Mr. Montgomery muses on the ups and downs of blog traffic, specifically the big drop we see in blog activity on weekends:
My traffic numbers at Political Smokeout reflect this. My weekend hit counts are far lower than what I get on weekdays. But often I don’t blog on weekends. This is a blog I maintain for work, alone without any partners or assistants. While I do sometimes post on weekends, when news breaks, often on Saturdays and Sundays I take a break and do other things. (This is the opposite of the situation for someone who blogs as a hobby — weekends may be when they have time to blog, and so may draw a concentration of posts.) [David Montgomery, "Weekend Blogging," Political Smokeout, 2013.02.24]
Mr. Montgomery wonders which chicken came from which egg. Do blog readers pay more attention to our gems of blogular wisdom during the week, then turn away from the blogs on the weekend to give their full attention to their leisure-time activities? Or do bloggers generally take the weekend off, leaving blog readers with less reason to click in?
My experience points to the former. Even making time for long Sunday bike rides, I could easily spend more time on the weekend cranking out commentary and spreadsheets than I do before heading out to work each weekday. But over seven years of blogging, I've found that, no matter how much I might post on the weekend, many of you readers head to the lake or the hills or the mall or the Schmeckfest on the weekend. My weekend traffic drop isn't quite as sharp as Montgomery's (60% down on weekends, compared to my 40% drop), but it's there. So I follow the eyeballs and make blogging part of my weekday morning routine.
Even we hobbyists who maintain our blogs without a regular paycheck respond to the market. And when the point is to promote civic discussion, we want to make our efforts when the most potential discussants are paying attention.
But Mr. Montgomery offers a curious comparison. The traditional newspapers produce their thickest volumes on Sundays, when they figure everyone will have more time to read. Yet you, dear blog readers, prefer the thicker blog editions during the work week. Why is that? Are you all just playing hookie at the office in two-minute Twitter bursts? Or is some other media phenomenon at work?
sometimes, you've just gotta turn the damned machines off. have to say that seeing my name in PP's sidebar casts a nice shade of German in the mausoleum he curates over there.
Pardon me for my stupidity...who is Montgomery?
Hi Prairie Lady, that would be David Montgomery of the Argus Leader. He runs the Political Smokeout blog over there and seems to pay more attention to reporting politics in SD than any of the other media outlets.
He seems to be a pretty nice young man.
Mr. Kurtz, your kraut and krunz torte inherited ethnic diet aside, you are right that it is good to see Mr. PP promoting our points of view sometimes. You should invite him west for a breakfast at Spankies sometime. He buys.
Assuming you really want someone to point it out, I assume it's a difference in age demographics: the older generation takes joy in sitting down with a Sunday paper on Sunday afternoon with their feet up. The younger generation is away from the keyboard shopping, watching football on TV (and not able to multi-task), cleaning the house, running errands they can't run during the workday, chasing kids at sports activities, traveling to see the relatives, or volunteering at umpteen community events.
I'm glad you pointed that out! It makes sense... but is that just one more reason that the nice folks who employ Mr. Montgomery are doomed to fade away?
Gayle, no need to apologize. I don't always take time to do full background in every post. Montgomery is a good guy and a valuable political reporter.
At Hardees they have free newspapers for us old guys to read and read them I will do. I would even take the 3 or 4 minutes to read Mr. Montgomery's newspaper if they had it for free. And that 3 or 4 minutes includes the tool ads and what they call a "sports page" all through a magnifying tool.
I see this traffic dropoff in forums. That made me think that many people are posting from work. Perhaps I am too suspicious.
Montgomery's blog does not like my e-mail address for some reason.
That fits, Doug, with drop-off we see in the evenings, too... but does that mean blogs get their greatest boost from folks with inattentive bosses goofing off on the job?
Thank you for your blogging Cory! You are a big asset to SD!
Thank you, Mike! I'm happy to serve.
Thank Jana and Cory.