I recently read Traffic by Ben Smith.
It was a recommendation from Mike Solana, founder of Pirate Wires.
It's about the rise of new media in the 2010's.
The primary actors are the founders of Buzzfeed and Gawker.
I'll say that it's worth the read.
Especially if you have any interest in how early new media was formed.
What was a surprise to me is the tricks some engineers would do to get traffic.
"For eight hours a day, Andrew wrote and rewrote the simple HTML code that could drive one million views to an article".
Back then these companies were coming up alongside Facebook.
This led to some outrageous valuations for companies that simply shared articles.
The founder of buzzfeed was Jonah.
Jonah had an analytical approach to writing online.
"He taught his employees to think about why people would share something.
Not just because they enjoyed it, but because the act of sharing would bring them closer to their friends, or say
something about themselves. "
This led to a key unlock at Buzzfeed.
The listicle.
"Buzzfeed's best traffic day yet came on December 5, 2011. The post was a simple list titled "The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011".
The post drove more than 3 million views in three days.
If you recall using Facebook back in those days, the platform was littered with Buzzfeed listicles.
At the time the founder of Buzzfeed was trying to keep a tight leash on Facebook.
He even spoke with Zuckerberg on a regular basis.
He even got an offer from Zuck to get bought…
In hind site this may have been the right move.
Over time, Facebook ended up changing their ruling and distribution to limit Buzzfeed's ability to go viral.
Good read.