Second Life Web-Based Content Gets Much More Traffic Than Actual SL Content (At Least for Me)

Here's an interesting comparison of clickthrough rates to a couple New World Notes posts, which I often track to find out what readers are interested in:

The first post, a Second Life map link for a very cool SL sim I wrote about (and included in the post), attracted just under 80 clicks from you all. By contrast, my post summarizing and linking to Canary Beck's long blog post about Second Life places, attracted nearly 5x as many clicks (388 to be exact.)

This is actually very typical for my blog posts: Links to Second Life blog posts, SL machinima on YouTube, SL pics on Flickr etc. consistently get hundreds, sometimes thousands of clicks, while most links taking people directly to actual Second Life content rarely get over 100. (So readers tell me they don't click SL map links but copy/paste them for later use, but even if as many did that as click, traffic to web destinations would still dominate.)

I share this data partly because I'm curious if my traffic patterns are similar to other SL bloggers/web-based content creators, for one thing. For another, to partly answer a question I get asked sometimes: Why don't you go into Second Life more to blog about all the cool content in there?

Partly it's time and technical constraints, especially after the death of Onlive and SL Go earlier this year. But really, it's about overall audience interest. If many more NWN readers were eager to click through to places in Second Life I blogged about and promoted, I can promise you'd I'd do so a lot more often. It's a huge personal thrill to discover a rare and beautiful place in SL, but much more so when I know readers are taking the time to explore it too. But the data suggests you're more interested in great Second Life content as it's translated on the web.

Which isn't all that surprising, when you think about it -- generally speaking, why stop web browsing to visit great content through time-consuming a heavy client, when you can far more easily visit great content on another web site?

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Comments

[Caitlin Tobias]

I have the same sort of stats on my blog.
And do the same myself.
Mostly because I tend to read blogs and websites when I am not able to be in inworld (e.g. when having a break at work).
When I am inworld, I usually do not browse blogs, but..: I am inworld, using the SLURLs I have saved earlier in the day.

[Paypabak Writer]

I think Caitlyn has the key to the difference. Typically I'm reading blogs about SL because I don't have access, so what would be the point? I do save urls and slurls. Often the url is saved to get to the slurl to click into SL, so I am an atypical visitor according to your findings.

[Ciaran Laval]

I would imagine it's an environment issue but it will be interesting to see what happens when Project Sansar gets going as there's talk about links on websites there.

[Pathfinder]

I agree with Caitlin.

When I see an interesting SLURL, I never click it. I copy it to a note on my desktop.

Then when I'm inworld, I paste it into chat and then click on it in my chat history.

Sounds clunky when I describe it, but the process works well for me. I wonder if anyone else does this.

[Kim Anubis]

Like you, Pathfinder, I copy and paste links into chat rather than clicking them. I read on an iPad, and paste SLURLs into a doc in Dropbox (via the Drafts app) for when I fire up the desktop.

[Caitlin Tobias]

@pathfinder, I use an app for it, Evernote, to collect stuffs from websites during the day - including SLURL's I may be interested in, for later use.

So to conclude ppl do not visit or use LM's in blogs but rather go to website is a bit harsh.
I think we do, but use blogs/sites and links appropriate to the time we have. For me, when reading and catching up with sites and blogs, it is usually when I am not able to go inworld, hence:I do not click links that will bring up a TP,m but I do click on links to other blogs/sites.
There is a time and a place to click on stuff. SLURL's are of no use when I cannot actually login Inworld.

[Orca Flotta]

Mhm, I do it like Caitlin and Pathfinder as well. No, actually I don't take any LMs and URLs at all. I'm extremely careful to not mix up my SL online time and my normal surfing time. When I'm inworld I kinda refuse to open my browser, simple because I have no time for boring stuff like reading blogs. Got a second life to live there, dammit! So in the morning I start my dawn patrol, reading websites and blogs, watching YT vids and checking on Failblog and 9gag, Kotaku, Anime News Network, Pirate Bay and other sites. And later, once I'm through with my patrol I log into world and sometimes, should I remember a sim name or something I read about earlier, I go there and do a couple snapshots. That's basically it.

[Orca Flotta]

@ Caitlin: Exactly! I'm surfing the web as well when I don't intent to log in world, so logically I don't click on a TP. We all know since years that Hamlet's SL usage differs vastly from the usual user experience and he probably hasn't spent 1/10 of the time in world you or me have raked up over the years. NWN is but one stop on my daily patrol, there are more sites waiting to be read and checked. Can't TP off into world right in the middle of my daily routine. Right now, after I'm through with NWN, there is Ziki and Berry and Daniel and Natascha and Harper and Nalates and Honour and Dale and all the other usual SL blogger suspects waiting for my visit. Oh, and of course Orca's grab bag of a bloggy, that I'd check daily if I wasn't the fuxn editor myself and if it wasn't so special and so ... dumb. ;)