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I was on the front page the day I released my "blog" website. I ended up being on the front page for a few hours, but that is partly because I released on a Sat

I was on the front page the day I released my "blog" website. I ended up being on the front page for a few hours, but that is partly because I released on a Saturday evening. The traffic was shocking. I didn't end up with any really bad feedback. In fact, I was immensely pleased with the feedback I received and the commentary I had here on HN. I think it was obvious to those who visited that the site was brand-new and rusty. I considered adding a comment area to the site, but I decided against that for several reasons I don't want to get into here. I also thought I missed out on the social media stuff, but I don't think I did. The traffic was very healthy from social media because people wanted to share my article, and I don't think that any real reminder would have caused people to share that would not have. I did add social sharing buttons on the site for about a week and the sharing decreased during that time. Also, there was a lot of traffic from "other" social media outlets, so how many buttons would I really need? Congrats on front-paging again. It really is a nice feeling.

kerno 14y ago
Hi dizzystar, Thanks for your congrats - it does feel good, although I'm sure some of that is the pre-Xmas drinks! I'm surprised that when you added sharing buttons that sharing decreased - do you have any idea why?
- dizzystar 14y ago
  There could be several reasons, but my research suggests that the practice of using social-sharing buttons blows up in your face more often than not. It may have been partly because of the location of the sharing buttons (this apparently is the number one issue). It could also be a matter of timing: I would have to get front-page here again with social sharing so I have proper data to work with. I did have significant traffic from another site I won't name here and that didn't generate any social sharing. I honestly think people will share only if they want to. I've recently been paying more attention to the counters on other websites, and it is quite surprising anyone would publicly advertise such low numbers. I guess you'll now have some gAnalytics to look at and you'll get a more clear picture of where your traffic comes from.

kerno 14y ago

Hi dizzystar, Thanks for your congrats - it does feel good, although I'm sure some of that is the pre-Xmas drinks! I'm surprised that when you added sharing buttons that sharing decreased - do you have any idea why?

dizzystar 14y ago
There could be several reasons, but my research suggests that the practice of using social-sharing buttons blows up in your face more often than not. It may have been partly because of the location of the sharing buttons (this apparently is the number one issue). It could also be a matter of timing: I would have to get front-page here again with social sharing so I have proper data to work with. I did have significant traffic from another site I won't name here and that didn't generate any social sharing. I honestly think people will share only if they want to. I've recently been paying more attention to the counters on other websites, and it is quite surprising anyone would publicly advertise such low numbers. I guess you'll now have some gAnalytics to look at and you'll get a more clear picture of where your traffic comes from.