Posted by the admin with the permission of Cam Timlick

Hi Ilia,
I thought I would wait a couple of days before replying to
your e-mail to see if my hypothesis of the Top sites would
be correct or not and it seems as though it is.

fresco@t... wrote:

> In regards of your site to fade from the list, I have to say that it
> can be remedied through the "guest artist" not only as an artist but
> as an associate curator presenting featured on your site artist on
> the Top 30. And in the forums. This will not interfere with site
> ranking function of the list and small sites will go up on a fare
> chance, I agree with you on that completely, for example The Art
> Coalition site (about 15-20 pages) is higher than yours but they have
> only one link to the list on their homepage.

This is exactly my point. Firstly, I am not knocking the quality of any of
the sites on the list, but the smaller the site there is a higher liklihood
of
a visitor returning to the Top Sites list via the Top Sites link thus
advancing
the sites ranking on the list, particlarly if this is the only link that they
can
use to get off of the site. Since you sent this e-mail there have only been
8 visitors who have gone to the Top Sites page via my links. To me this
is a good thing as it shows that visitors are sticking on my site or if they
are leaving they are doing so by clicking on affiliate links that are
possibly
making me some $$$$. But this is not contributing to my ranking on the
list and I would guess given another week my site's ranking on the list
will cause it to drop off the list.

To test this idea I visited one of the other sites. Without mentioning the
site, I thought that the site was not really an "art" site and when arriving
there this was confirmed. After clicking to the first page from their home
page, there was no artwork and the only available link to leave the site
was via the Top Sites link. Now, the typical visitor being in the same
position would likely click on the banner to return to the Top Site list,
thus advancing this site's ranking. The rankings for this particular site
really has nothing to do with it's popularity as an "art" site, it is merely
based on how many people leave the site via the Top Site link. This
is why I think these types of lists are not truly indicative of a site's
quality or popularity.

However, no matter how long my site remains on this list, there are
people visiting from the Top Sites list and therefore it is a good thing
to be involved, although I would think it will be a short-lived listing.
Thanks to the little logo at the bottom my site's presence on the page
will be longer but I would think very few people notice these banners
at the bottom.

Take care,
Cam

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