Confessions of a web traffic junkie (1995-2009)

Yes, I was, and I guess I'll always be a web traffic addict. But I'm trying to get better.

It all started with my first self made web page in 1995. I borrowed a book on HTML-language from the library, opened Notepad.exe, and started typing the code.

The first code I learned was the one for displaying the page in bright yellow. The second HTML-code I learned was:

And it's still so powerful I have to use an image to display it here, or else it as by magic transforms to a link.

At this point, in 1995, I understood that links were important. And the links were even more important if they were on someone elses home page (didn't call them web sites those days).

I rented an online account with email, with a total limit of a few hundred kilobytes, more than I would ever use in a whole lifetime. I previewed and admired the glory of my page in Netscape, and uploaded it through my 2,400 bps modem.

Then I started spreading the link through emails to the small handful of friends who had email those days. Others, whom I met or spoke to on the phone, were talking about getting themselves an email-account and internet access. I tried to get them to remember the address to my homepage, so they could pay me a visit. The slashes and dots were OK, but the problem was to explain the ~. How would you explain it over the phone? (Yes, I also had a mobile phone, but noone sent SMS's. And how would you type ~ on an early model of Ericsson or Motorola anyway).

But still, in about half a years time many of my friends told my they had visited my homepage, or -pages, as I also had a guestbook. But many of them didn't want to leave traces on the internet, so they didn't leave a message. The few who did gave me a feeling of success. Yes!

And then I discovered it on my webhosts' web page: The Counter. I tried various kinds, and chose one of the simple stylings. At first it said: 000 000 001.

I typed the URL once more and hit Enter, and the counter immediately said: 000 000 002. I was the first and second visitor, but had room for 999 999 997 more before I would have to upgrade my counter.

After a while I learned the easy way to get a high count, to press F5 repeatedly. Oh, heaven!

As my friends made their own home pages, I always checked their counter. Most of them displayed an image of a construction worker and a text that said. "Work in progress. This web page will be updated soon". Many of them still has the same text today, and the bottom line: "Last update Nov. 2005".
Others published and updated only one single article on their web page: The number of page views. That is, they wrote about the number in the counter. I could beat them all by using F5!

When I in 1997 was given the mission to make a web page for the local branch of the journalists union, I had a clever idea. I wanted all the visitors who entered the web site to stay there. That's why I never provided links to external web pages. I wanted the visitors to read all the eight pages over and over again, and never leave.

I was thrilled when I found a script that disabled the back button in the web browser, and even hid it for the visitor. I also found a script that made the web page fill the whole screen, the same as you can do by pressing F11. I didn't tell my visitors that they had to press F11 again to make the browser window normal.
I can even remember a lecture I held, where I bragged about how clever these ideas were. But I can't remember any of all the good arguments I used for it.

In 2001 I got the posititon as one of two web editors in the regional radio and TV-station I worked in. Of course I wanted to put all of my knowledge of the web into the job. And by then we had more advanced counting systems. We called it measuring, and started using terms like Unique Visitors, Page Impressions and User Sessions.

For some reason only Page Impressions seemed to be of any value to our managers, and not because of the ads, because we didn't have any as we were a regional branch of the public broadcaster Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. But for a very short period the regional branches would each be granted funding from the central office for one more employee on the web, for every 50,000 Page Impressions they raised the monthly count. The idea was shortlived, as we the second month told the main office we were ready to hire four extra web journalists. We never got them, and the project was closed.

However, during this period we tried a number of ways to raise the numbers, without having to use words like sex, drugs and crime, or even images of such. One method was to make a quiz with time counting, and award a coffee mug to the one who was the fastest at answering all the 20 questions. One Page Impression was counted at every single click, and the numbers went sky high as people were competing against each other to win the mug. At this time I was heavily into web trafficing.

In my later jobs as web editor, I have always reported on the number of Page Impressions to my superiors on the weekly meetings. Thats because it's the only number they listen do. It's always the highest of the three compulsary numbers. And it can really boost if we get a link from a national web site to one of our image slide shows.

My superiors didn't care for User Sessions at all, although I tried to teach them over and over again that for me as a web editor, user sessions were more important. They cared a bit for Unique Visitors, although it always was the lowest of the three numbers. But often the number of Unique Visitors in one day exceeded by far the number of people who lived in our area. The advertisers who paid us to try to display their ad 10,000 times over a week, suddenly had used all their credit in a few hours.

I'm not in the online news business anymore. I run my own company, developing a business idea which might help cure traffic junkies like me, by rewarding quality instead of click magnets. But I see there are still a lot of addicts out there. Look at most general news web sites, and count how many click magnets you find in one page. The tabloids have it in their blood, but the smaller local web sites are learning.

There is a way out, and we must try to find it together, as part of the as.long.as-project. But first I have to tweet the link to this blog post, try politely to get a few retweets, and tomorrow I have to check Google Analytics a little bit.

I realize this story is far too long to get much traffic. But if you've read this far, please leave a comment below. I just have to get the feeling one more time...