On 12/13/2008 at 08:29 AM, Bryen
wrote: One of the things I've discovered while doing some experiments recently in online marketing is that it is a definite moving target when it comes to grabbing the eyes of readers. Most importantly, its not about being first, but about being there at the right time.
A couple of thoughts on grabbing eyes: Typically, the highest traffic day for publications (web-based) that I've worked with is Tuesday, then Wednesday, and Thursday. Anything published Friday through Monday will receive less attention because -- let's face it -- many people do a lot of their online reading during the week at work. Fridays - you're in a hurry to get home / away, so (in general) I suspect people dally less online in order to Get Things Done and head out for the weekend. Saturday / Sunday - some of our core audience is likely to be home working on the computer, but many others are away from the computer most of the weekend. (I fall into this category now, as I tend to spend much of my weekend time with my significant other and her kids and computer time is usually minimal). Monday - just getting back to work and dealing with a slew of emails that piled up Friday night since you left the office and the weekend, plus general digging in to get the week started. This is also when I tend to just "mark read" a lot of newsletter and other automated emails that are clogging my inbox. Tuesday through Thursday - the days of the week I suspect most people do their knocking off at work and reading online news. :-)
Feed readers, social networking, etc., they all are connected to more than one source of information. The more we all connect to multiple services, and within those services connect to multiple relationships, the faster an item moves down the list as new incoming news/messages come in. It's kind of strange. Social networking seems to be taking over and replacing email as the medium of getting the word out, but if you're not there with your eyes glued on the screen at the moment that bit of news comes out, you may completely miss it.
How many folks have joined the LinkedIn group? We should be posting the weekly news on LinkedIn, and also Twitter, Identi.ca, etc. Also, it might be worthwhile to make the rounds and submit oWN to LinuxToday, Linux.com's Newsvac, LWN, and all the other regular suspects that will take submissions.
So, I question whether having a release date set for the newsletter for Saturday night/Sunday morning is a wise choice. There are certain benefits, such as journalists who may want to read up and prepare before Monday morning releases. But for the general public, they may not be as likely to read on a Sunday morning. I don't know. But we definitely want to ensure that News.o.o releases at just the moment (whatever moment that is) that the most number of eyes are on the screen. :-)
I agree with this - Sunday is probably the least likely day to grab the maximum number of readers. Of course, we also have to take into account not only the best days for publication, but the days that work best with everyone's schedule. I might suggest prepping the weekly news from Friday to Sunday, with a release Monday or Tuesday -- but I'm not sure if that works with everyone's schedule. Just my 2 cents, adjusted for whatever the heck we're calling this economic situation right now. :-) Best, Zonker Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier openSUSE community manager jbrockmeier@novell.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org