Wednesday, March 09, 2016

An Experiment about Page Views

A couple of days ago Rich Reynolds over at the UFO Conjectures blog put up a brief article that has something to do with Roswell. Apparently some of his readers took issue with his return to Roswell and made comment on it. Reynolds said that each mention of Roswell boosted the page views of the blog and he provided a screen shot to prove his point. There was a spike on it. And in the comments section, there was a post by Gilles Fernandez remarking that he had just posted to his website a rebuttal of one of Jaime Maussan’s expert’s latest comments on the Roswell Slides.

I thought I would perform an experiment about this and because, as Gilles had mentioned, Jaime Maussan had released another “expert’s” opinion of the image on the Roswell Slides, this was a timely story. I believed that the issue had been settled about forty-eight hours after the Mexico City disaster and while some of those original participants in the slides fiasco were reluctant to let go, it was clear to the vast majority of people that the image was not an alien. To prove that it was, Maussan published another opinion on why it was alien. All this, I thought, would be a good target for the experiment.

I posted a short article about the Roswell Slides and within minutes had the first response to it. There was an immediate spike in the page views, and oddly, a dip and then another spike and twelve hours later an even larger spike. Clearly the Roswell name brought in page views. Just add Roswell to the title and people came to see if there was anything new.

Last year, as the run up to the Great Reveal was a major topic, this blog was averaging more than three times the normal page views that I see today… and Roswell is an on-going topic that peaks the interest of those out there who visit blogs like this one. (But then, so did the articles on Oak Island which doubled the daily average.)

All this really proved was that Reynolds’ observation was accurate and you can pull people to your blog by mentioning Roswell. That some still believe that the Roswell Slides show an alien gives you a feeling for the state of UFO research. That others attempt to hijack the Slides, dragging in other nutty ideas isn’t all that surprising either.


In any case, the experiment revealed the high interest in Roswell and provides us with a clue as to how to drive traffic to a blog, if that is the only mission of a blog. Just stick Roswell in the title and they will come.

7 comments:

cda said...

"Just stick Roswell in the title and they will come".

Now try sticking Rendlesham (the UK Roswell) in the title and see what happens.

Unknown said...

Kevin,
"That some still believe that the Roswell Slides show an alien gives you a feeling for the state of UFO research. That others attempt to hijack the Slides, dragging in other nutty ideas isn’t all that surprising either."

I don't think anyone is saying that the creature in the slides is an "alien".
The "experts" are asking why the creature doesn't look human. No one knows exactly what it is. You've seen the same slides as the "experts". Why do you think it's a human child? Is there something that is definitive?
If you can't describe to us why you think it's a human child, then why do you think it is? Are you just guessing?
Ed

KRandle said...

Well, Ed -

Let's see... The placard in front of the display when it was in the museum where it was photographed said it was a boy. The 190 page document retrieved from the Park Service made it clear that those who examined the mummy said it was human as opposed to those who examined scans of the photographs rather than the slide and said it was not. There was no question about the identity until Dew and Beason clouded the issue for personal gain and the remains have been returned to the appropriate native peoples.

And do you really need a list of people who were saying it was an alien?

So, Ed, why not take a look at everything that has been published on this... but then, we don't really have to tell you why it is human, you have to tell us why you think it is not. The weight of evidence is not on your side.

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely going to try the Roswell pageview experiment! Maybe a Rendlesham one as well.

Nitram said...

Stick anything on you blog and CDA will often be the "first to come"...

Mention the Ramey memo and, well, you know what happens then!

Regards
Nitram

Terry the Censor said...

Ed, you've got a real thing about keeping alive demonstrated hoaxes.

TheDimov said...

this is great news because I need a name for my new band and I now know what to call it : "Roswell"! Perfect!

well ok, maybe not. :) But I admit I am one of those who is attracted to the mystery and read every post on this blog, simply because it is just about the most compelling mystery there is, and Kevin's views for me are the most reliable.