Earlier quoted context omitted.
You just made me realise why Google Glasses et al are such potential money makers.
Because unknown parties will see whatever you see?
They can verify that you saw their ad/content.
This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
11–20 of 39 posts
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#12Since I became wedded to my Kindle for consuming journalism thanks to the superb sites such as http://longreads.org and http://longform.org * my reading time has exploded, plus I pay for services where possible as I am in need of their curation. Since using these sites I feel better informed about the world and I have a deep, deep respect for longform journalists. I'd love to see this stub idea extend to the Kindle b…
I love that they both have RSS feeds. Both of which I am now following.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#13How exactly do they track if people actually read the entire article? Merely based on time?
They should put an innocuous call to action at the very end of the story to help track this.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#14How exactly do they track if people actually read the entire article? Merely based on time?
Nobody knows if you're actually reading the words, but based upon whether you scroll through the entire content, and possibly factoring in how quickly you scrolled, they could have an educated guess. If you didn't scroll at all, you probably read the first paragraph, if that. If you scrolled quickly to the bottom, you probably skim-read. If you scrolled to the bottom with a lot of pauses and it took minutes, you probably read the whole thing.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#15Is it necessary to change the URL with each new addition (while keeping that ID the same)? I didn't really get that part. If so, is there any Wordpress plugin that helps you do that, or how could you achieve that?
Having a different URL for each update would allow them to track readers' entry points into the article at a finer-grained level than if there was just one URL.
Not sure about plugins for Wordpress but I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already started working on one.
Regarding the multiple URLs I wonder if it is more just so that they can be posting what look like new stories that ultimately just lead back to these long form story series.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#16Is it necessary to change the URL with each new addition (while keeping that ID the same)? I didn't really get that part. If so, is there any Wordpress plugin that helps you do that, or how could you achieve that?
Having a different URL for each update would allow them to track readers' entry points into the article at a finer-grained level than if there was just one URL. Not sure about plugins for Wordpress but I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already started working on one. Regarding the multiple URLs I wonder if it is more just so that they can be posting what look like new stories that ultimately just lead back to thes…
The reference number seems to act as a permalink, so
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3009577/
leads to the original article, and I assume will continue to link to the article as they add content.
I wonder how the adding of new content rather than the reorganisation and re-editing of the article will work from the point of view of prose style?
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#17The site appears to have Google Analytics placed multiple times into its source code. This messes up tracking and artificially dramatically drops bounce rates.
In my experience working with content sites, the real bounce rate reduction you see in moving from shorter articles to longer ones is closer to 5% or so - from, say, 77% to 72%. Still dramatic, but not nearly as dramatic as the drop you'll get by double-inserting GA code.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#18How exactly do they track if people actually read the entire article? Merely based on time?
Google Analytics can track pages and average time spent on page. It can even track visitors flow.
Everyone should get an analytics account and see the insane amount of things that Google can track for YOU, for FREE with just three lines of extra code on your page.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having a different URL for each update would allow them to track readers' entry points into the article at a finer-grained level than if there was just one URL. Not sure about plugins for Wordpress but I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already started working on one. Regarding the multiple URLs I wonder if it is more just so that they can be posting what look like new stories that ultimately just lead back to thes…
The reference number seems to act as a permalink, so http://www.fastcolabs.com/3009577/ leads to the original article, and I assume will continue to link to the article as they add content. I wonder how the adding of new content rather than the reorganisation and re-editing of the article will work from the point of view of prose style?
But isn't that the same as the automatic redirect you have in Wordpress when you change the URL of the post anyway? I'm trying to understand if there's any advantage to having this number stub over how WP redirects the URL's, but I don't think there is one. You're still going to get redirected links either way.
Re: This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories
#20It is critical to understand what you are measuring. I see misunderstanding constantly, particularly with GA. Were events being fired prior, because they are now. That alone could account for this behavior.
There are many nuances in regard to how metrics are measured in GA. It is often the case that people think it is measuring one thing, when it is measuring something completely different. I've posted this before, but this GitHub project explains/addresses some of it: https://github.com/rockymadden/gap