If Alexa is good for anything its comparing niche websites. Especially when the traffic dips and spikes are mirrored.
I first noticed last fall that DP had overtaken webmaster world and it looks like it is holding onto its marketshare through 2007.
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DigitalPoint Keeps Webmaster Forum Marketshare Through 2007
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September 1, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I love DP. It’s definitely one of the most productvie, helpful, insightful forums on internet marketing on the net.
August 26, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Digital Point’s traffic is very large.
August 22, 2007 at 1:18 pm
i never used webmaster world i started with digital point forums then i discovered webmaster world but didnt like it as digital point forums
August 21, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Agreed – compete.com has given better stats on my sites since the beginning bro
August 21, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Come on now… alexa ranking doesn’t matter anymore… you can increase it yourself just by visiting your site with the alexa toolbar… what you need to increase is ACTUALY TRAFFIC no?!
COME ON :p
August 21, 2007 at 10:41 pm
It’s amazing to see an “tiny” forum surpass an established one in any field… then again… I bet WWW was considered “tiny” at one point in time?? Where did it start?! :p
August 21, 2007 at 10:10 am
yeah, but it drowns out the real SEO conversations.
August 21, 2007 at 2:30 am
Well, I’d be happy. But I’m still trying to increase Alexa
August 20, 2007 at 4:22 am
Yes i agree with you. DP buy sell trade section got some very legitimate deals and amazingly you get the best deals there.
August 18, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I have only recently discovered Digital Point forums but I love them – and prefer them to the Webmaster Forums too, and found digital point to be more active.
August 17, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I have been a member on DP for some time and those spikes are definitely from the Buy, Sell, trade section. There is so much commerce going on on the forum that it is crazy!
August 17, 2007 at 5:34 pm
There’s a lot of self-proclaimed experts in just about every forum. I think the best way to learn is to read and learn from personal experience.
August 17, 2007 at 6:34 am
“Gosh i never heard of webmaster world !” yea, wmw is like so web1.0.
August 16, 2007 at 1:43 pm
True, very true. Some of the AdSense forum regulars have some dangerous advice for n00bies.
August 16, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Gosh i never heard of webmaster world !
And i am not joking on that fact .
August 16, 2007 at 11:55 am
I guess thats just more proof of the “digg” effect.
August 16, 2007 at 11:04 am
I’m really not surprised. Wasn’t webmaster world the guys that totally black hated (the verb form of “hat”, duh.) millions of their pages and got tonnes of Google searchers very annoyed? Well, obviously they’ve lost that edge now.
No one really uses them. xP
August 16, 2007 at 10:40 am
I am a DP guy, and always have been. For some reason I cant seem to use any other board like this. The members are informative, and are willing to help…
August 16, 2007 at 10:26 am
webmaster world looks 2000, new webmasters will not embrace something that is behind the times.
August 16, 2007 at 9:32 am
I prefer digital point..
I agree there is alot of noise there and a lot of junk info going around but i find the ideas floating around a bit more cutting edge. Webmaster World is more about good old traditional SEO.
August 16, 2007 at 9:11 am
The discussions are good, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I have learned a lot there, but if you didn’t know what you were doing you could get in trouble fast.
August 16, 2007 at 9:09 am
Digital Point should do better because they don’t charge to be a member. They found a better way to generate revenue. I do like Webmaster World’s quick news blog though.
August 16, 2007 at 9:01 am
thats pretty cool. I prefer DP
August 16, 2007 at 8:53 am
I stick to what i know. I found DP first, i use DP.
I’ve never really tried wmw. i’ve just looked at it now — the posts seem good, but the design of the site is very off putting. You get so used to vb and phpbb dont you
August 16, 2007 at 7:50 am
DP is the best. Since i joined DP in 2005 it has grown so much and i love this graph.
August 16, 2007 at 7:15 am
DP is hands down the best. I have received a ton of great information from the users there. I find it amazing how similar the two graphs can be at times: rising and falling.
August 16, 2007 at 4:40 am
DP is better, this comes as no surprise. Shawn must be pleased.
August 16, 2007 at 12:02 am
yea DP is arlight, but I like other forums better when it comes to getting advice.
August 15, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I’m not surprised. DP has so many users with like 0-10 post counts. almost everyone is new!
August 15, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Long live DP. Heck, its like the NYSE over there. hey, wouldn’t it be cool if they would make a ticker for the being sold iteams in “realtime” ahla the NYSE ticker;).
August 15, 2007 at 11:35 pm
I visit DP mostly because I’m one of those still “starting”.
DP has lot of ideas, resources and of course, a fair dose of spam and nonsense.
August 15, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I think there was a big algo update that freaked people out.
August 15, 2007 at 9:44 pm
dp is full of kids and broken English speaking Indians now asking the same questions over and over everyday (when is ypn coming to India?). WMW has more knowledgeable people that are in the business, not just wanting to start.
On a side note, I like DP, and it’s where I learned a lot, but it’s no longer desirable.
PLEASE NOTE – I’m not prejudice towards Indians or anyone for that matter. I’m simply just pointing out that a good majority of DP is now Indian users. That’s all…
August 15, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I love digitalpoint. Its a great community and good advice (most of the time)
August 15, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Dang, him and Al Gore should duel.
August 15, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I first saw compete on popuri.us and didn’t know what it was. Still don’t really.
August 15, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I am sorry to say, I agree. Way too many marketplace posts in particular. People selling links, domains, MFA sites, etc.
Quality has really declined IMO.
August 15, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Its funny how the spikes seem to match up. Shows how much the internet is based on trends
August 15, 2007 at 7:08 pm
On average the advice is crappy on both
August 15, 2007 at 6:59 pm
As far as Marketplace is concerned DP has been great for that. I one of my previous online businesses privately but the new owner found it via Digital Point.
When I think of WW however I think of solid advice.
August 15, 2007 at 6:43 pm
wmw – quality vs dp quantity
I stopped to read dp only looking sometimes at marketplace . Too many newbies there and same lame questions again and again .
August 15, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I also give out advice on what I have learned quite a bit too… i’m more than happy to give back and can’t wait to do it more as I learn more…
August 15, 2007 at 6:34 pm
There’s no doubt about it… as far as free forums go, DP rules the roost. I have learned so much from DP and have gotten much traffic from dp as well from my signatures.
August 15, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Alexa really has become useless these days. But it is cool to see that these sites in the same niche stick together in terms of spikes and falls. Very interesting.
August 15, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Wow look at that huge spike Q2 2006, any idea what caused that?
August 15, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Two very different forums. I visit both, but spend most of my time and effort at WmW. DP is clearly less regulated, which offers some advantages, which some folks take full advantage of. There’s some very smart folks who hang out at DP but they’re far outnumbered. The mix at WmW strikes me as a bit more professional. Decent advice at both places. Far more noise at DP but that goes with the rules or lack thereof. Still, in a busy world, you gotta sometimes make choices and I just don’t have much time for filtering out the noise. Noise is not the same as “noob”. We all like to help the noob. It’s more the promotional or “money, money, money” chatter that limits my time at DP. Not a bad subject to talk about. Just not all the empowering.
August 15, 2007 at 5:04 pm
DP is bettter than WMW.
I’ve been a active member on both forums and DP has the better webmaster community.
August 15, 2007 at 5:04 pm
WMW has too many restrictions. And Brett Tabke thinks he invented the internet.
August 15, 2007 at 4:50 pm
take down your new set of pics
August 15, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Even though the two sites are in the same niche, I find their demographics very different. To me, DP seems to be dominated by newbies and webmasters outside North America & Western Europe (that probably explains the dismal AdSense EPC). WMW seems to be the polar opposite.
A newbie or anyone who likes to helps newbies would certainly get more out of DP.
August 15, 2007 at 4:25 pm
DP is way better than WMW. Everyone around DP is so friendly and willing to help out. God forbid you ask something at WMW. Anything I seem to ask, I get my head bitten off by the cocky posters.
August 15, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I think much of what you see with Alexa as far as trends dips and spikes (especially when 2 sites track similar patterns) is changes in Alexa toolbar usage.
I see a downward trend in Alexa when I look at some of the major affiliate marketing sites. For example here’s my 5 Star Affiliate Programs site compared to Affiliate Tip.
I know for a fact that our traffic isn’t going down and I doubt WMW and DP traffic is going down either.
I suspect it’s largely due to less people using the Alexa toolbar. Something to do with the toolbar is probably responsible for that big spike they both had at the same time too.
August 15, 2007 at 4:23 pm
The best thing about Dp isn’t the advice or the quality of the discussions. Its the liquid marketplace that it provides. You can sell nearly anything on there.
August 15, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I think that is when a lot of Digg users banded together and downloaded the Alexa toolbar to bump up the Alexa rating of Digg. Obviously a lot of overlap between Digg users and webmasters. In fact you’ll see a similar spike for many tech related sites.
August 15, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Wow, a 200% jump in what looks like one day for both forums, What happened March-April 06?
August 15, 2007 at 3:59 pm
That is an interesting spike. Not sure what could have caused it.
The decline back to ‘06 levels is a bit odd. You’d think the graph would show a progressive incline with the amount new people getting online combined with the percentage of people using broadband (longer visits).
August 15, 2007 at 3:58 pm
By the way, the image pokes into the sidebar in FF. Just thought I’d point it out…
August 15, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Yep one of the few uses for Alexa alright, I would say the comparison is pretty fair. DP wins for me every time just because the mod’ing/anti-spamming measures are top. Plus a great online marketplace also.
August 15, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I gotta say I dig DP way more than WMW, more insight from members’ posts.
August 15, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I’m wondering why that HUGE spike 1 line after 2006…
August 15, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I like using compete.com There numbers arent ususal correct but are decent for comparision.
August 15, 2007 at 3:26 pm
DP hold the record most likely because of the Buy, Sell, & Trade forum. Even though I think all of DP is great, but I tend to get more guru advice from WMW and I tend to Buy, Sell, & Trade on DP.
I also found that Google favors DP – as they crawl it constantly, I’ve seen DP post reach the top search results for keywords on Google within a few hours.
August 15, 2007 at 3:23 pm
absolutely incredible how the spikes and dips are mirrored. my personal opinion is that DP is full of more people who have no idea what they are doing and new to business on the internet than wmw
August 15, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I think size is not a very accurate measure of a site’s quality. Sure both WMW and DP are huge and have a ton of traffic. But is that traffic quality traffic? Lots of people surf through there that have no clue what the heck they are doing. Congrats to DP though. I imagine this is a tough niche to tackle. I however will stick to the smaller webmaster forums where people actually have some clue as to what they are talking about.