Candidates in the 2008 presidential race have until April 15 2007 to file their first quarter campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission. All but one of the six major players has announced their funding totals as of April 2, and the results have opened some eyes:

Hillary Clinton’s $26 million 3-month total (plus $10 million from her Senate campaign fund) represents a formidable obstacle for any Democratic competitor. And Mitt Romney’s $23 million puts him well ahead of his fellow Republicans.

But while money rules campaigns at this stage of the game, elections are ultimately decided by people. What sort of interest is out there among the populous for each of the candidates? One way to measure that is to look at the number of visitors to each candidate’s primary web site.

Continue reading “Candidates’ fundraising numbers not all in, can site traffic show the leaders?” »

February was a great month for advertising and marketing experts. They got to sit and watch the Super Bowl, like the rest of us, then publicly rail against their colleagues and potential clients for creating such horrible commercials. Some of the most damaging criticism was reserved for CareerBuilder.com, which ran a series of ads featuring a world where “Lord of the Flies” meets “The Office”. The reaction of the experts was so lackluster that, according to a recent CNN.com article , the agency responsible for creating the ads lost the account:

The company’s new ad campaign for this year’s Super Bowl, which substituted its lovable monkeys with an office as the jungle motif, flopped. The ads were rated poorly in several post-Super Bowl commercial reviews.

CareerBuilder subsequently decided to put its ad account up for review, a decision that enraged Chicago ad agency Cramer-Krasselt, the firm that not only created the new ads but was also responsible for the highly popular CareerBuilder chimp ads. Cramer-Krasselt wound up resigning the CareerBuilder account rather than go through a review.

But did the CareerBuilder ads really flop? As the final seconds of Super Bowl XLI ticked away, Compete invited thousands of our members to participate in an online survey to gauge the effectiveness of the real reason the game was played — the ads. Within 24 hours we had collected responses from over 1000 viewers. We tested their level of recall for several of the ads. Here’s what we found regarding CareerBuilder:

Continue reading “CareerBuilder’s Super Bowl Ads: Flop or Not?” »

As is often the case, an annual event exerted its influence on our top-ten monthly mover’s list. Valentine’s Day had a big impact on our list, with greeting card sites, florists, and chocolatiers all having strong representation. But not even the Holiday of Love could overcome the growth factor of the Oprah Effect.

The Secret is the latest in a long line of self-help philosophies that promise you wealth, fitness, happiness, etc. through the power of positive thinking. The website has the look and feel of The DaVinci Code, with the basic narrative being that throughout the centuries a select few humans have known THE SECRET to living a fulfilling life. They’re not shy about their boasts either – the front page proclaims that it offers “A NEW ERA FOR HUMANKIND.” And now THE SECRET can be shared with you (if you watch the online video for $4.95 per viewing or order the book or dvd). The author’s appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show propelled THE SECRET into national prominence, and straight to the top of our list.

Here’s THE SECRET: You can get really, really rich by making people think you know THE SECRET. Go forth and multiply.

This time of year everyone is thinking about taxes. Jeremy Crane’s post on Wednesday confirmed that, and my post today reinforces it. But how about this for consistency: Last January, I wrote about the Top Movers for the Week of January 15. Five of the sites listed in that post have made it once again into the Movers List for January 2007. We are creatures of habit, and our observed behavior is both predictive and predictable.

I could go on about the tax sites themselves, but then I wouldn’t get to write about the most interesting site on the list, public-records-now.com. Go there now and lookup someone from your past. You’ll get a good idea of what cities they’ve lived in, whether they’re still using their maiden names, and a list of probable relatives. Is it a helpful tool to consolidate and access information? Or is it just a stalker’s dream come true? Either way, it is certainly evidence that aspects of our lives are becoming more public than ever before.

Last week Stephen DiMarco posted some impressive examples of how Compete data could be used to track transaction data across multiple retailer sites. While I’m sure daytraders and hedge fund managers found the information fascinating, maybe even profitable, I’m not sure it can help someone like me. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a buy and hold kind of guy when it comes to investing. In fact over 95% of my investment strategy consists of dollar-cost averaging — I put the same amount of money into my Vanguard 500 Index Fund month in and month out.

But I think I may have found a way to help me predict how my investments will fare. I used Compete data to measure traffic to TheStreet.com compared to the performance of the S&P 500 over the past 18 months. Check out the results:

I don’t know if it’s a cause or an effect, but it sure seems like there’s a high correlation between unique visits to TheStreet.com and the value of the S&P 500. I think this one might require some further analysis. If it turns out that the results are predictive, maybe I’ll be able to alter my investment strategy. Booyah indeed.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• thestreet.com

I’ll admit it: Sometimes I just don’t get the Internet. I had expected December’s Top Ten Mover’s list to feature Brittney’s naughty bits vs. Saddam’s final minutes in a voyeuristic showdown between sex and death. But alas, it was not to be. Other than the obscure, GoBritney.com, which doesn’t even appear to feature any of the infamous “oops” photos, neither Ms. Spears nor Mr. Hussein made much of an impact. Even sites like perezhilton.com, which saw big increases in traffic toward the end of the year, didn’t see large enough growth to crack our list.

Two home grown sites in particular caught my eye:

Terrisfunny.com led the way with 1.7 million visitors – a more than a seven-fold increase. The reason? Two phenomenally hilarious flash animations that are linked on the site. Apparently the “Snowman” and “You’ve got a Friend” animations were forwarded in hundreds of thousands of emails nationwide. Go ahead, view them for yourself, and hold on to your hat, because the hilarity is stunning…..

The other web-design masterpiece on our list features thousands of inspirational pages set to music by Margi Harrell, all of which can be found at llerrah.com (It’s “Harrell” spelled backwards. Get it?) If you’re in need of a pick-me-up, or if you want to send everyone in your address book a religious poem set to music, this is the place for you, and apparently close to 2 million people just like you.

Like I said, I don’t always understand the Internet. But now I think I have a better understanding of how network shows like JAG can stay on the air.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• terrisfunny.com
• angelrays.com
• starwave.com
• llerrah.com
• claus.com
• gobritney.com
• my-codes.net
• northpole.com
• sheriff.org
• restaurant.com