candidates web traffic report

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http://www.clickz.com/3627750

By Kate Kaye, The ClickZ Network, Dec 3, 2007

"All Democratic Presidential hopefuls brought in more female Web site visitors than males in October, according to Quantcast.
Data from the site measurement firm also showed Senator Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson attracted the most older voters, and John Edwards and Fred Thompson the most Caucasians.

Also, contrary to what some may assume, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's site did not attract the most Hispanics, and JohnEdwards.com had the fewest low income visitors of all Democratic candidate sites, despite his campaign's focus on poverty.

Among all campaign sites, HillaryClinton.com drew the largest audience in October, grabbing over 300,000 unique visitors. Web phenomenon Congressman Ron Paul took the site traffic lead among Republican sites with 235,655 uniques, also topping all Democratic sites excluding Clinton's. BarackObama.com and JohnEdwards.com came in second and third among Democratic sites with 207,652 and 108,000 unique visitors, respectively. Among Republican campaign sites, Rudy Giuliani's Joinrudy2008.com grabbed the number two slot with more than 168,000 uniques, while Thompson's Fred08.com took third place with 153,000. Because political campaign sites attract relatively smaller, more niche audiences, traffic and demographic estimates may be slightly less reliable than those of larger sites, according to Quantcast. However, any biases that may occur should be normalized across all sites in the category. Democratic candidates drew the most women to their sites, according to Quantcast. Clinton's and Senator Barack Obama's sites tied in this regard, drawing a 64 percent female audience. Among Republican sites, Giuliani's Web site brought in the most female visitors in October; 57 percent were women. Congressman Tom Tancredo was the only other Republican with a higher ratio of women to men, attracting 53 percent females. Paul's site drew the most males of all candidate sites, 61 percent in October. Of Democrats, Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden had the most men on their sites in October, each attracting 43 percent males. While the gender breakdowns might not surprise politicos, other demographic findings may raise eyebrows. The most Hispanic audience award did not go to the lone Hispanic candidate, Richardson. Instead, Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich held that honor, with an 11 percent Hispanic audience. Meanwhile 9 percent of Richardson's October audience was Hispanic, according to Quantcast's panel-based audience measurement. Of Republicans, Alan Keyes's site had the largest Hispanic site visitor population, with 6 percent. The highest percentage of Asian visitors, 5 percent, went to Giuliani's site, while among Democrats, Clinton's site tied with Mike Gravel's with 4 percent Asians. Of Democratic candidate sites, John Edwards attracted the most Caucasians at 95 percent, close to Republican Thompson's highest 97 percent. Perhaps less startling, the two African American candidates, Democrat Obama and Republican firebrand Keyes had the largest African American audiences, at 27 and 11 percent, respectively.

Household incomes of Presidential campaign site visitors also offer interesting insights. Of all the candidates, John Edwards is the one most associated with the plight of the poor; however, his site drew the fewest people earning $30,000 or less annually of all Democratic sites, at 17 percent, compared with Richardson's highest 40 percent. Of Republicans, Congressman Duncan Hunter attracted the most low income household members to his site, 23 percent.

Another finding that may surprise: Of all candidates, Kucinich's site drew the highest portion of people earning over $100,000, 37 percent. Mitt Romney had the largest pool of high earners among Republicans at 20 percent.

As for age, Quantcast numbers show Giuliani's site brought in the most young people, attracting 41 percent 18- to 34-year-olds. Kucinich led the Democrats in that category with 38 percent. Top sites in the middle 35 to 54 age group were JoeBiden.com (43 percent) and AlanKeyes.com (61) percent. Candidates attracting the oldest site audience of 55 and up were Clinton at 45 percent and Thompson at 51.