Friday, April 14, 2006

I Fought the Email and the Email Won

 
Bad Example has a post today about the efficacy of emailing high-traffic blogs with links. He conducted an experiment, emailing a number of the Big Dudes, and tracked the results. His conclusions are interesting; go over and check it out.

Our blog is not high-traffic (we may count as medium-traffic), but we certainly get our share of email. I can’t imagine how the Top Dogs manage to keep up with theirs.

So, if you email us, here’s the scoop:

  • We read virtually every email that comes in.
  • Of those that are not mass mailings, or from trolls or lunatics, we respond to as many as possible, probably less than 50%. And, as our traffic increases, that percentage is getting lower.
  • Whether or not we go to (or use) the link you send depends on (a) how much spare time (ha!) we have, (b) whether it seems on-topic for us, and (c) sheer chance.
  • We appreciate all the non-troll mail we get, so don’t give up on us!
Increasing traffic has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is not being able to deal promptly and properly with all our correspondence.

4 comments:

Mamacita (The REAL one) said...

Please do not feel obligated to visit or reply, but I just wanted to let you know that I am one of your many, many lurkers, and that I enjoy your blog very much. I always come away feeling smarter. Thank you.

Harvey said...

I know just how you feel. I'm getting to be in that range where keeping up with e-mail becomes harder & harder.

A mixed blessing :-)

Beth said...

Ugh. Email. The bane of my existence, and most likely the thing that will kill my will to blog. And I don't even get hate mail, ever!

In the immortal (and annoyingly patronizing) words of Slick Willie, "I feel your pain." ;-)

Exile said...

Beth:
Ugh. Email. The bane of my existence, and most likely the thing that will kill my will to blog.

I love getting e-mail. The encouragement is equally proportional to the amount received. I wish I had this 'problem'!