Image via CrunchBaseI have been busy over the last couple of days looking at the net effect of being on Louis and Mikes 10 people to follow on Friend Feed for December 2008. While there was not a net effect in traffic coming the site (part of it is that it was the Christmas break and I did not write that much), but more of a net increase in influence or connections, being linked by other blogs or other personalities on the internet. This is including some very interesting good and bad conversations along the way.

The overall net effect in traffic was not that much, again though circumstances, holidays, and wanting to take time off played largely on that number as well. If anything towards the end of the year as typical (seen in 2006, 2007, and now 2008) the last week of the year has traditionally been my slowest week in getting people to come to the blog. I usually float on long tail traffic during the last week, and given issues with Google lately, the long tail was disappointing.

What was interesting was seeing the increase in Technorati numbers; I gained a near 50% increase in cross-links that Technorati saw. As well as 480 new links showing up in Google as cross links in web search results, but not so much in Google Blog search, only two new links showed up in Google blog search. This could be an issue with Google blog search, because Google proper shows many more links in the one-month period being looked at.

Another side benefit was the quality of the blogs that started linking, like the Inquisitor (thanks!), as well as showing up in Zemanta more often because of the extra cross-links and how I think that Zemanta works.

There is also the quality of the conversation; they were more fun and more engaged both on the web site and on Friend Feed. The net gain of friend feed people coming in November of 2008 (173) against December 2008 (424) was also a huge increase in terms of percentage of being noticed on that system. I closed November 2008 with 60 followers, I closed out December with 172 followers, also a very decent increase in reach that would not have happened without the nod from being on the people to follow list. RSS subscriptions also saw a net increase of 135% over November’s numbers.

While the pay off did not lead to a net increase in people coming to the site, the net effect was a 200% increase overall in reach, and the ability to grab people’s attention. It also increased the conversation level with my peers on Friend Feed and Social Median. The overall effect of this was to have more attention to what I am saying on various other platforms outside the blog.

There were also some humorous moments here with this one as well, that also incorporated a number of changes. Techwag was the only place that I did not write under my own name, and in an engaging conversation with Phil, changes were made throughout the social network, Friend Feed, Techwag, and other systems to incorporate my name. The idea was that it is harder to identify with someone who remained anonymous than it is to identify with someone who was at least a known name. That is also a positive benefit of the increase in conversation and the depth of the conversation.

Overall, a hugely positive net effect, and well worth knowing. For all those who got named to the January 2009 list, it would be interesting to see if your stats show an overall 200% increase in presence and in authority like I have seen.

Tags: Louis Gray, Mike Fruchter, Friend Feed, people to follow list, stats, liars, damn statistics and liars, humor