Here’s a big “DUH!” for you, not intuitive, maybe, but once you hear it you’ll make that exaggeratedly stupid face and say “duh!”, if you’re inclined to such things.

If you have a website to promote your business idea, and it contains links to the product you are selling, visitors must not be able to easily see that only a dozen, rather than many thousands, have visited the links.  YouTube, for example, with its counters, is good for promoting an idea if 75,000 people, or better still, 7,500,000 people, have viewed it.  It is the kiss of death if the counter reads 14, or 106.

“Loser…” the visitor can’t help but think, perhaps also “poor bastard.”

The internet is a popularity contest.  High school has nothing on the internet in that regard.  The numbers don’t lie.  If the thing is good but nobody cares, the number reads 6, maybe 28.  If the LOL cat is funny, or the baby animal irresistible, the number quickly reaches 99,000,000.

Like everything else– or like many things, anyway–  there is a way to fix it.  A workaround, like a dozen I’ve already employed in the creation of my gerry-rigged empire.  No need to show potential customers how few people actually watch the amazing and original animation small groups of strangers are creating.   I’ll get on it tomorrow, it should take no more than a few hours to fix.  Plain foolishness is the only reason to let a prospective customer see at a glance that your most popular, most amazing piece of work has been viewed less than 200 times.

Live and learn, baby.

“Duh!”