Cume vs. TSL

Just like in radio, websites have samplers and heavy users. In radio, we want to convert that cume into longer TSL, and we use all sorts of tricks that listeners never even realize, like scheduling talk and spot breaks to drag them across different quarter hours. However, we all know that no matter how many tricks we have up our sleeve, nothing works better than good on-air content. On the web, it is the same - if you want to increase page views, publish fresh and frequent content.

In web terms, cume is referred to as "unique visitors" and the closest thing to AQH is "page views". Unique visitors are just like it says - the amount of unique users to visit your site in a given period of time. Page views are similarly simple. They are the amount of pages viewed by browsers in a given time period, usually a day, week or month.

Unique visitors are generally driven to your site either by hearing it mentioned on air or by finding it in a search engine. But each unique visitor will only count for one page view unless you can convince them to click around and check out other pages on your site. This is where fresh content comes in.

Content, as Always, is King

Good content is important. It is the reason why someone visiting your site will click around and rack up page views. But if you want to really ratchet up page view growth (and as a result, online advertising revenues), you have to frequently update that content.

If you find a site interesting, you may come back to it another time - but if the content stays the same, eventually you'll stop bothering to check it. I think we all have found a blog or site that we loved, only to find it abandoned. After the updates stopped coming, we stopped visiting the site to check for more updates. We got used to it not changing. For web publishers, thats a potentially fatal blow, because to get that traffic back you'll have to build it from scratch all over again.

How frequently must you update content in order to keep visitors coming back? The best answer is as frequently as you can. Sites like digg.com are addictive because they change by the second. Since that's impossible for most radio stations - a better answer is daily. A recent study found that within 36 hours, over half of the visitors to any news story will have already seen it (and thus will think of it as "old").