I found (through Seth's blog) this great article called: The Devil & Online Advertising. After a lengthy intro he introduces the concept of "cost per influence". I don't like the sounding of the term, but what's more important is that he describes at least the beginning of an answer to a problem I've been struggling with for quite some time. How to really measure the importance/effect/influence/value of a website/blog.
I even had that discussion with Joseph Jaffe (through his podcast), but we never got to a real answer.
Here's a mixture of measurements that may make a difference, I think the "Average Time on Each Page is what makes the difference here:
Accurate Rankings & Value Comparisons.
We absolutely need to define how it is we measure web traffic and then we need to create a score for each site that takes into account:
Average Time on Each Page: The longer an ad is exposed to a visitor the greater the value to the advertiser.
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Return Visitor Percentage: The loyalty of a site’s readership will have an affect on the sway it will give to an advertiser on that site, and increase the positive attitude towards that advertiser.
Ad Impressions Served: The total number of ads served on a site and presented to visitors.
Ad Exposures Per Page: The more ads per page the less influence each advertiser has on a visitor.
Go check out the complete article! Especially if you're in the online media business, it may save your job in the long run.
