Steemit's Engagement Numbers Look Great So Far!
Engagement is very critical to the long term success of a content platform. In a world of Internet attention-deficit disorder (ADD) keeping someone engaged for any significant amount of time on any website is difficult. There are three standard measures of engagement used in Alexa, one of the main traffic ranking websites. Here is how Steemit stacks up against Medium and Reddit.
Great job so far!
Bounce Rate
The first metric bounce rate measures what percentage of people leave the website after viewing just one page. You can imagine as users surf the web and encounter new websites, if the first page doesn't impress users they'll quickly move on. Sometimes people move on quickly because they're looking for something specific and don't find it at first glance. Hence bounce rate can correlate with the relevance of key word search traffic and improving that is not always easy. However there are many other factors that may turn off new users. According to this infographic, a typical content website bounce rate is between 40% and 60%. The lower the better and Steemit is on the lower end at 43.7% and below Medium's 53.8%. Reddit has an impressive 27% bounce rate. The Hubspot infographic has some suggestions to improve the bounce rate including: 1) Enhance usability & navigation 2) Create good layout & make responsive 3) Improve pageload speeds 4) Improve calls to action.
The Steemit landing page UI seems to be very good. However I think the biggest improvement can be made to the slogan, tagline and the call to action. Right now we see: “Empowering communities” + “Post it. Share it. Steemit!” Too vague?
Something like @pfunk's : “Your Voice Is Worth Something” + “Post. Vote. Get Paid (or Rewarded)” may improve bounce rate and conversions. @andrarchy also has a contest for slogans here. It will be good to A/B test what works. For the call to action maybe “Sign up” instead of “Get Started”? Also $2 in Steem power may be confusing. What is Steem power? Maybe write something like “You can earn hundreds each month. Sign up today!” ?
Daily Pageviews per Visitor & Daily Time on Site
Daily pageviews per visitor and daily time on site are very important measures of user engagement. The daily pageviews track how many different pages a user visits each day. Compared to search-driven browsing where people look for answers to a specific question or to read a specific article, platforms with a variety of content and categories can get users coming back to discover new content. Steemit has twice the amount of daily pageviews as Medium (5.8 vs 2.72). As we diversify into more categories, the # of daily pageviews should only increase!
The average daily time on the site is a measure of how long people are engaged in the content. The daily time on Steemit is nearly 10 minutes compared to only 2:51 for Medium! We still have some catching up to do with Reddit, but they've built up content for many years.
It will be good to keep track of all these numbers so we can find ways to improve and monitor the progress of Steemit.
Maybe something like 'Get paid to create and vote on content'
Good start though :)
Try activating the referral program? I don't think the landing page needs any changing. In fact if you change it then you risk people thinking it's a scam or get rich quick. Instead use word of mouth marketing by the referral program and you'll have organic growth as people will have incentive to invite their friends to try Steem.
Right now there is no incentive to do that.
I agree I think referral programs are important and will blog about that. It won't negatively affect the perception of Steemit. DropBox, Paypal and many companies have used referral systems effectively. The landing page isn't compelling IMO. The best way is to A/B test conversion rates.
Once you go down the path of referal fees and affiliate marketting. You slip into that get rich quick mentality. The payout structure starts to resemble a pyramid. I think it will grow naturally.
So you are against referral for aesthetic reasons even though Coinbase and all the competition uses referrals?
Why is it only seen to look bad if Steemit does it but if a big company does it then it looks like legitimate viral marketing? I say Steemit should activate viral marketing today. Sure it will grow regardless but if people want to think it looks like a pyramid they could already say that about Steem Power or about the early miner adopters. Why care what they have to say and let it slow growth?
As it stands today there is not much of an incentive for content producers to invite new content producers. The incentive might exist to invite speculators to push the price of Steem up or for more liquidity but not for content producers to tell other content producers. Long term that is a problem which could hinder growth and the diversity of the network itself.
I guess the choice is between quick viral growth and slow growth. Viral growth right now could give Steem first mover advantage while on the other hand in a few months there will be Synereo and Akasha both to compete with Steem. In addition to that, the only marketing mechanism Steem has is the referral program and it could be extremely effective because no other social media platform is doing it.
A compromise position between mine and yours would be to offer a temporary referral program. Put it in place only for the early adopters who are involved with Steem this year. This gives people the opportunity to get paid marketing Steem as part of the social media experience is earning money off commissions. It is the activity which gets most people in social media paid so it is a skill most people have already which can be utilized by Steem.
I feel the same way and I also think it depends on what is being marketed. It's not so much that viral marketing is bad but what is being marketed? Steem will need content producers but the current content producers have no incentive to want new content producers as this isn't going to raise the payout rate for the current producers.
On the other hand with a referral program now you can set it up so there is this additional income stream for marketers. This diversification as I see it would only make the ecosystem more self reliant and resilient if it works.
Maybe it's time to post more about this and collect public opinion on it.
Nice! Looking goooooood!
I love the new found enthusiasm since the payouts have started. I'm so excited to see where this goes!
Also awesome read. Gotta love the numbers comparing favorably to those sites.
To the Moon!
This is great!