right now. Thanks for the article though. It really helped me to understand the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI've given Spikes a chance. There is one more click left on my first Spike. While new traffic has been brought to my site and that traffic has stayed longer, it is a little frustrating to go back and look and see that there is still that last one hanging there for the last day. If it ever gets clicked, I'm going to give it a couple more tries to see how quickly those Spikes are used and how my stats are.
ReplyDeleteJT - I think your spikes would definitely go quicker now that the holiday season is over.
ReplyDeleteI'm here from CMF Spikes. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to write about your results. I read them carefully. Your advice is good!
I think CMF has a better community; it's less inflammatory and there seems to be a built-in camaraderie so maybe that's why more people stop and read from CMF. But yes, I can see that it would be better not to buy Spikes until I've updated my blog.
Thanks for the information!