The 24 Hour John Chow Effect

September 1, 2007

Advertising on John Chow dot Com can often cost an arm and a leg, but thanks to winning a nifty contest over at eMonetized, I can bring you an in depth analysis of what 24 hours on the Dot Com Moguls’ front page can bring to any blogger. For the purpose of this case-study, I will assume that I did indeed pay for the advertising, and pro-rate the tangible and intangible Return on Investment to a 24 hour period.

The John Chow Effect : Overall Results

Over the 24 hour period from August 31st to September 1st, Daily Moolah received a total of 93 unique visits from JohnChow.Com. These visitors spent 1:35 on the blog, and generated a total of 122 page views. As expected, visitors directed to Daily Moolah dot Com from John’s blog were extremely targeted, with a very low bounce rate of 9.14%. Assuming a period of 30 days of advertising, this could have possibly could have attracted 3000-4000 unique visits. This would mean that you’re paying $0.14 for every unique visitor to your page, since each 125X125 banner costs $500/month to advertise - although there are other intangibles that I will discuss. Subscriptions from Feedburner were negligible and could not be tracked as originating from John’s blog.

Timing of the Banner

Timing can play a huge part in how effective advertising is. Since the banner went up on the weekend, it was less likely to draw generous traffic. Click Through Rates (CTR) are generally the highest on Mondays and Tuesdays, when people are back to work or school. The same principle applies to any other form of marketing such as newsletters, e-mail blasts, and press releases.

Placement of the Banner

I had no control over the placement or the timing of the banner, and this was a contributing factor in the traffic generated while it was up on John’s blog. Above the fold advertising is of prime importance to any internet marketing, as users are less prone to clicking on ads as they scroll down the page being viewed. In fact, only the only the top two 125X125 ad banners are viewable above-the-fold on John’s blog.

Would I Advertise On John Chow?

Yes, given the opportunity and the funds I definitely would advertise on John Chow dot Com. Not only for the targeted traffic, but for other intangible benefits such as benefit of getting noticed in the blogosphere. Such intangibles could certainly pay off in the future as your blog keeps growing, and you forge new relationships with A-List bloggers. It’s not all about the traffic folks - blogging was, and hopefully always will be about providing value to your audience, building a relationship with your readers, and collaborating with other like minded individuals in your niche.

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