
How We Got 31k Pageviews in a Day by Pretending to be Obama - ajaymehta
http://blog.crowdtilt.com/post/47543189901/how-we-got-31k-pageviews-in-a-day-by-pretending-to-be
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brokentone
Only 24,853 UVs and 31,097 PVs for a fully designed and built out microsite (a
clever one I might add)?

Just from my blog post (<http://www.brokentone.com/blog/2566/>) that made it
to HN front page the other day (with really no other promotion) I got: 21,893
UVs, 23,094 PVs.

Not phallus measuring, just providing some reference and cost/benefit.

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Wilya
Yeah, it's amusing how the article focuses on the pageview numbers, which
aren't that impressive. A catchy rant making it near the top of HN will easily
give you similar numbers.

The number of social shares seems more interesting (3k Facebook likes isn't
that bad, better than what I would have gotten), but if it didn't lead to more
pageviews, I don't really see the point.

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ajaymehta
Thanks! I think you're right, the 3k Facebook likes were great to see.

Unfortunately the page was modded off of HN (like all the other April Fool's
jokes) after rising to the top super fast... I think if that hadn't happened
we would have ended up with quite a bit more traffic.

~~~
wtvanhest
One nice thing is that you probably got a diverse group of PVs rather than a
homogeneous one you would see from just linking to reddit or HN.

For a service like yours where you need random people finding out about it,
I'd be really happy with your numbers and the fact that the traffic came from
unique sources.

~~~
ajaymehta
Thank you! Agreed. The page was on HN for like 18 minutes. The cool thing was
to see traffic coming in from all over the place and getting tweets saying
"Best April Fool's prank this year!" :)

It was a scrappy, last-minute fun project that managed to exceed expectations.
The Crowdtilt founders thought it was sweet too!

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ck2
Except 30 of the largest corporations paid little to no taxes over the past
few years. There would be little debt if you actually got them to pay and stop
offshoring jobs and profits.

General Electric paid an effective tax of TWO PERCENT over the past decade!

We are being looted from the inside out and people still fall for this.

~~~
cobrausn
Last year's corporate tax incomes amounted to something like 200 billion. The
last four years have seen deficit spending over 1 trillion per year.

Even if you managed to alter the tax code and bring in five times as much
corporate taxes, you would only get us out of deficit spending, assuming no
other drop in revenue or increase in spending. We would still have 15 trillion
in federal debt.

~~~
incision
What conclusion do you draw from this?

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cobrausn
I try not to draw conclusions about what would happen in D.C. given X, because
Y is often something I never would have guessed, but here goes (all that
follows is IMHO).

I think if you managed to increase corporate tax revenue five-fold, we would
spend more, because political capital now via spent dollars is more effective
(politically) than long-term doom and gloom over an increasing debt.

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powertower
Here is the real form to help pay down the debt just in case anyone wants to -

[https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formInstance.html?agencyFor...](https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formInstance.html?agencyFormId=23779454)

~~~
gtaylor
In what cases would it ever make sense to "donate" to this? I ask this not to
be silly, I really am genuinely curious if anyone actually does this, and for
what reasons.

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eli
Is your question why do people care about the public debt? Or why they bother
making a contribution that is small relative to the problem?

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stfu
Slightly different - why do they think that there money is better distributed
by faceless bureaucrats where they could themselves direct it to the causes
they think need it the most.

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seferphier
> "We support this idea. would definitely be sweet to get paid back. -Chinese
> President Xi Jinping" "Man, this is a great idea. I bet this was Biden's
> thing, am I right? Joe, call me. -Bill Clinton"

Genius.

~~~
ajaymehta
Thank you! :)

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MWil
Because he linked to the site in his article: Why the 100% spike in donations
to the public debt in 2012?

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orangethirty
How much money did you make off of the traffic?

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hipstercatfish
Pretty decent traffic... good idea though.

