Marketing magazine talks shit

Some of you may be familiar with a monthly publication simply called Marketing. This free magazine claims to be Asia’s leading source of advertising, marketing and media intelligence with editions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. So far the good news.

One of the magazine’s features is called ‘Media Relations’, which essentially involves interviews with founders/editors of Hong Kong based websites within a particular category. Questions are answered regarding target audience, relationships with PR firms and page views/unique visitors. Now of course this section is used by people to promote their site and tell the world how awesome it is. Hence, visitor numbers are usually a little inflated and ‘I’ becomes ‘us’ or ‘our team.’ Fine, nothing new there. The October edition of the magazine however features such outrageous claims that we doubt whether the magazine’s editors aren’t retarded.

We stopped taking hiphongkong.com and its founder, Liza Monica, seriously a long time ago, but who could have thought she could be surpassed by Kelly Berlin and Neveen Aziz, founders of Dim Sum & Then Some, in the bullshit department? Liza claims that hiphongkong.com has up to 60.000 unique viewers per month, which makes you wonder what she was smoking during the interview. Kelly and Neveen however can safely be labeled crack addicts for claiming a whopping 350.000 hits per month for their ‘ultimate online resource for living a fun and fabulous life in Hong Kong.’ The people behind the other two ‘city guides’, sassyhongkong.com and necescity.com know their visitor stats suck and safely avoid mentioning them.

Let’s throw in a comparison of hiphongkong.com, dimsumandthensome.com.hk and our own little site (that currently does 20.000 unique visitors and 35,000 pageviews a month) via Alexa.com. It’s common knowledge within the online marketing/publishing world that an Alexa ranking of 635,867 worldwide can never represent 60.000 unique viewers (or pageviews for that matters). Bear in mind that the lower the Alexa ranking, the higher the traffic.

Come on Marketing magazine boys and girls, we know you can do better. Having said that, how about interviewing us? According to your beloved Twitter, it’s about time don’t you think?

Ps. Of course statbrain.com and alexa.com only provide estimations of real traffic levels. The numbers are however so far off that there is no doubt about the inaccuracy of the claims by hiphongkong.com and dimsumandthensome.com.hk.

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20 Nov, 2009 | Milfo | Hong Kong
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  • TheRealDeal
    Read this with a smile! It is high time someone spoke plainly about these so-called publishers!

    All credit to anyone who is going out there and doing their own thing but it is not right to then try to con people into believing you are some kind of big-shot publisher. I once saw the Hip Hongkonger shout at a door bitch "do you know who I am??!!" when refused entry! Come on!!!! If you were really a hot-shot editor with clout you'd never compromise your integrity and reputation like that!

    While any marketer worth their salt will see straight past this bullshit and spend their online ad budgets elsewhere, the PRs in this city are still getting sucked in.

    Working in the publishing industry myself, I chat to a lot of PRs and I know for a fact that these people are using their sites to get freebies!! That can be anything from free meals in exchange for a "review" to an entirely free holiday!!! And if you're not delivering the editorial coverage and hits you promise, that in my opinion, is just a plain old-fashioned con!
  • GingerWonder
    @bethebutterfly - Clicks - hits - whatever - who cares.

    Umm, the people at Marketing Magazine should care, immensely... these things are completely different metrics used industry wide. Go ask somebody in new media at any of the big shops if they care about "click" vs "hit". It's the equivalent of a motoring magazine saying "speed - economy, who cares... the important thing is that it drives" When discussing a car.

    I guess the thing to remember here is that most (if not all) of the sites slapped around in this article generate revenue from the sale of advertising space in one way or another, so it's obviously in their best interests to inflate their figures.... particularly when being interviewed by a magazine that potential customers are sure to read.
  • Spike, precisely because we provided guest posts here that they linked us.

    What I wanted to point out is that, these guys maybe mean, but somehow they're reasonable.

    In the blogsphere, one got linked either because one's good, or one is involved in collaboration with others; or maybe because one's good so others collaborate with one.

    No free lunch, my friend.
  • Mr mayagiomng
    some of u guys are really missing the point of this article... the traffic numbers giving by these "editors" slash website owners are far off and anyone with a online marketing or publishing backgrounds and also the lady's themselves know this. You can say this article is harsh, mean or that alexa isnt the right tool to measure this but fact is that we all know the overall claim that they simply lie about their traffic numbers is true. Not very shocking.. waiting for some good posting again,.. Langham stuff material please guys!!
  • That's pretty disingenuous of you.

    You've made a choice, either consciously or unconsciously, that you don't want to help drive traffic to other web sites. And I've never commented on it, never complained about it, because this is your web site, do with it what you like.

    But telling me that having a link on a comment I made that's available on a single page of your site is equivalent to being in a blogroll that's visible on every page? I listed you in my blogroll from the day I found you, and I think you got at least a couple of hits from me here and there, maybe not. The fact that I linked you in no way obliged you to link me, but I do take note of who knows how to return a favor and who doesn't.

    At any rate, all of this is beside the point. I like the look of your site, I admire the marketing of it that you do on Twitter, I enjoy some of the content. And I hope that some day you get to where you want to get with this. I think you're probably talented enough to get to where you want to go in a more honorable fashion than the above post represents.

    (P.S. I just checked my stats. No traffic to my site via yours.)
  • Pushcart Prince
    Hey Spike- not to be a stickler or anything, but you are linking back to your page with your comment name... so... enjoy the traffic! btw- I actually read your stuff
  • Oh my gosh Henry, they linked to you? And that has nothing to do with the fact that you also provide content here?
  • Spike, they linked us for some reason.
  • Jon Bon Jovi
    @ Milfo
    I'm an amateur JBJ tribute singer, I like to model myself after the 80's JBJ with the leather jeans, mullet and all. I really let loose in the Wanch on audience participation night, you should come down. Post your name and email address and I'll send you a scan of my autograph. Melvis and I are working on a duet that'll rock your world.
  • Jon Bon Jovi
    @Curly pube

    I noted the post script, my issue with it is that the blog author can't say "the numbers we used to determine that said person is lying are possibly wildly inaccurate, but they are so wildly incompatible with what we have heard that said person must be lying."

    StatBrain estimates TDS readership at 5 times more than what the above blog post divulged. Obviously if an information source is out by 500% it cannot be trusted. Alexa has been relegated to the back bench for quite some time as a reliable information source and by no means should be used as evidence to call someone a liar. Especially if the blog post author is going to remain anonymous whilst throwing insults at others.
  • Guys - I really need to come to the defense of these ladies. This was harsh - especially some of those comments about Liza. Clicks - hits - whatever - who cares. All of these girls are influential in their ability to generate interest in things and get people to show up places. They tell us what is going on and provide an important part of social life in Hong Kong - at least for expats. They all have the ability get people to show up for things- which in Hong Kong is a freaking miracle.

    And on another note - why after you just bashed the crap out Marketing Mag would you want them to interview you???
  • This was a nasty, mean-spirited post. You're essentially marketing yourself by trying to push others down. What's the point? If you're good, people will find you. If you suck, people will stay away. I've removed you from my blogroll - but then again you never bothered to link to other HK bloggers yourself.
  • getthehelloutoftown
    Ha. that is funny. are you going to be interviewed byt his magazine now. i heard that they were dickheads anyway. i met one of those sluts from dim sum and they were totally sluts. as for that fucking bitch liza from dim somthing and then throw up something else who gives a fuck. fuck her and the mothing fucking american train she rode in on. anyway who is that ugly pot scrubber from necessity. what a fat bitch.
  • @bethecrackwhore

    Despite the apparent lack of intelligence and suave, we do have honesty on our side. We aren't in it for the $. To quote Batman's humble slave "Some people just like to watch the world burn"
  • Hey Dark Side. I would love to interview you, send me and email and let's meet up.
  • @bethecrackwhore
    nice flame war. but it's very likely yes that both lady's can't back up these traffic claims. And yes, Alexa isn't the most reliable tool but it definitely gives an impression. I'm sure thedarkside isn't afraid to back up their own statement (20k visitors and 35k pageviews a month)??
  • Pushcart Prince
    I will step up to your assault and reveal myself. There are you happy now?
  • Milfo
    Hello everybody! Wow, this is fun. Can't reveal my identity unfortunately Jon Bon Jovi. But I'd sure like your autograph!
  • Curly pube
    @Jon Bon Jovi

    If I am not mistaken, the ps. below the article already mentions that Alexa and Statbrain are inaccurate. Their estimations are however widely used. I think we can all safely say here that some blogs/websites like to inflate their numbers to such a level that it becomes hard to believe.
  • Jon Bon Jovi
    Let me guess, Midget==Blog Post Author!

    God I love it when asshole bloggers jump into the comments and attempt to abuse people who call them on their steaming pile of dog shit story.
  • Midget
    Wow Horatio, your knowledge about this kind of stuff is amazing!! Such a smart man.

    Obviously marketing is about hot air you stupid fuck, but visitor stats like these are so far from actual numbers that it can safely be regarded as bullshit. It was about time somebody said something about this.
  • Jon Bon Jovi
    It's fun to play internet tough guy isn't it? When all is said and done though you are essentially slinging abuse at people whilst keeping your own identities secret, this is juvenile and cowardly.

    Alexa is widely mocked as a reliable source of traffic information, as bloggers you should probably be aware of this. Alexa works by tracking the activities of those internet noobs stupid enough to install their browser toolbar, Alexa then attempts to extrapolate this data to give a view of actual web traffic. This is like taking a poll on the opinion of 7 people and then applying it to everyone on Earth. It's just plain stupid.

    StatBrain is also wildly inaccurate, neither of these tools actually measure real hits/uniques, they estimate them based on their own hair-brained algorithms. If you read the StatBrain home page you'll see this;

    "Statbrain estimates the number of visits that a website has based on offsite factors like backlinks, Alexa Rank etc. Statbrain does not have access to log files or any counter information."

    Either grow a pair of balls and come clean with your identities or lay off the bitchy garbage and go back to posting occasionally entertaining blog trash.
  • Horatio
    A magazine called 'Marketing' spouts bullshit? What a fucking surprise. This isn't really news, is it. Everyone knows that marketing (the activity, not the magazine) is based on bullshit and everyone just gets on with it. If some figure duking online suprises you, you might gasp at the fact that given magazine circulation figures are usually half of what they actually are. Quick! HK and Time Out are on crack! Hardy ha.
  • Chopper
    The claim of 350,000 is "hits". A "hit" is a request for any part of a page. So a page that has 2 ads and 3 images may have more than 5 hits per page. A site like this may have 20 or more objects that would count as "hits" on it so that may make the traffic a more realistic 2,000-3,000 odd. Very old school terminology we dropped this in pre-bubble times.
  • Ken
    The thing with these marketers is that they like to use big numbers to confuse you. If you notice, they use the word hits, not page views, unique visitors. Since visiting a single page can cause multiple hits, it works out that the dimsum site has roughly the same number of readers as this site.
  • @bethecrackwhore
    i hereby demand all of you to publish traffic stats. Douglas White should analyze them and pronounce the winner!
  • fadilahmudafucka
    ah common guys, y cant you just let these chicks play little online publishing entrepreneurs?
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