Quantity versus quality – that’s always a business thought. In a business environment you sometimes have to choose one over the other. But when it comes to blogging and visitors, which one would make more sense? Is it that obvious?
When it comes to the content within blogs, quality almost always beats quantity. Personally, I would rather read one great post than three average ones. Of course, there are rare exceptions to this but for the most part, people continue to come back if the content is good.
When it comes to visitors, is quantity really better than quality? Would you rather have 10,000 visitors come in one day that would stay on your site for .0314 seconds then leave, but have the possibility of catching a percentage of that group to stick around, or have 1,000 visitors that will read your content, comment, possibly subscribe to your RSS Feeds and spread the word on how great your content is within your blog?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, especially using social networking sites like StumbleUpon. Do I really want someone to “StumbleUpon” by accident and then leave? Yet, they would technically be counted as a visitor?
Here’s some points to support each side:
Quantity:
You get tons of people to at least check out your site with the ‘possibility’ of them coming back (whether it’s for .0314 seconds or more)
It’ll boost your Alexa, Compete, etc ratings
You can use those stats to sell your site (10,000 visitors in one day!)
Quality:
Your visitors will actually take the time to read, comment, subscribe, etc
Your visitors WILL come back
Quality visitors will be true to you and help you in more ways than one
Anyone can argue each side and there are many more points, but honestly, what would you want? Probably the same thing as the next blogger. Ideally, we all want quality visitors but we know that isn’t the case every time.
I mean, out of the 10,000 visitors, there’s bound to be a portion of those that will at least check out the site and possibly come back, right? But you are taking a chance there.
Then again, we are all taking chances in this blogging world because when it comes down to it – quantity or quality – if you do not have good content, then you have neither!
So to the loyal readers of DatMoney.com and DatCurious.com I just want to say I appreciate your time and I’m just glad I can assist you in any given day.
Like I said, “Help Me Help You…”
You really get to the heart of the matter with this post. I’ve been wrestling with the same basic dichotomy in the advertising circles. Do you pound pound pound (annoy annoy annoy) since common knowledge says it takes the average person 7-10 times seeing something before they spark interest….OR do you treat your email list like a fine wine and only hit it up occasionally or even rarely in hopes they will not be annoyed and actually take notice…Tough call at times…but although more of a beer guy myself…I guess I tend towards the wine side of things in this equation (quality)…good topic though.
I have found while using Entrecard that I get a lot of visitors - and some of them come back for more and have subscribed to my newsletter and feed. So I think getting the quantity in will eventually lead to some quality visitors who stick.
Interesting post Jay.We all try to drive traffic to our sites in hopes of making money,and getting loyal readers.As you mention a lot of the people we draw just walk away without coming in.
Quality readers outway quanity readers by far in my opinion.
I think you’re right that we all should be striving for quality readers to our blogs, heck having people at least comment on your blog means you’re getting quality traffic doesn’t it? (well, some anyhow, lol).
In the long-term as long as you have readers coming back again and again I think monetizing them will be easier, as they ‘trust’ you - all you have to do then is keep on posting for your readers, not yourself.
I still go for quality visitors who participate or interacts on certain topics you brought up but if you run a monetize site quantity would be better.
This is the issue I have been struggling with for the past month. I’ve had some posts get stumbled, but only one got some real support from SU visitors. I guess I lean toward the side of any visitor is a potential longterm reader. If they never see my blog, they will never become a regular. But this is an interesting debate.