If you’ve ever fallen down the rabbit hole of PerezHilton, Gawker, or Buzzfeed back in the early days of the internet, Ben Smith’s Traffic will feel like stepping into a time machine. As someone who remembers devouring these sites in their heyday—and now works as a digital marketer chasing the same algorithmic highs—this book struck a perfect balance between nostalgia and insight. Smith doesn’t just recount the history of the digital media boom; he dissects how it shaped today’s content culture. For marketers, pop culture enthusiasts, and internet nerds alike, Traffic is an essential read.
The Wild West of Content Strategy
One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is how it explores the early days of digital media as a free-for-all, where strategy shifted on a dime, and audiences were notoriously fickle. It’s a theme I see echoed in my work as a marketer: the need to adapt quickly because what worked yesterday might be irrelevant today. Smith’s narrative shows how digital giants like Buzzfeed and Gawker rode the wave of the Facebook algorithm—something I’ve experienced firsthand, working to game algorithms to drive website traffic. It’s a game of constant reinvention, and Traffic lays out just how high the stakes were for those early players.
The Drama Behind the Clicks
Beyond the data and strategies, the book humanizes the players involved, from complicated alliances to the personal rivalries that fueled the industry. The section on Andrew Breitbart’s complicated loyalties to Matt Drudge while helping launch Huffington Post was particularly compelling. Smith paints him as a surprisingly sympathetic figure despite my own... complicated... feelings about him. Likewise, the slow-burning saga of how speculation around Peter Thiel's personal life showing up in Gawker ended up being the key behind the site's downfall. The interwoven respect and simmering resentment among these media pioneers—whether allies or competitors—make for a compelling narrative that’s as much about human drama as it is about business.
Lessons for Today’s Digital Content Culture Landscape
As marketers, we often focus on creating content that sticks—but Traffic is a reminder that virality isn’t always about quality. It’s about understanding your audience and delivering what they’ll click on. The book offers a deep dive into the churn of content required to keep audiences engaged, and its lessons are still relevant for anyone in the industry today. From finding the hook to keeping audiences coming back for more, it’s a masterclass in audience retention—even if some of the platforms mentioned (hello, Facebook’s golden age) feel like relics now.
What I Wished for More Of
While Smith does a fantastic job laying out the big picture, I would have loved a deeper dive into the methodology. How did strategies subtly shift across different platforms? What did Twitter engagement look like compared to Facebook or Reddit? These nuances could have added even more layers to the story, especially for those of us who geek out over platform-specific insights.
Why You Should Read This Book
Whether you’re a marketer looking to understand the roots of today’s content culture or a nostalgia-driven internet nerd, Traffic offers a compelling look at how the digital media landscape came to be. It’s an origin story for the virality we’re all chasing, and it’s packed with lessons for anyone who wants to keep an audience engaged—whether you’re creating clickbait or crafting meaningful campaigns.
For marketers, it’s a lesson in agility. For sociologists, it’s a study of how online culture evolved. And for anyone who spent their mornings refreshing Gawker or Buzzfeed, it’s a nostalgic deep dive worth taking.
Book Info:
Title: Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral
Author: Ben Smith
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