One of the many things I see and use myself is links in people's posts. And me being me, this got me wondering. Just how effective are links, do people really use them? So I have been looking at what I can see among my own posts. And I thought all of you might find it interesting as well.

Two types of links

First I would categorize the links into two types of links. Affiliate links and links to your other posts. And I would differentiate between them as they have a distinct separate purpose, at least the way I see it. 

And in case you are unfamiliar with what an affiliate link is, it is a link that is personally tied to the person who posts it. Often it is a way for that person to get a little bonus for recruiting new members to the site. The site gets new members and the person recruiting them has an incentive to do so. 

The links to other posts, I see this as a way to try and get more readers or views, and ultimately to get more tips. At least that is how I view them.

And why separate the two types. Affiliate links require the person to not only click on the link but then register, or do what it is they need to do in order to count as an affiliate for you. If you compare this to simply clicking, I would argue that alone is a huge extra step. But then there is also the fact that some people might feel "why should that person get a bonus from me signing, I am not using the affiliate link" as well. 

As this post turned out to become longer than I expected it to be, I have retroactively decided to split it into two. I will of course put a link down below to the other part respectively in order for you to be able to find them easier. Part 1/2 can be found here:

How well do links in your posts work here on Publish0x? Part 1/2 Affiliate links

Links to other posts

I have had a few of these. I generally use them if it is relevant to the post. If I talk about something I have covered in a previous post I generally will link to it. I also have links to my two blogs, as I have split the content I make into two types. I have links to each of my blogs at the end of most of my posts.

Below the links to my two blogs I recently also started to put a link to a new series of posts, called My Journey to Financial Freedom, that I publish once a week. I have tried to pull attention toward them. And I have done this by linking to the most recent of them at the end of each of my posts. This means the links changes every week.

I have also put links to other people and their work if it has been relevant for the post.

The data

This is the section where I have the most trouble. How should I approach this, I could not very well try and go through all posts and see what is interconnected and then try and time everything to try and see if it impacts anything. So I did not decide to do it like that. 

Instead, I have decided to pick the two first posts in my series of posts called My Journey... As I have linked to them the following week after I have published them. I can use this to see if they show signs of a higher trickle in views than an average post. 

And I have also decided to take a look at one of my RollerCoin posts. In this, I link to three other RollerCoin posts. And have this had any bump in views after it was posted compared to what the posts normally get?

My Journey 1

I have looked at all other posts that I published in between the first and second My Journey posts. And while I have not done the math, they all show a very low trickle in view numbers. On average I would guestimate they all had 3-4 views per day during this span of time. While My Journey had ~11 views per day between 15th to 22.

My Journey 2

Fewer posts, in this time leading up to the third My Journey post. Two posts without the link as well, ironically one of them is my most viewed post ever. =S Post with a similar view count and slightly above show ~3 views per day at the most. But as two posts have very high view numbers including them would skew the data significantly. So I have chosen to exclude them. To get a more proper comparison. 

RollerCoin

This post had the majority of views in the first 24 hours, like most of my posts. And it had 195 out of a total of 259 views on May 12 and 13. With only 23 views on May 13th. Let us take a look at the three linked posts' view numbers:

First linked post.

Second linked post.

Third linked post.

What do the data tell us?

If we look at the first of the two My Journey posts we can see a clear increase in the number of views during the promotion period. They are well above 2x the normal trickle in views. Still, they are not very significant. I however can not account for why there is an increase that lasts to the 22end. When the second My Journey post went live on the 20th. I see no post with a prolonged number of views. 

After the 22end the post reverts to what I would say is a normal number of trickle in views for my posts.

The second post shows a higher view count, but a more uneven one. And I would attribute this to fewer posts during this period, and two posts without the link in them. I can however not account for the bump on the 27th of May. I have no post that day with a significant number of views. In fact, I only have one post published on the 27th, and that was one of the two without a link. However, on the 26th, I have two posts which both got a total of ~1700 ish views on a topic I normally do not post about. So this could have accounted for the influx of readers, both a fairly high number of readers and very likely readers that normally are not exposed to my content. 

If we look at the RollerCoin post, it appears to have had no impact whatsoever on the number of views on the three other posts.

My thoughts on links to other posts

Well, I would argue that they do work, but they do not appear to have very high efficiency. It looks like they are more effective if you use them to cross-promote posts to readers that normally are not exposed to that certain topic. As it possibly could account for the much higher spike in my data. Where I linked a My Journey post in a post about mining, a topic I rarely cover. So the majority of readers in the Mining section do not normally come across my content.

I still plan on using the links in pretty much the same way I have been. So looking at the numbers has not really changed my outlook on it. Even if getting an extra ~40 views in a week is not really a significant amount in any way shape or form. But I think it might increase the chance of those readers following me, and that is on the other hand something that I do value very much. I still to this day find it surprising that over 180 people have chosen to follow me, for some reason. I however am very appreciative of all of them. And if you are one of them, thank you. =)

I hope you have found this post to be interesting and informative. I am also curious about what your experience and thoughts are when it comes to links from one post to another. Please share in the cement section down below. 

And if you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider using one or more of the affiliate links above. And if they do not cover something you find interesting or useful, please consider following me, reading my other posts or why not do both instead. You can find my other posts here and here. 

I have also just started a new series of weekly posts, that will go live every Friday. You can catch the third step here:

My Journey to Financial Freedom - Are you feeling Brave?

See you on the interwebs!

Picture provided by: Publish0x