How do you set your Ranking method

By default, what is your ranking set at?


  • Total voters
    11

Mark

Administrator
Staff member
"hits (clicks) in" for me since 2004 :) pageview counting consumes far too much server resources and provides a poor ranking metric in my opinion.

Remonds me of a great acronym I heard years ago that applies to using bulk pageviews as a metric:
HITS - How Idiots Track Success
 

Basti

Administrator
Staff member
Ha, nice one there Mark.
I myself also only use Hits In, gives also chance for smaller sites
 

Karl

Member
I use hits in I feel that sites that are sending us traffic should get a better ranking.
 

Basti

Administrator
Staff member
That as well, yup.
And usually they put the button in a more prominent spot on their site, which helps also to spread the word
 

Boardhopper

Member
I used to rank by pageviews, but for the last few weeks I have been ranking by Hits In. A great feature would be that it would be displayed somewhere on the top of how the rankings are done on that topsite. I know I can add it to the skin, I'm just too lazy. :)
 

Anna

Member
Pages - since I honestly have no clue what Hits In /Out is. Since we are talking - can someone maybe enlight me? Pretty please?
 

Basti

Administrator
Staff member
The ranking methods are:
Pageviews: The code which member put on their site counts their pageviews.
Hits in: Clicks on the voting code ( button or link ) - Also called voting
Hits out: The number of visitors the listed site recieved from your list
 

Anna

Member
OK, I think I get it! ;-) But how is it that rank on InHit is so good for us as siteowners and for smaller sites? Will people be able to vote more than once/day? And what can I do to encourage people to click on the banner? Looking through the statistics I see that none of my members have a very high HitsIn (=none). I saw someone with a really nice banner for their topsite (Think its Karl) that shows the current rankings. What kind of code is that? OK, I stop there - feel I having 1000nds of question but babysteps....
 

Basti

Administrator
Staff member
OK, I think I get it! ;-) But how is it that rank on InHit is so good for us as siteowners and for smaller sites? Will people be able to vote more than once/day?
When you count by Pageviews its always 100% sure who is first, the site with most pageviews. But with hits in even sites with less pageviews have a very high chance to be at the top. Because clicks on the button is what counts here, high pageviews dont mean many clicks, all depends on placement, how much the site owner want to gain hits in.
And no, legitimate click is still only once per 24 hours

And what can I do to encourage people to click on the banner? Looking through the statistics I see that none of my members have a very high HitsIn (=none). I saw someone with a really nice banner for their topsite (Think its Karl) that shows the current rankings. What kind of code is that?
There are several good tactics here.
- As for the site owner ( your member ) placing the button in an prominent place is a real help. Usually when you count by pageviews member put the button nearly at the bottom of their site, causing very less clicks -> They dont want to sent you traffic, as its not needed to rank good. With hits in its the opposite, usually a spot near the header or where ppl look at often, like near a sidebar navigation

- To enhance things on your side: ( i have played with this to the extend myself )
1. With a animated button, a miracle might happen. Depends on what kind of buttons the member site displays beside yours.
2. A rank on the button: Admin > Settings > Button Settings -> Offer A Button Showing Members Current Rank
- You need to design that many buttons as you want to display ranks on them. Lets say you want your top 5 member to show rank on button. Then you need to design 6 button, 5 with the rank ( 1-5 ) and 1 without rank for the rest of your members
3. A well designed button ( affect #1 and #2 above as well )
- A good approach here is to study your member websites. See what kind of other topsite buttons they have. Usually some niches prefer dark colors, others light or a specific color.
Depending on what you see, do the exact opposite to make your button stand out in the crowd :)

This has worked extremly well for me in the past
And wow wrote to much :D
 

Mark

Administrator
Staff member
agree with Basti, the best ways to get more "incoming traffic" for me have been:

1. eye catching animated banner with call to action like "click here to vote for us"

2. tell your new members (in welcome mail) to add the button "above the fold" and encourage their visitors to click that button to vote. The more votes they send, they more that site will grow from traffic sent back by the topsite.

usually toplists work/grow best when your members are sending traffic in to your list, that way you have good traffic to send back out to your top performing members

VisioList will have some new options in the future as well that will be geared towards bringing more in traffic, since that is a key ingredient to a successful list.

once the cycle and rhythm start, growth is nearly automated :)
 

Anna

Member
OK, thank you both so much! I feel like I finally starting to wrap my heag around how this with Topsites actually work without just being another static linkshelf! So I continue asking: What base do you use to show ranking on - days/week/month/overall? And why?
 

Basti

Administrator
Staff member
It really depends. Personal preference monstly
While i would say new possible member should see something good. If you display for example the hits in and out stats on the ranking page it might be wise to stick to monthly if you have less members or less hits in. Thats reduces the chance of new possible members to see bad stats, making them thinking why should i join here.

Once your list grows bigger i would switch to weekly or daily. My personal favorite was always weekly. Always appealing stats, not to less like with maybe daily, but not to much like on monthly where it is hard for new members to catch up.
 

Mark

Administrator
Staff member
weekly was my favorite too, with daily resets your list shows very low numbers int eh tables (and a lot of ties at 0) which is not good, makes your list look dead.
 
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