Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes
Time tracking is an integral part of human existence. Time as well indefinitely accounts every human action. As a blogger, I tend to track the number of minutes it takes me to complete a 200-word post.
A typical blog visitor normally takes just a few seconds to decide if he is to read a post. Sometimes, it only takes half a second for a website to attract attention that is why a highly responsive web server and an optimized web page can spell the difference.
Whenever I come across a blog, the first thing I consider is the amount of time it would take me to finish a lengthy post. However, there are times that whenever I see Flash clocks/calender widgets embedded within the blog I’m reading, I tend to slow down a bit and watch those cool animated flash widgets move more than simply checking what time it was. There’s like a power of reverse psychology working against me that makes it so inviting thus encouraging me to stay a little longer that I should.
You might want to try embedding an animated time widget that is beautifully designed to probably run an experiment in order to find out if doing so will produce favorable results.
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James Moralde
Francis
LittleDanniel
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
I don’t believe that a clock widget has impact on the time a visitor stays on a site. The only impact maybe a friendly and clear layout and an interesting post
Corinna@Hausfinanzierung berechnen´s last blog ..Baufinanzierungsrechner Online
Corinna,
You really have a good point there. Nothing could be better than a great post and a clean layout more than anything.
I was just playing around with ideas and I think flashy widgets could sometimes attract longer visits depending on how fancy and engaging it is.
I second Corina. Not only the universal fact content and charming layout are the kings, those animated flash clocks takes time to load on some slower connections who might be a potential reader. When one finds a page taking time to load, its quite natural that he may leave the page only if he is not into some serious reading.
BTW, Math have you tracked the minutes you took to write a 200 word post? I am really interested to know your turn around time. For me writeup time depends on the content
Mack@Las Vegas Homes´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble
Hi Mack,
Your observations are true. Flash widgets do eat up loading time on web pages although sometimes I find it fancy. To each his own perhaps because some people are more attracted to colors and flashy things.
Regarding my writing, a 200-word post could go from 30-45 minutes depending on the topic. It normally takes hours for longer posts and those requiring more in depth discussion.
I don’t compromise quality over length but can be better if concise.
I completely agree to your view of peoples attraction towards flashy and colorful pages. There are quite some of them who never care about the content. While we have discussions on building a website the first choice of customers goes to flash pages and then we have to explain them about the entire google caching issues and the SERP issues if you have a website fully with flash. 45 minutes for a 200 word post seems to be really fast and I observe there is a good content and writing style with your posts.
Mack@Las Vegas Homes´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble
hi there… we have the same opp.. i just glanced at your post.. =)
Welcome. It’s good to have you here.
Hey we all like flashy things to look at. And any new gizmo will grab our visitors’ attention for about the first 2 or 3 times they see it, then it becomes old and yesterday’s old news and doesn’t work anymore at grabbing attention. So then we need to install another new flashy thing and the cycle is repeated forever.
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