Following posts here and there, and on Mirjam’s and Bryan’s blogs, about Bounce Rate and how it was important to keep it to the minimum, I just had to speak out.

Commentators were comparing their bounce rates and speculating about what was wrong with their blogs. Basically, everyone were striving to bring it down below 40%, but the truth is that there are blogs that aren’t built for these bounce rates and never going to get there.

Moreover, It makes me mad that authority sources are making very hard claims about it. This is a quote from Wikipedia:

Google.com analytics specialist Avinash Kaushik has stated, “It is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (above) is worrying.”

It is important to understand that he is referring to static sites, not blogs. Static sites present you with one main page with links to the relevant pages on this site. If no one clicks through, there is something wrong with the site or with the traffic (not targeted properly), obviously.

Blogs are a different story.

My Bounce Rate

When you’re new to blogging you harvest lots of information from various sources and change your blog without even stopping to think why is that so, or at least seeking a second opinion from another authority source. I’ve been there, I know.

I was reading ProBlogger, DoshDosh, John Chow, etc., and implementing just every little tweak that supposedly would have helped me improve my blog. I felt that those guys have made it and know what they are talking about, and they usually did.

When first discovering Google Analytics, I also discovered Bounce Rate and was amazed that it was on ~80%. Reading that it was supposed to be below 50%, my face was becoming longer by the minute. Wow, I thought I was doing something really wrong, and went to make myself a really hot cup of tea to cope with the horrible news. Only during the following days I managed to see the true meaning of bounce rate.

I realized that my blog was showing full stories on its main page and that most of the readers at the time weren’t bothering to click through. I set out an experiment with a post with a ‘more’ tag, and oh joy, my Bounce Rate went down on that day.

But this didn’t make me change my main page settings, I’m still using full stories and I believe this is the most convenient way for my readers. I personally hate to click through to read the rest of the story, unless it is really intriguing.

Simply now I know that my blog has an average global Bounce Rate of 75% and consider it a natural state. There is no way to compare your Bounce Rate to another blog unless it’s exactly the same blog. I am beginning to suspect that the global Bounce Rate is rather useless.

What I think is useful is the comparison of Bounce Rates of specific traffic sources. I often use Bounce Rate is to compare referrers and to analyze its traffic behavior. When comparing StumbleUpon, Entrecard and SiteHoppin traffic, for example, that arrives not to the main page, but to a specific post, I know that the lower the Bounce Rate it would mean lower hit-n-runs and that readers take interest investigating around a bit.

Lowering Your Bounce Rate

As your blog matures though, you have to try making your blog more sticky, making your visitors visit more content on your blog. Several advice pop into my mind:

• I noticed that after setting up my archives page, my Bounce Rate went down a few notches. People like when it is easy to access other posts on the blog and obviously have been using it. I also notice my very old articles being dusted off, thanks to that page.
• Using one of the available Related Posts plugin, This would present a list of related posts at the end of your current post.
• Linking to your other posts in the context of the article. I try to give examples from my older posts and link to that post. That arouses readers curiosity and lets him know that this blog is covering useful subjects.

Conclusion

Do not take it too bad when you find that your blog has a high Bounce Rate. Instead, try to think what properties of your blog create it and you will often realize that it not a problem that needs your attention, but rather the natural state: your content does not suck, and you don’t have to rethink your future as a blogger.

- Alex

Technorati Tags: bounce rate, lowering your bounce rate, google analytics, problogger, john chow, doshdosh

Happily posting useful content at Net-Entrepreneur.com
Current post was originally posted on:

An Ode to Bounce Rate

The length of your article will have crucial influence on whether it will be read till the end. When writing an article always keep in mind that the person reading it has read, and is to read numerous articles besides yours, especially if it is a RSS subscriber.

SEO considerations

When I am writing an article I try to keep it shorter than your average 500 words. But, since there is an understanding / rumor that articles less than 250 words would be problematic for indexing purposes, I would stay in the 300-400 range to express my idea.

This gives me enough space for a properly structured intro to a broader issue, or a good, attention grabbing gist of a certain point of view.

Average length of stay

An average of 96 second stay (ProBlogger.com) further supports my opinion. My blog’s statistics show approximately the same.

OK, you could say that the content drives the length of stay. But I truly believe that it is not the case. Your reader will always have an agenda and a schedule. Only if your article is of exceptional value will he stay for a long period of time to read it, or bookmark the article for later reference.

Conclusion

You may not like the described reality, especially if you are fresh out of your academic studies and used to substantiate you ideas, or have a management position where you are usually required to write long reports. But, when blogging, as with any other major change, you will have accept the needed adjustments in order to fit in.

Hey, you could always use references to external sources and links to your other articles to compensate. That’s the good side of this reality.

- Alex

Technorati Tags: blogosphere, length of article, size of article, indexing, problogger, statistics

Happily posting useful content at Net-Entrepreneur.com
Current post was originally posted on:

Blogosphere Reality – Size Does Matter

• Those of you wondering what are those RSS feeds everyone is talking about, and
• Those of you who are wondering what is that funky orange button you are asked to click on all the time

This is for you:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU]

This article was originally meant to be about a wonderful new service I discovered lately – Bloglines.com. But, then I watched the video you all just did, and it really speaks for itself.

Why choose Bloglines over Google Reader? Well, for me there are three reasons:

1. I was introduced to Bloglines first
2. Darren Rowse is using it, and you got to have a role model, right? And,
3. I don’t want to put all my eggs in that basket just yet

I must tell you, Bloglines is currently the favorite tool on my blogging routine. Give me my cup of tea in the morning with a side of Bloglines and I’m a happy man.

Bloglines is an online service and opening an account is free and fast. One of the main advantages for me is that it gives me the freedom to check the latest news and posts from any computer. I can be at home, at the office or wherever, if there’s an online computer available I can be on top of every blog I’m following within minutes.

Ads are nowhere to be seen, and the interface is clean and simple. It really gives you a feeling of a no b/s serious service.

Enjoy your blogging people!

- Alex

Technorati Tags: rss, bloglines, feed, aggregator, google reader, darren rowse, problogger

Happily posting useful content at Net-Entrepreneur.com
Current post was originally posted on:

The Power of RSS, and Why Should You Join Bloglines?

My name is Alex and my biggest concern during the last few months is increasing my monthly income. I never thought becoming a father would increase my expenses by so much, but the truth is that if a change will not come, the corporation, that is my family, will have to “file for bankruptcy” within the year.

After being exposed to the notion of making money online for a while, I overcame my reluctance and decided to give it a try. I figured the most I have to loose is the cost of a few ebooks, domains, hosting and two hours a day of my time.

This is my first blog, and my main goal is to use it for journaling my progress and learning new things in the Internet Marketing niche.

- Alex

Happily posting useful content at Net-Entrepreneur.com
Current post was originally posted on:

Money Online, The First Steps