Update on Site Statistics

Some interesting news in the ongoing study of site statistics.

Fact: 42% of spankers have been active in the last 30 days. This number was about 91% in August. Did something go wrong? I don't think so. I think it's part of the business of building out the network. Your friends are what pull you to the site, and most people on the site still have only 0 or 1 or 2 friends. As the network builds, the average frequency of visit should build.

Fact: the average (mean) duration of a session on the site is 3.7 hours.

Wow! I have to go now so I'll be brief on this one. As you'd expect, the number is skewed by a very small percentage of very long visits. Also, it includes visits that may involve plenty of open browser windows.

On the other hand, this figure is calculated as the time between the first page load and the last page load of a session. So, if you visit your Inbox, spend 15-20 minutes viewing links, and then jet without any other page load, that was counted in the 3.7 figure as a 0 minute visit, not a 15 minute visit. In other words, there is some slop on both sides, but the figure is real.

Linkspank is sticky! Yay. That's a good Christmas present.

Spank Statistic

As of now, 19% of spankers have actually sent a linkspank. This percentage includes those individuals who merely sent a spank as part of a tutorial.

I had been estimating the figure to people as 10%, so it was nice to find that the truth was shinier than my expectation. But the most important question might be whether 19% is a great figure or one indicative of some failure.

I believe it's a good figure. It's much higher than the percentage of users of other user-generated contest sites that actually are generating the content. (The comparisons are difficult because not everything is obviously comparable but I still believe that statement is true.) And the number will go up, by virtue of user experience improvements and consumer awareness of the spank.

Of course, 19% is much smaller than the % of people who have ever shared a link by email or IM (north of 90%). We have a long way to go toward being as used as email and IM :-).

Two Exciting Statistics

Here are two facts suggesting that baby Linkspank (still under 1,000 users) has a bright future:

1. 91% of linkspank's registered users have visited the site within the last 30 days.
   
2. Since March, the average number of (linkspank.com domain) page views has been 10 page views / visit.

Interpreting the Numbers

Note that the 2nd metric does not include clicks to spanks - which is obviously the heart & soul of the site. So many a user visits his inbox, clicks ten or so links, and leaves rather happy, with only 2 page views.

It's exactly for this reason that I believe most people put too much emphasis on the "page views / visit" metric. The same people who obsess over this metric also (correctly) set the goal of letting a user do whatever he's trying to do with a minimum number of clicks.

The same applies even to page visits. Plenty of people out there visit myspace exclusively now for the purpose of viewing friend requests by spam bots. Even when you visit a site for a more legitimate reason (approving a linkedin request or seeing something written on your facebook wall) you may have slightly mixed feelings about being there.

By cross-checking with other metrics we can infer a lot about user happiness - but it's a sophisticated line of reasoning which is always left out in the metrics comparison game.

Another Sweet Statistic

Here's another great number: the "average spanker" has sent 5 invitations to the site. Now, the distribution is skewed (plenty of people have not invited anyone, while a few people have invited lots of friends) but this is a good indication that someone likes the site. After all, it's tough to get someone to invite friends to a site he doesn't like :-).

Conclusion: people who try linkspank like it well enough to keep using it. We just need to get the word out and get people trying the site...