WebProNews

We know you want to stay on topic; we know you don't want to resort to tabloid-style tricks.  But we know you also want linkbait, and an excellent example of it has been identified in a new Hitwise post.

To be fair, Paul Boutin was well ahead of the curve, writing on Friday, "On Gawker, Nick Denton's mirror post of Tom Cruise's Scientology promo video is closing on 1.5 million views - comparable traffic to all of Valleywag so far this month."  But of course, Boutin operates under the same Gawker Media umbrella, so Hitwise's follow-up is still worth seeing.

Heather Dougherty states, "After posting a copy of the video, the market share of visits to Gawker.com increased 178% on Tuesday, January 15th from the previous day.  Traffic also increased another 72% on the next day (from Tuesday), where traffic peaked surrounding the event . . . .  The Scientology website also experienced a spike in traffic, where the market share increased 450% on Tuesday, January 15th from the previous day."

So how can the average eBusiness site duplicate these numbers?  Well, aside from pissing off rich religions and carrying celebrity news, there may not be any easy way.  Still, blogs can take a shot, and it seems likely that staying up on current events and tossing in references when possible will make any site look a more flexible and modern.