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August 09, 2003
2 + 2 = 40,000?

Jeff Jarvis is a self-described "media populist," and on that count, more power to him! But in his recent homage to Instapundit.com's accomplishments during its first two years of operation, is he letting his love of DIY media get in the way in of his arithmetic skills?

Jarvis writes: "[Reynolds'] unique audience is significant. At its height, during the war, Instapundit had 1.6 million in its audience; that's the circulation of the magazine I created, Entertainment Weekly. It took EW 10 years to reach that level (and a $200 million investment!!)."

To support the claim that Instapundit.com has a "unique audience" of 1.6 million, Jarvis links to this page of statistics.

And, sure enough, if you look under the chart labeled "Last 20 Months - Unique Visitors," the March entry says "1595874."

But that number doesn't actually represent the number of unique monthly visitors that Instapundit.com attracts. Instead, it's just the sum of Instapundit.com's unique daily visitors for a month.

How do I know this when the unique daily visitor totals for March 2003 no longer exist on the site? Well, I added up the unique daily visitor totals for August 2003 so far, and guess what?

I get 315,447, the same number listed for August 2003 in the "Last 20 Months - Unique Visitors" chart. (Note: These numbers will obviously change as the month progresses.)

To attract 1.6 million unique visitors in a 30-day period, you need to attract 53,333 new visitors each day. That is, on the 1st of the month, you'd have to attract 53,333 visitors, on the second of the month, you'd have to attract 53,333 different visitors than those who appeared on the first, and so on, for each day in the month.

Instapundit.com regularly attracts 40,000 - 50,000 visitors a day, but presumably most of them are people who visit the site on a daily basis, or at least more than once a month. So, ultimately, his unique monthly audience is lower than 1.6 million.

How much lower? It's hard to say, but probably a lot lower. For example, if Instapundit.com has a core audience of 33,000 daily readers, they would then account for approximately 1 million of the site's 1.6 unique monthly visits.

Next, say the remaining 600,000 visits were made by people who on average visited the site four times in a month (some of them probably only visited once, some probably visited a few times a week). That's another 150,000 people, for a total of 183,000 unique monthly visitors.

Which would still be pretty impressive. But a site with 33,000 core visitors and 150,000 more casual visitors is hardly comparable to a magazine with 1.6 million distinct subscribers. (And I'm sure the EW circulation staff would be quick to chime in about pass-along rates as well.)

Lately, Reynolds has been cracking down hard on Big Misspelling. But in this instance of Big Statistical Misinterpretation? He hasn't said a word.

Posted by G. Beato at 09:46 AM | Comments (72)
August 05, 2003
O'Reilly Now More Powerful Than God

How else to explain the failure of this event?

Posted by G. Beato at 09:09 PM | Comments (197)
August 04, 2003
Intel Eye for the Missing Guy

Makeover mania is sweeping the planet! Cursor.org's Mike Tronnes alerts me to the U.S. military's recent efforts to freshen up Saddam's appearance, and to a surprising resemblance its efforts have brought to light. Outdoing even the Fab Five, the Pentagon has supplied the fugitive dictator with a bevy of fun and sophisticated new looks, including the one below, Casual Smug.





Posted by G. Beato at 08:03 PM | Comments (126)
Happy Anniversary, Honey!

One year ago today, Waytoopersonals.com debuted with this found ode to the joys of wedded bliss: "I absolutly hate my wife who is not only abusive but also a real case for the books. Married nine years, and I probably only enjoyed nine days..."

Apparently it struck a chord with lots of other very angry husbands, who, despite the best efforts of our president to protect the "sanctity of marriage" from homosexual sinners, are none too pleased with the institution.

Posted by G. Beato at 03:55 PM
Same Old Same Old

Already, it's Monday again, which means it's time for me to start making excuses for not posting much on Soundbitten.com (deadlines for paying assignments, general ennui, I'd rather go ride my bike, etc.). But it also means it's time for another Lafftracker.com caption contest.

Posted by G. Beato at 10:03 AM | Comments (197)