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Content Publishing

Web traffic can be predicted…to an extent

Indeed, Mr. Zimmerman earns traffic so reliably that it’s tempting to dismiss him as an automaton who simply posts every sensational news story that comes along, or as a mere “aggregator” who doesn’t contribute anything original to journalism. But that take misses Mr. Zimmerman’s skill. He posts only about a dozen items a day. Almost every one becomes a big traffic hit—an astonishing rate of success. I’ve worked on the Web for years, and I still have trouble predicting which of my stories will be hits and which will appeal only to my mom. Mr. Zimmerman has somehow cracked the code.

via Why Everyone Will Totally Read This Column – WSJ.com.

Let’s be clear here about what’s going on, at least based on my perspective and experience:

First, there’s a strong “gut” element to this that is likely a big chunk of what Zimmerman and other writers and editors like him are doing. They have good instincts they are quick to follow and that has paid off.

Second, a good portion of those gut instincts are often based on a deep absorption of metrics and analytics. In other words these type of people have studied the hard numbers along with the more qualitative feedback and have worked it into their thinking at a fundamental level to the point that it’s just part of their thought process, not something they constantly have to pull up and analyze.