Thursday, September 30, 2004

Betsy's Page, stats and links

Betsy's Page, part of my daily reading, linked to one of my posts this morning (for which I'm most appreciative).

As of 10:45 a.m. eastern time, Betsy had received 1304 visits already today, and she had posted ten items. Of those 1304 visits, just over 5.5% clicked through to my blog. That seems like a high percentage. I wonder if that click-through rate is normal. Her link to this blog was a short two-liner, without much explication:
Remember how the Europeans hated Reagan? Twenty years later, we don't care about the Europeans. It will be the same with Bush.
Would fewer folks be clicking through if Betsy had provided an excerpt? What if Betsy had instead written,

David M writes,

Remember the reasons for the European antipathy toward Reagan? He was a simpleton who couldn't understand that aggressive foreign policies like putting missiles in Europe would just antagonize the Russians and make the world a less safe place. He declared our enemy to be evil, not comprehending that the world is a more nuanced place.

Any of this sound familiar?

Would readers have been content with her excerpt and not clicked through to the post? I suppose web marketing agencies have a point of view on this type of topic in general on the web, but has anyone studied it in blogs?

Update: As of 11:30 a.m., Betsy's visits for the day are up to 1499, and the click-through rate to my blog is up to 5.94%. (Not that I obsess over readership...)