Calculate Your Blogging ROI
Ever wanted to know what blog posts you write require the least effort and get the most comments? No? Well I did and I threw together a bit of SQL to help me identify the areas I can improve upon if I’m to become a serious challenger for the title of the Laziest Blogger Ever™:
SELECT p.post_title, ROUND((SUM(LENGTH(w.comment_content))/LENGTH(p.post_content))*100) AS roi, LENGTH(p.post_content) AS post_length, SUM(LENGTH(w.comment_content)) AS comment_length FROM blog.wp_posts p INNER JOIN blog.wp_comments w ON w.comment_post_ID = p.ID GROUP BY p.ID ORDER BY roi DESC LIMIT 10
It returns the top 10 blog posts ranked by the percentage return on a post measured by the number of characters invested in the opening post compared to the number of characters returned in the comments.
My top 3:
- Free Will (43,774% ROI)
- Last Western Heretic (5,304% ROI)
- The Location of Jesus (5,223% ROI)
Tags: blog, sql, tired-and-bored
May 10th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Ha Ha - well I guess you cant really take Frank on for number one Christian blogger (albeit taken from one vote
), so why not go for Laziest. Actually I think laziness is totally underrated as a trait. So many wonderful human inventions have been motivated by laziness, if it wasnt for the lazy blokes who couldnt be bothered chasing their food source around, we’d still be hunter gatherers!
May 12th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Damian, I guess this sort of thing can’t be used with wordpress.com? I must try to get my head around the differences between org and com. Have thought of switching over but am a bit hesitant about the amount of work involved in the switch and in not used com.
Do you know of any easily accessed (and easily understood) information on what is involved?
May 12th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
No, WordPress is open source software which means that people like me can grab a copy of the application and install it on our own servers. The SQL code you see above is only for if you have your own setup and access to MySQL which is the database application that WordPress uses by default.
The fine folks at WordPress are kind enough to let you use their servers to host your blog but for very good reasons they don’t give you full access to all the underlying stuff.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
What a great tool! I’ll have to try it out. It’s tough being NZ’s number one Christian blogger… but I’m willing to carry that burden and try something like this to improve what I do
May 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Ummmm, the ‘tool’ was a bit tongue-in-cheek but, hey, use it if you’re looking to reduce the amount of effort you put into posts
Remember, though, that with your new-found title you’re obliged to wear your underwear on the outside of your jeans and perhaps a cape and mask.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Less effort is always a good thing. But I think I know the secret already… quick posts full of generalisations that sharply divide the reading audience and dig at one side of that divide
Remember, though, that with your new-found title you’re obliged to wear your underwear on the outside of your jeans and perhaps a cape and mask.
Gladly
May 14th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hehe, I know what you’re talking about. There’s a blog I drop in to every once in a while that uses just this method. I no longer comment there but I can’t help going back from time to time (kind of like when you get dog shit on your shoe) and every time I do I just find myself getting worked up which can’t be good for me. Morbid fascination I guess.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Oh, it’s so true.
I’m the same.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Thanks for the compliment Damian.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Irony?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:21 am
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
May 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Classic.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:59 am
[...] Damian Peterson - Calculate Your Blogging ROI, May 9, 2008 Selected Quote: Ever wanted to know what blog posts you write require the least effort [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Wha..??!! Oh for goodness’ sake.
There are people out there who are sitting around boardroom tables actually saying things like “I wonder if blogging will increase our RIO?”.
That’s so lame.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
That post from that person would have taken a lot of effort… I guess the ROI on the post would come from trackback hits from the various posts they link to. That’s funny. This quick post from you could produce a fairly good ROI, Damian!
May 17th, 2008 at 3:19 am
@servant - you’re probably talkin’ about me. who knows what the ROI will be on that post I just wrote that references Damian’s post
you’re right, i spent waaay too long on that. i must have something better to do with my time…
May 18th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Andy, I think all of us with a love of blogging are guilty of spending way too much time writing stuff
Clearly a lot of effort searching for posts relating to ROI in blogging and then writing about them and linking to them, went into that post. I hope you see a decent return.