I care less about traditional web traffic these days

My interest as an analyst of online traffic for my site - the aggregate access of my data, not merely web page requests - has changed over the last few months. My larger concern is in RSS traffic. Now that syndication in all its forms has proven to consistently exceed my WWW requests, I not only want to serve my subscribers, but ensure that I retain their subscriptions. And based upon their binding to me, I'm integrating my marketing plan.

RSS consumers are the the prime audience to whom I can expose various forms of ads. Web traffic, like possessions, is fleeting. People come and go, return users tire of content and stop for awhile, but subscribership prevails. Whether they read my stuff or not, I've got them. I want to hit those people who almost religiously check out my gallery of feeds, and push revenue streams onto them. In theory, this connection with the audience is something we've not had in traditional media. You can't force someone to watch a TV program or listen to a radio show outside of a focus group.

But there's still something to be said for a visit to a web site. My sites can still be found through Google, Technorati, del.icio.us, or countless other sites that give open my data up to new eyeballs. And then I can hit them with the subscription option.

So while I'm putting more mental emphasis on working with my RSS userbase, I'm also keeping cranial space available for handling remixing and mash-ups my my company's stuff. That's the next step.