

Octopart Traffic - andres
http://octopart.com/blog/get?y=2008&m=3&d=5

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pg
This is the magic pattern that means a startup is probably going to make it.

Incidentally, while 10k uniques a day is not a huge number for the average
site, it is for this site. These visitors are per capita about as valuable as
you can get. They're not just checking out the latest pictures on their
friend's profile; they're all looking for electronic parts.

~~~
mixmax
We did some sourcing of hardware parts in a previous startup, so I know the
field a little. I think octopart will survive simply because they solve a
problem that hasn't been solved well before. Sourcing is a pain...

I'm glad to see these stats, and I think they will definitely make it.

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jl
Congrats guys - traffic graph is fabulous!

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axod
Alexas graphs really do look nothing like graphs provided by sites :/ who to
trust!...

[http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/octopart.c...](http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/octopart.com)

Seriously, cool graph + wd :)

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ashu
Alexa is nuts. It's only useful as a _comparison_ tool for sites which are
_really_ popular. Otherwise, their extrapolations just don't make sense
statistically.

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axod
It'd be nice if they showed the error bars on the graphs. I expect they'd be
pretty massive unless as you say the site is really up in the top ranks.

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npk
Though this probably sounds pedantic, it's not intended to be. How would one
define an error-bar for alexa's report on octopart?

Isn't the whole problem with alexa, in this case, that the cross-section alexa
trackees, is not necessarily the cross-section of people who would be
interested in octopart?

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axod
Yes but surely alexa knows how many alexa trackees it has. It knows how much
it's scaling that up to make an estimate of the real population.

For example, a very big site, you have enough trackees to make a reasonably
statistically valid sample. But smaller sites, you don't see as many trackees,
so you set the error bars higher.

Sure, I agree that the system is flawed anyway, seeing as how I don't know a
single person who installs the alexa toolbar, and amongst techie sites it's
usage is probably 0.

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morris
A more useful depiction of the error would be to somehow calculate the bias in
the Alexa population (my guess, tech investors are the only segment of the
population using the Alexa toolbar, which is incredibly ironic).

Huge error bars on a near zero estimate don't mean a whole lot except that the
experiment producing the data is flawed.

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rms
The biggest niche population of Alexa toolbar users is probably internet
marketers.

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morris
Also incredibly ironic. These people are just seeing what they want to see and
creating buzz within their own community rather than measuring something
useful.

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spoonyg
I use the hell out of your site and I am stoked that it sounds like you will
be around for some time. Congratulations.

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andres
awesome! i'd love to hear what you think we should do with the site.
(andres@octopart.com)

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keizo
This may be some what unrelated... but www.mcmaster.com is the best website
I've ever seen or used for sourcing and buying mechanical or industrial
products. Maybe it's worth considering that kind of model, ie more like
craigslist, for octopart's homepage vs the google style.

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andres
we really like mcmaster-carr's website as well. eventually octopart's website
will be closer to that. first we have to aggregate a lot of technical data
though. technical data is hard to come by because it is held tightly by a few
companies who license it for $100K's. this is one of the problems we are
trying to solve.

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prakash
congrats!! good to know you are sticking it out and doing well.

~~~
andres
thanks! it was definitely difficult at points so we're really glad we stuck
with it. paul's essay is right on.

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brezina
Congrats fellas! - i'm curious, can you say who your top referring sites are?
Does Google dominate 80% of it? Do you spend lots of cycles on SEO? I
understand if you aren't comfortable answering these questions in a public
forum.

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huherto
Nice! I like it that is not the typical social network. It really solves a
real world need saving time and money.

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daniel-cussen
By my estimates, assuming $20 per user (which really varies), that's over
$200,000! Congrats!

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Fuca
Great idea. I will wish you luck, but you do not seem to need it anymore.

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tim2
Cause/effect?

That is an awesome site.

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ashu
Awesome! Keep it up, dudes...

