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July 29, 2006
The 1% Rule: does it apply to you?
Does the 1% Rule apply to you? To recap: The 1% Rule postulates:
About one percent of the total number of visitors to an online democratized forum will create create content for it.
We'd love your help in furthering the 1% Rule. Tell us about your "democratized forum" (a buzzwordy-way of saying a wiki, bulletin board or community that invites visitors to create content for it). Wikipedia, YahooGroups, YouTube and Flickr are a few examples. So far, at least, we know the 1% Rule applies to Wikipedia and YahooGroups. But we're looking for additional data sets.
If you can provide documentable data about your site, we'll feature your evidence and credit you in our forthcoming book "Citizen Marketers" (arriving in bookstores in early 2007, published by Kaplan). We would love to know if it applies to Digg, YouTube, and Revver, too.
Here's how to measure for the 1% Rule: n=x/y
N = The percentage (theoretically, 1%, give or take a point)
X = Number of people who start or create content for a period of time (one month) divided by...
Y = Total unique site visitors for the period of time
Let us know if you're interested by emailing me (ben at customerevangelists.com), commenting below or tracking back to this post.
After we first identified and wrote about the 1% Rule in May, it has since been picked up and given terrific momentum by writers at Businessweek, the Guardian (although is Guardian writer Charles Arthur trying to claim credit for the 1% Rule? I hope not; Update: In the comments, he says no) as well as dozens of bloggers -- thanks, guys!
Other blogs that reference The 1% Rule: does it apply to you?:
» Az 1% szabály from Kispad
Úgy néz ki, sikerült a (nevezzük jobb híjján webkettes) szolgáltatások látogató/tartalomkészítő arányát megtalálni. A "képlet" banálisan egyszerű: About one percent of the total number of visitors to an online democratized forum will create content for... [Read More]
Hmmmmm - don't get too uppity about the Guardian claiming credit for 'your' idea. I was talking to clients about this 1% rule back in march of this year...& I nabbed the idea (via a colleague) from a company called Web Crossing, who were presenting it at conferences last year. No such thing as a new idea, eh?
No uppitiness intended. Just a desire for intellectual honesty. The writer used all of our content and data pointers.
That said, if there's evidence of others having documented (I'd say that's key) that about 1% of a website's total audience tends to create content, we want to know!
No way I'm claiming authorship or whatever of the meme.. er, rule. I don't quite see how you could read that in to the Gdn article that you've referenced, but - always glad to clarify matters.
Hey Charles, thanks for commenting. You gave the meme/rule a huge booster shot, and that's awesome. You don't, however, cite us as its source. Just that it's an emerging rule of thumb.
Hi ben - will see if i can my colleague to find the original web crossing doc. BTW - not accusing you of plagiarism (think my 1st post might have sounded a little like that). I think it's one of those examples of convergent idea evolution, where similar ideas appear from different sources at at similar times
Tom -- Thanks much. If you find it, can you email it to me? (ben --at-- customerevangelists.com).
My one year old blog has 260 odd posts and 27 comments. Wonder if it is the 1% you are looking for?
Do I sense a new book topic?
Nishad -- Good question. We would argue that a blogger is the "content creator" and the commenters are the "synthesizers." Based on the rest of the 1% Rule, that about 10% of an audience tends to synthesize content, then your numbers fall right into line with that.
Tac -- Heh! Well, the One Percenters are a central theme of our in-progress book "Citizen Marketers." Hence, the several posts about this topic.
