Jamie writes:

Wow…

Great eye opening stats there Chris…. thankyou for posting

Jamie

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Jennifer writes:

That’s interesting! I didn’t realize the average views per article was that low.

Volleyball, strange!

Just an idea… maybe see if you can parse it out and see the average number of article views per article for people with an author picture vs people without a picture.

Not sure you can do that, but maybe the stats you come up with may persuade a few more people to add a photo.

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Emma Martin writes:

Cheerleading and Volleyball? That seems so weird LOL

Interesting that the three of the lowest traffic areas are in the internet marketing niche. That confirms some suspicions of mine.

How does the traffic coming into the weight loss and dating areas compare to the amount of articles submitted for them?

Would you be able to expand your lists a bit beyond the top 5, Chris? (say, top 20? okay, top 10?) I’d love to cherrypick another niche to write about, but I’m terrible at any and all sports :P

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Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Volleyball. This is a surprise! Perhaps because the United States won the gold medal in men’s volleyball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (USA defeated Brazil-2004 Olympic champion & 2007 World champion!fantastic match!). Furthermore, the United States ‚¬€Massachusetts- is the birthplace of volleyball, and home of Karch Kiraly, Rose Magers, Flora ‚¬“Flo‚¬ Hyman ‚¬€ the world’s best volleyball player (in my opinion). FIVB is one of the world’s best organizations (has more member nations -220 countries and territories- than United Nations, FIFA, Olympic nations). This Olympic sport is very popular in China -1.5 billion/ Youth world champion-, Brazil -187 mill./ 2008 Olympic champion-, Japan-127 mill.-, Russia -141 mill- , Italy -59 mill.- Thailand -63 mill. Indoor Volleyball is very popular in my country. Many Peruvian female players ‚¬€Cecilia Tait, Gina Torrealba, Vivian Baella, Natalia Malaga, Denisse Fajardo, Gaby Perez- are heroines in Peru. They are most popular than many singers, politicians,etc!
Greetings
Alejandro

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Annie writes:

I like this post. It helps me understand what readers want when they come to ezineaarticles.

My category is not on the top 3 and yet not on the least viewed! I have ranking on my articles which really motivate me to continue writing.

I haven’t added my pic yet, camera shy! I shall in time.

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Christina Sponias writes:

Thank you, Chris!

I’m going to write for Dating, instead of writing articles only for Love as I have being doing! I give psychological guidance.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

DATA CAUTION ALERT:

I wrestle with myself about sharing this data because to make sense of it, you need all kinds of additional data to validate the data you’re trying to isolate.

Example: Volleyball had the highest views per article; but keep in mind that there are only 97 TOTAL articles about Volleyball. To be a valid stat, I think at least 1,000 articles should make up the sample size. If that were true, then Console-Games with a 151 views per article would be the #1 highest views per article category; followed by Tattoos with 141 views per article, Sexuality with 135 views per article, and Love with 113 views per article.

BTW, I love playing volleyball!

Emma,

I won’t be expanding further largely because it encourages contributions of more content from non expert authors (niche ambulance chasers who write on topics because of SEO reasons and not because they are a genuine expert in the topic).

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Gert Hough writes:

“Niche Ambulance writers” – mmm. Is that an original? Nice one!

I guess that since EzineArticles rank so good at the search engines, it is a given that in the volleyball niche they drew some traffic and therefor the article views.

Although the stats may just reflect the same tendency as would be the keyword search volumes, it was great to see the stats like that.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Gert,

Yeah, that’s an original thought. In fact, I just microblogged it:
http://twitter.com/ChrisKnight/statuses/949641616

“Niche ambulance writers” are non-expert authors who aimlessly chase niches by search volume & high eCPM’s. = Not desired content by anyone.

Everyone,

I’m not certain it’s important to worry about how to raise your average views per article. Much more critical to focus on driving up your article inventory counts of high quality, unique articles that highlight the expertise you have to offer your niche market.

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Christina Sponias writes:

Thank you for the previous information too! Everything counts.

BTW, volleyball is the only real game (besides ping-pong, my favorite) that I play sometimes!

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Christina Sponias writes:

I wanted to tell my friend Alejandro which the scientific explanation for the preference of the public for volleyball is:

Most people that don’t like sports play at least volleyball. This is a very popular game, preferred by men and women everywhere in the world, because:

• It is simple and everyone knows how to play it
• You don’t need to play it only with a special ball
• You can play volleyball everywhere, especially at the beach
• Many people want to learn how to play it better, especially when they are near many other people. They want to learn how to hit the ball for example, instead of pursuing it all the time!

Volleyball is a familiar game for everyone: one of the first ones we learn at school. Even players who love the chair like me, play at least volleyball sometimes!

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Mark Thompson writes:

Chris,

The next problem you have is to define the term “expert author.”

Does the fact that I’ve lived under capitalist, communist and socialist regimes and served and lived in over 15 countries make me less or more of an expert political author than someone who works as an intern to Washington senator?

Does the fact that a close relative died of leukemia mean that I am more qualified to write about leukemia than a doctor?

Does an expert need to have 1st hand knowledge of a topic or will 3rd hand knowledge count.

The term expert is very objective (or should that be subjective?) One mans expert is another man’s idiot.

Everyone of us are experts at a multitude of things it just depends on how you compare an expert to a non expert. I might not be an expert on plus sized fashions but I am sure that a few hours down the local library, shopping mall or internet and that compared to you I will be! (sorry for making assumptions here!)

Maybe we should do a pop quiz before posting articles!! :)

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Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Christina.
I agree totally with you.
In the 1970s and 1980s, my country and Brazil were rivals (At the 1989 South American Championships in Curitiba, Brazil, Peru beat Brazil 3-0). The Brazilian women’s volleyball team won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Games.Volleyball is very popular in Greece (Athens hosted the FIVB World Championships in 1994/ 2004 Olympic Tournament).
I enjoy watching volleyball on TV. Curiously, I -1,79m tall/ 78kg- have never played volleyball and soocer (Latin American passions). I like playing tennis. Unfortunately, I don’t have any article about volleyball (EzineArticles). I love sports (but my great passion is American music!. I write listening to music).
Greetings
Alejandro

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Christina Sponias writes:

Alejandro, if you love music, you must listen Brazilian music, of course!

This is the best music of the world, because it has always rhythm but it is soft at the same time ‚¬€ I’m talking about ‚¬“bossa nova‚¬ ‚¬€ not about samba. I don’t like the heavy samba, but I love bossa nova!

I don’t know if you know Radio UOL. Here is the link:

http://radio.musica.uol.com.br/

Listen to:

Milton Nascimento
Caetano Veloso
Rita Lee
Maria Rita
Chico Buarque
Tom Jobim

And many more! I’m sure you’ll love their songs! Tom Jobim and Caetano Veloso are famous composers and singers in the entire world.

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Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Christina. Many thanks.
I like Brazilian music. Erasmo Carlos (“Mulher”, “My Superstar”), Rita Lee (“Lanza Perfume”), Giberto Gil (“Palco”).
Greetings.
Alejandro

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Christina Sponias writes:

I’m glad you already listen to Brazilian music! Sorry for the delay on replying, but I had to send many messages to many people that are still submitting their dreams for translation, without paying attention to the fact that my summer offer of free translation is over! and the price for a private professional dream translation is expensive, because it is basically for schizophrenic, psychotic patients and other people with serious problems. Those who suffer only from depression or neurosis, can easily be cured learning how to translate their dreams alone. I have to explain that to many teens who send me their long dreams without reading anything about my prices!

Anyhow, I wanted to tell you a funny story you reminded me.

Erasmo Carlos is a very old singer! I remember that when I was a child I met him in the centre of Sao Paulo ‚¬€ I was with my mother. He was driving his car but had stopped for a while. When I recognized him and I asked for his autograph, he told me to come closer and kissed me.

I felt in paradise! I loved Erasmo Carlos and Roberto Carlos, who used to sing many songs with him at that time.

I was so happy with this meeting that later I refused to wash my face – I wanted to keep his kiss there forever!

I wonder how old Erasmo Carlos could be now!

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Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Christina. Interesting! (I don’t know anything about Erasmo Carlos).”My Superstar” is my favorite Brazilian song. It is Amazing!
Alejandro

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Christina Sponias writes:

I don’t even know this song! Now I don’t like Erasmo Carlos’ style.

My favorite composer and singer is Milton Nascimento. Listen to the music ‚¬“Cravo e Canela‚¬ if you can find it. This singer is fantastic! He has the best voice of the world and in the background he uses many natural sounds!

Rita Lee is fantastic too! Most people know the song ‚¬“Lanca Perfume‚¬ but her repertoire is vast! I met her once too, when I was 13 and she was giving a rock show in a very small club – she was in the beginning of her career! She is not young, like Erasmo, but her spirit always will be!

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Jennifer writes:

Alex… may I have “stay on subject” for $600 please. :)

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Mark Thompson writes:

Yeah guys please try to keep this thread on topic it’s turning into a very interesting one and although I love music this really isn’t the place to discuss it.

Chris, is there a possibility that the cheerleading and volleyball articles might have had their views inflated to game the system?

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Lance Winslow writes:

I Love Volley Ball Too! It’s a great sports, and yes the US Olympic Girls Team ROCKED!!!

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Jennifer,

The irony: Neither Christina or Alejandro are from the USA so they may not get your game show reference even though I’m guessing Jeapordy is a world-wide thing though, eh?

Mark,

Doubtful any gaming is going on. I’m feeling pretty certain that it was the low article quantity that lead to a non-statistically accurate result… ie: If there were 1000 volleyball articles, the aggregate average would not have been that high.

All,

Yeah, let’s keep this thread on focus.

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Jennifer writes:

Hi Chris,

Yes, I know they aren’t in the USA. I wanted to be subtle and appear delicate and not rude. :)

Back on subject…

I’m glad you didn’t give the whole list of high article view subjects. We see enough low quality articles from article MARKETERS and not enough from TRUE experts.

Alex, I’ll have “Who is the best article directory owner in the world” for $1,000.

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Christina Sponias writes:

I only sent three messages out of topic.

Besides that, everybody who follows this blog is dancing, now that they learned about the wonderful Brazilian music!

Or, almost everybody!

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Emma Martin writes:

Chris, thanks for explaining the data a little bit more.

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Travis writes:

Chris:

Thanks for the continued improvements to your website. Keep them coming! It’s greatly appreciated.

I do have a couple comments for you, however, regarding your comments on “niche ambulance chasers”…

You seem to have a bias against Internet Marketers as this comment comes on the heels of your company’s decision not to allow us to have articles linking to sites with eBay listings on them and your company’s bias against pen names. I have to believe that a large percentage of the articles submitted to your website are from these very people! Maybe I’m wrong – or maybe I’m right and these recent changes are being made to squeeze us out. I guess I just ask that you don’t paint a broad brush against us “good” Internet Marketers that are striving to provide good information for your visitors while also gaining some benefit in return – SEO and traffic.

What’s wrong with Internet Marketers looking for hot niches to write about for SEO/traffic purposes – so long as they provide VALUE to your readers? You call them niche ambulance chasers. I call them smart business people. Again, as long as they are providing value to your readers. The truth is, a lot of IMer’s (the good ones anyway) do a ton of research on the niches they’re going to pursue. They have to or they can’t write effectively about them. And ultimately, if they don’t understand their niche they’ll fail. Their extensive research (such as Mark’s example about the plus-sized fashion niche) makes them as much of an expert as anyone else.

Unless EzineArticles is striving to become the Wikipedia of article directories where the only source of articles comes from true “authority figures”, I’d kindly ask that you judge articles on the content and overall value they provide – not on author names (i.e. the use of pen names) or the motives behind those authors.

Travis

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Alejandro Guervara Onofre writes:

Apologies to all offended. I’m a very passionate writer. Finally: An anecdote. When I was a child I was finalist in a Show Quiz. Subject: The USA.
Greetings
Alejandro

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Travis,

We are always trying to squeeze lower quality authors and articles out and always trying to encourage high quality authentic genuine & original authors to engage us further. Nothing new here.

There are good and evil Internet marketers and you’ll never convince me to believe otherwise. If you’re a “GOOD” Internet Marketer, then I assume you’ll produce high quality original works that didn’t get sourced from rewritten, rehashed PLR works.

Let me make this very clear: Anyone who uses us to game the search engines is an enemy to our long-term survival.

It’s not like SEO article writers produce really high quality work. Seriously, I have yet to see it. SEO writers typically (not all of them, but most) produce overly keyword efficient, thin content. We have tens of thousands of examples in our deleted article archive to prove it.

We ARE striving to have MORE genuine authors who a real experts in their niche vs. niche ambulance chasers… our users demand it and we want to provide them with the best content possible.

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Christina Sponias writes:

I think that the niche ambulance chasers are ok if they respect EA’s rules. However, they have also to respect their readers, providing them good content, not just a collection of keywords.

(Congratulations, Alejandro! This quiz show was predicting your future connection with the US, thanks to the marvelous internet that connects us all!)

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Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Christina. Many thanks. I have admiration for this country ( I have published a book on the History of Women in the United Status/ Spanish / 2002).
Greetings
Alejandro

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Cynthia Maxwell writes:

I’m weighing into this as a professional writer. Writing articles for the internet is one of the many ways I make my living as a ‘writer’.

Because ‘writing’ is my work I write about many different topics across many different genres for very different readers.

Because I am primarily a writer I have to be an ‘expert’ author in many fields. This means lots of research into the subject and really trying to understand the needs of the reader.

Not long ago I had a writing job to create an entire first year college course In Traditional Chinese Medicine.

I assure you I’m no expert in TCM but the college director used to practically kiss my feet whenever I walked in the door.

You see she’d been getting ‘experts’ to write the course material for her first year students and they couldn’t understand a word of it!

Enter the writer. The person trained in the art and craft of using words to inform and hopefully entertain.

All of my work was carefully scrutinized by ‘experts’ and everyone of the students passed their exams.

It really is not such a bad thing having writers do the writing.

Excellent blog and comments btw. It’s my first day here and I love you all already.

Cynthia

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