E-mail is good for traffic

Traffic to Hoots' Place is up slightly, thanks to a couple of email chains. I can't track the sources but someone apparently enjoyed a couple of videos well enough to forward the links to their target audience.

Chris Bliss, Fantastic Juggler Video

The Zimmers "My Generation" via geriatric 1927

The reliable winner of all my posts is last year's Obama snip which constantly receives about a third of all my traffic.

What is Barack Obama's religion? Updated

When I heard tht Obama read Niebuhr it affirmed my best instincts about the man. Barack Obama on Reinhold Niebuhr was my response. I thought about linking that with the other, more popular post but I figure most readers would find it indigestible so I didn't bother. The serious reader will eventually do the right homework, and the rest will simply do as their peers do with little reflection.

I decided when I started that I wasn't going to be a link-whore so swapping out links is for me a boring waste of energy. A handful of smart readers is a lot more satisfying that a horde of dullards. Consequently I have a tiny audience and lots of traffic from searches, although I see this week that seven people have taken part in the Pajamas Media straw poll. Best week so far.

Comments always give me a lift, even those that disagree with something. With few exceptions I leave them in place because of my experience with the public. For every person who takes the time to give feedback -- good or bad, but especially bad -- there are usually five or ten others who felt the same way but for whatever reason never voiced the opinion. In the food business that means they simply don't return. Same for retail in general. it's the critics who raise the bar. If you can win them over you have the whole crowd. But as in business, there are some people you don't need. Those out to get something for nothing, for example, or others who expect twenty-dollar service for ten bucks. So I regard comments in the same way. I'm glad when someone likes what he reads and hopeful that others will take away something positive. Those who don't like what they see can keep moving.