Traffic

Interesting roundup of sources of information on blogs in terms of popularity, traffic, connections, influence and the like (as well as discussion of the limitations of the statistics) by Ed Batista.

Is it more useful to measure traffic (i.e., unique visitors), or connections and referrals from and to a particular site. Is there a difference? Are some blogs so different from others that they're not even comparable?

Daily Kos, for example, the most popular blog on the planet by most measures, supports "diaries" (sort of mini-blogs by readers), and thus is a constellation of blogs all swarming around a center). Clearly that generates a whole lot of traffic, but just as clearly it's a far different thing from a blog written by three fellow, which is in turn different from a blog written by one lonely pajama-clad scrivener.

Instapundit, on the other hand, remains run by Professor Reynolds alone. But he, rather than blathering on and on about this or that, generally posts a link along with a short description (or, sometimes, no more than a "HEH.")

On the other hand, just after telling you that there's not even any agreed upon definition of a blog, most folks would tell you that the Drudge Report sure as heck isn't one, since it seldom actually says anything, unless it's "reporting" something, while the site is usually limited to links to news items.

But that's not much different from what Glenn Reynolds does, and Matt Drudge has more than 10 times more traffic.

Whatever.