Comments on: The Web’s Old Wives Tale: People Don’t Read Online

By: Buyers Guide

Buyers Guide — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:53:26 +0000

People do read online but the number of methodological readers is less and number of scanners are quite more.

By: Hmmm.. This is an Interesting Blog « Mwagner16’s Weblog

Hmmm.. This is an Interesting Blog « Mwagner16’s Weblog — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:26:47 +0000

[...] last year’s post by Bryan Eisenberg on Grokdotcom.com, he argues that people actually read more thoroughly online than they do in print. Eisenberg claims [...]

By: Blogging angst resolved (sort of) | Life Shavings

Blogging angst resolved (sort of) | Life Shavings — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:30:13 +0000

[...] You might be interested in reading the article and comments from Bryan Eisenberg’s post at The Web’s Old Wives Tale: People Don’t Read Online [...]

By: BillinDetroit

BillinDetroit — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:36:32 +0000

This agrees with my own server logs. Simple consideration of ‘time on site’ indicates that they are doing SOMETHING after they arrive. I like to think that they actually read at least one article and maybe stayed on to read more. My ‘uniques’ and my page views don’t line up … about 2/3 of them are returning for a second helping.

My goal is to write good content. Sometimes a couple hundred words will suffice, sometimes I start with the free end of the yarn and end up with the whole skein.

There is such a thing as a ‘reader / writer contract’ and those writers who keep their end of the deal will find a lot more readers willing to uphold their end.

Briefly, the idea is that the writer agrees to write something worth reading and the reader agrees to expend a reasonable amount of effort to understand it.

That’s all I ask … that and the occasional click on a text adv on the way out.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:00:24 +0000

Jack…

Usefull post. I learned so much. Thank you….

By: Myth Busting: People Don’t Read Online | Brendan Mayer Consulting

Myth Busting: People Don’t Read Online | Brendan Mayer Consulting — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:47:10 +0000

[...] it turns out that’s not true. In fact, a recent study by the Poynter Institute reveals that people read a larger percentage of stories online (77%) than [...]

By: Stanely

Stanely — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:21:20 +0000

I strongly agree with the article. From my experience – when I need the info and if it seems that I’ve found the piece of info I was looking for I’m tryin gto read the whole article.

By: Neil Sanderson

Neil Sanderson — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 11:15:16 +0000

Poynter is now reassessing their original claim that online readers read more. The problem is that online stories are shorter than print stories on average. See http://neilsanderson.com/?p=276

By: Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan Eisenberg — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. Just to make sure we can correct this properly could you please tell me what operating system and browser you are using. The other thing that is a pet peeve of mine is many sites that don’t even let you resize the text. We all have different abilities to see; it is why we have always paid attention to allow text to be resized and printed if desired.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:56:31 +0000

Http stands for “hyperTEXT transfer protocol”, and that’s what internet is all about: transfer of information in the form of TEXT. Text always comes first *by definition*.
Graphics, sound, video, and smoke signals come second. I have yet to see a browser option “turn off text”.

It’s not that designers or developers say “people don’t read”. Usually they just don’t pay enough attention to online text usability and don’t make text readable enough.
Example: the text in italics in this article becomes more or less readable only after resizing it to about 160%.

By: Best Engaging Online Communities

Best Engaging Online Communities — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:35:03 +0000

Communities and fresh content; dispelling the myth that people dont view content online…

Courtsey of grokdotcom. Poynter Institute released a report on eye tracking and people reading content online. “When readers chose to read an online story, they usually read an average of 77% of the story, compared to 62% in broadsheets and 57% in t…

By: Jeffrey Eisenberg

Jeffrey Eisenberg — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:48:45 +0000

Todd, You know that you are preaching to the converted here. Amen brother!

By: Todd Follansbee

Todd Follansbee — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:31:42 +0000

I just finished numerous hours in user testing of content, messaging and persuasion for some folks who came from the Direct Marketing arena. As we have discussed, I think that content needs to be persona tailored and if it is and if it is well done, it gets read. To a large part it also depends upon what is anticipated/expected based upon the page title or headline, meet expectations and get readers. Use Marketese, unsubstantiated claims and vapid content and say good by.
I also believe that understanding user learning styles impacts messaging effectiveness. Wave large bodies of content on strongly visual learners and you will not communicate effectively. We have discussed how developers are anything but visual learners so PowerPoint slides that do not understand their intuitive learning style put them to sleep.
Bottom line is though that i agree that people do read, it just makes a world of difference to understand who is doing the reading.

By: Marketing Interactions

Marketing Interactions — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:44:59 +0000

People Do Read Online — Who Knew?…

For some reason, it seems that their’s a belief that people don’t actually read online content. Well, thanks to research by the Poynter Institute’s Eyetrack study, we now know that’s untrue. Who knew? Big head’s up to all those whose web sites are…

By: Jeffrey Eisenberg

Jeffrey Eisenberg — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:58:28 +0000

Sean, Your comment is valid. I’m sure you know we both agree and disagree in the same way that you do since we’ve discussed it. What Bryan wanted to communicate was that all those people who are “sure” that people don’t read online need to get over it. Thanks for pointing out again that persuasion is a process and you can’t simply rely on one entity to do the entire job.

By: Sean D'Souza

Sean D'Souza — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:18:23 +0000

I still think that the point is being missed. There is stuff that people read online. And stuff that people don’t read online. We’re all online readers and therefore biased in the first place.

There aren’t any non-online readers here, if you know what I mean. And when it comes to conversion, offline in many cases, can be many times more persuasive than online. This report doesn’t say WHAT is being read online.

(See post No.9)

By: natasha

natasha — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:44:52 +0000

Wait a minute. There is truth in that ‘people don’t read online’ statement. They DON’T read boring, useless and uninteresting content. Because most webmasters believe that people don’t read online they don’t bother to provide good content. So in return their statements turn out to be true. But people come online searching for information first and foremost and they’re HUNGRY to find usefull stuff to read.

By: Lena West

Lena West — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:40:24 +0000

Yeah, right. People don’t read online…that’s why InfoWorld just canned their print edition.

By: Do people read online: Does Conversion really happen?

Do people read online: Does Conversion really happen? — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:19:36 +0000

[...] In their post ‘The Web’s Old Wives Tale: People Don’t Read Online‘, Bryan Eisenberg (backed by a Poynter report study say: Crapola! People do read online. Well I disagree. And agree. [...]

By: Quality Links for April 1, 2007 (No Fooling) | Copyblogger

Quality Links for April 1, 2007 (No Fooling) | Copyblogger — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:59:33 +0000

[...] Guess what? Turns out people do read in depth online, and with more focus than they do offline. So much for most blogging “wisdom”… the real value in blogging is with unique, original content, not pithy regurgitation of something someone else wrote in the interest of brevity. [...]

By: Web design and e-marketing blog

Web design and e-marketing blog — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:49:50 +0000

People don’t read online – yeah right!…

You hear it so often you can almost start to believe it. "People aren’t interested in reading online". Rubbish! In fact that’s what they are there for! Provide them with the …

By: WebMetricsGuru

WebMetricsGuru — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:35:15 +0000

Darron…

I posted earlier on Darren Rowse at ProBlogger Meetup in NYC – March 29th, 2007 - well, it's the 29th, I went and I had a lot of fun – but did not take any pictures.Who was there that I spoke……

By: Nigel H

Nigel H — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:56:03 +0000

Nothing new. For a long time creative departments have been saying that people do not read body copy. Nonsense. Well written and relevent body copy will be read. Same for internet copy.
Could not find Poynter Int methodology though. Difficult to evaluate the study without understanding that.

By: David L

David L — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:57:52 +0000

The optimal word in this article is STORIES. Yeah, its true people will read stories – but they will not read marketing wee wee. Telling good stories is critical to converting – and most important to the complex B2B sales cycles that often rely on long term memory.

By: Maybe People Do Read Online! » Aspects of Home Business Blog

Maybe People Do Read Online! » Aspects of Home Business Blog — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:26:19 +0000

[...] You may have heard that people don’t read online. I just read a post today over at GrokDotCom that indicates otherwise. [...]