AOL EXODUS

Now that I have settled into the Blogger world and accepted that AOL is just not going to budge, I have elected to contact those who are collecting the names and new homes of other journalers. It is really frustrating to open up this link and see ALL those who have left J-Land and to see that AOL is simply ignoring us. Regardless of whether or not they do give in and remove the ads from our old journals, well, I don't think that I will return. In fact, it has been far to long now, too much time has been invested in learning all the new things at my new blog. And blogger seems to have so much more to offer. Complicated? Yes but it is well worth the frustration.

Here is a post that I have copied and pasted from Ayn's Multiple Word blog for those who visit here siting numbers of journalers who have left.



Numbers Like Friends Can Be Counted On

The Exodus Report Generates Something AOL doesn't have: Reality numbers of Journalists who do make a differenceIn an effort to survey the AOL Journal Community in the wake of the Advertising Scandal, we divided the community into six categories. They are:

People we know are staying at AOL journals because they have written in the last two weeks since the brouhaha. These people we called “stayers”

People we are not sure will stay at AOL journals because they have written in the last month, but not since the last two weeks since the brouhaha started. These people we called “On vacation”

People who we are pretty sure aren’t too involved because they haven’t written in their journal for over a month. These people we can call “MIA’s” Missing in action.

People who have stated in their journal they are moving out of AOL journals to another service. These people we can call “movers.”

People we are unsure of because they have gone private. These people we can call “private”

People who have quit entirely leaving only a blue box. These people we can call “quitters” (of AOL Journal Service)”

Ok, now … We surveyed 995 people (journals) – all the names were registered in Pam’s directory. This is a fair presentation of the J-Land Community. It is kept by Pam, who has been with the service the entire 29 months of operation. It can be assumed Pam has over the years already pruned from the directory, people who no longer maintain journals. Due to Pam's cancer, the Directory has added new people in the comment section, but the directory has remained fairly fixed for the last 8-9 months while Pam recovers.

Note that AOL provides no directory of journalists, although at one time, they had at least maintained a list of the last 500 people having posted an entry, so there had been a means of finding others. Now AOL service utilizes a front "Journal" advertisement listing Scalzi's and Joe's (Two AOL journal editors) sites and 5-6 regular journalists (Editor's Picks). The remaining credit for community promotion is credited to the individual journalists who gather as J-Landers to look outward and support others who post regularly, or are new to the community (posting and linking).

It has been stated that AOL hosts 600,000 journals. Even if AOL included all countries hosting the journal service, this number would seem overpowered and over-inflated by AOL marketers. The largest known gatherings of AOL Journalists in the US has been numbers closer to a thousand, but even giving AOL the benefit of the doubt by multiplying the known number by 100, which is to say 99 out of every hundred journalists are hiding, reasoning would still demand AOL isn't and hasn't been paying attention to their Journalists. This is what the numbers have to say:

Of these 995 journalists surveyed by having registered at one time in Pam's Journal and the most popular journalist in J-land:

323 (32%) journalists are stayers. Of these 323 stayers, 273 (85%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journal accounts for 15.44 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 4986 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 2,847,439 (52%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 10,430 visit hits.

84 (8%) journalists are vacationers. Of these 84 vacationers, 70 (83%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 14.89 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 1,251 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 513,881 (9%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 7,341 visit hits.

298 (30%) journalists are MIA. Of these 298 MIAs, 244 (82%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 10.54 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 3,141 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 1,177,942 (21%) of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 4,828 visit hits.

59 (6%) journalists are movers. Of these 59, movers, 47(80%) maintained visit counters. These people on average maintained AOL journals for 18.12 months. These people have “rented” AOL journal space for a total of 1,069 months. According to visit hits counted, these people represent 939,912 (17%)of the known visit business (representing activity for the advertiser). These journals average 19,998 visit hits.

80 (8%) journalists are private. Of these 80, no visit counts or months utilizing AOL journal service were able to be surveyed.

151 (15%) journalists are quitters. Of these 151, no visit counts or months utilizing AOL journal service were able to be surveyed.

Collectively, giving the most benefit of the doubt, we can calculate through Exodus Report:

Stayers, Vacationers, and Private people are more pro-AOL and amount to 487 (49%) of the people or a known factor of 3,361,320 (61%) site visits

Quitters, MIA’s, and Movers are more anti-AOL and amount to 508 (51%) of the people or a known factor of 2,117,854 (39%) site visits.

Discussion Posts to follow.

Ann and Tianka, surveyors

Link here to Acutual Numbers used in the Exodus Report

Click here for preliminary ExodusReport.xls (Excel)

Click here for preliminary ExodusReport.xls (As Text)

posted by Ayn 6:46 AM

7 Comments:

Bon & Mal Mott said...
This is quite an undertaking you have going here. What will be the ultimate result of the survey, if we may ask?
Bon & Mal

9:50 AM

ckays1967 said...
Looks to me like you have methodically proven that the best of the best left and took their "advertising" money with them.I can not wait until you forward this to Jason at Weblog, John and Joe.

I wonder what they will say?
Good work Ayn and Mom.

11:45 AM
V said...
Ayn & T !!!Great work!!V

2:45 PM
Gabreael said...

Hi,Thanks so much for the email update. Not only will I post that for you folks, but I will also check the message board. If it is not posted I will also post it, if it is posted I will comment on it there as well as posting it.

Take Care,
Gabreaelhttp://gabreaelsbodymindandspirit.blogspot.com/PS- Love the kitties in the sink pic below.

8:30 PM
amy said...

Ayn, great work!A couple of things...I am private, but have also chosen to move:)As for the hit counters, mine was wiped out twice, so wouldn't represent the real number of hits anyway, plus the numbers are also inflated by our own visits to our journal, edits, comments, etc. It would be interesting to look at the journals based on links to that journal, but that would be a massive undertaking. When they had that "What is your blog Worth? thing going around, mine was like $77,000... That's a lot of linkage over two years, and I am sure there are people who have moved with way more links...

11:48 AM
TJ said...

This is absolute brilliance ~I know where this is going....LOL!Thank you very interesting facts.Wishing you health, happiness and Peace.

Love TJ~http://paisleyskys.blogspot.com/

7:27 PM
Karen Funk Blocher said...

Hi, Ayn! Haven't talked to you in a while. Maybe we'll reconnect a bit because of all this.Overall, I think this is good and valuable research, but I have a few questions and concerns. I posted then to Vince's AOL-J, but of course they got truncated. If one of you could look into them for me, I'd really appreciate it!

1. I meet the stated criteria to be a stayer, since I have posted on Musings since Black Tuesday (about 4 or 5 times, I think, with big ad disclaimers and promos for http://outmavarin.blogspot.com), and have not yet overtly stated on AOL that I'm leaving AOL altogether, once I repost everything (which will take a long time to do). I only reached a final decision last night, after Bill the Veep's open letter on Magic Smoke. Yet I started my replacement blog either Black Tuesday or the day after, and have posted there 1 to 3 times a day. So, would I have been counted as a "pro-AOL" stayer? If so, the criteria seem a little iffy, because I doubt I'm the only one with that experience. Where are the "fence-sitters," people with one foot in each world until they were ready to make a final decision? I really don't think Musings, with its 17994 hits, will be a boon to advertisers much longer. And the spreadsheet does not seem to list me, except on Judi's links list. I think Musings was in Pam's directory, thanks to your efforts, Ayn, circa July 2004.

2. Of the people I know who went private, at least two had high hit counts, and both immediately went to Blogspot. Again, where do they fit into your results? If they didn't say on AOL where they were going, do they count as pro-AOL? They surely are not - at least, the ones I know aren't. (I see you show RYanagi as a mover, but not OndineMonet. She went private with no goodbye post, but her move is no secret.)

3. Where do all the temporary blogs (as for a specific event), the single-use blogs (someone started it and never went back), other abandoned blogs, the test blogs (so the journaler can see how it looks before posting publically), and blogs that never sought to be listed anywhere fit into the equation? There have to be quite a few blogs that exist but have no readers, or virtually no readers. Not remotely 600,000, I'll grant you, but probably a few thousand at least!

4. You have 59 "movers," but listings of off-AOL refugee blogs now top 100. Do the extras represent people not in the survey sample, or people in non-mover categories, or both?

It sure would be nice to have access to solid numbers. AOL's spin doctors have been grossly overstating some numbers and grossly understating others. This survey, despite my questions, is a step in the right direction. Thanks to everyone who worked on it!

Karen

soon-to-be ex-AOL Journaler