Scoble debriefs on linkage and flow.
I find that a link from Atrios tends to be the biggest hit-booster at my personal blog, usually adding 10,000 or more pageviews. Instapundit runs at about half that rate, although the right subject can turbocharge results.
A link from Drudge sent about 70K viewers in one day to my day job homepage. Slashdot can bring good returns as well, although nothing approaching the Drudge range.
My blog doesn't drive a lot of traffic to the sites it links, but these things are relative, and I love to hear from local folks that I've helped boost their flow for the day.
At one of the early blog cons in Chapel Hill I got the audience on the edge of its seats by promising a one-word solution to generating traffic. They sat back, unsatisfied, when I told them the word was "porn."
Or as Scoble puts it: "I don’t want a big audience. I want a smart audience. If I wanted a big audience I’d go write a Paris Hilton blog or something like that."
You are good for a hundred or so extra hits we have found, and appreciate the mentions you have done.
Write the words "Tera Williams" and you get an extra 3 dozen or so hits a day, for whatever reason.
Posted by: Gate | Oct 10, 2007 at 11:21 AM
The guy on Patrick Ruffini got it wrong (obvious to anyone who uses Sitemeter, but the linked guy explains in detail).
The relatively small traffic from a link on front page of DK is due to:
a) tendency of most readers to focus on Diaries (I rarely check FP and read Diaries all the time - my bookmark is on the Diaries).
b) a tendency of a substantial proportion of Kossians to not go outside of DK. There is so much content on site, why go elsewhere? And many do not have any experience on blogs beside DK so are reluctant to try venturing out.
Posted by: coturnix | Oct 10, 2007 at 12:59 PM
b: Oh I dont know... To get other points of view maybe? Just a thought.
Posted by: mick riggs | Oct 10, 2007 at 01:18 PM
Your site doesn't drive any traffic to my blog since you don't link to me. ;-o Although, I have had a few people check out my blog after I've left posts here, so I guess that's not totally true. Because of that, I guess I have had a handful of people on my blog because of this one.
Posted by: Kim | Oct 10, 2007 at 01:45 PM
Same goes for me too Kim. My blog gets a couple extra hits from links I post in my comments, but that's about it. Which is about what I would expect.
Posted by: Gedeon Maheux | Oct 10, 2007 at 03:20 PM
I'm with Mick. The idea that there's so much content at DK -- or any given site -- that readers need never venture elsewhere does not seem like a recipe for a healthy media diet.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Oct 10, 2007 at 04:52 PM
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You're welcome.
Posted by: Beau Dure | Oct 10, 2007 at 08:54 PM
Previously.
It did not put me in the Technorati Top 100.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Oct 10, 2007 at 09:09 PM
Which was my criticism of that proportion of Kossians.
Posted by: coturnix | Oct 10, 2007 at 11:24 PM
Ed -- That's because you forgot the soccer references.
I know a blogger who got tons of page views from people entering "maura tierney pregnant" searches.
Posted by: Beau Dure | Oct 11, 2007 at 08:39 AM