How DailyDean gets so many hits

This is a clever scam. Truth Laid Bear has a page with lists weblogs by average daily traffic. DailyDean is #1 with a whopping 420k hits per day. #2 is Instapundit with 161k hits. Quite the difference! At first glance, certain people without a whit of insight (and who like to unjustifiably call people liars) would think that DailyDean actually is the most powerful force in the blogosphere. Sadly, these people don't look farther than what they want to see. Take a look at DailyDean's "By Referrals" page on SiteMeter. Notice anything odd? (Note that the following lists are always changing, though the story they tell will always be the same.)

1 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
2 unknown
3 http://www.dailykos.com/
4 http://www.dailykos.com/
5 http://www.dailykos.com/
6 unknown
7 http://www.dailykos.com/...
8 unknown
9 http://www.dailykos.com/...
10 unknown
11 unknown
12 unknown
13 http://www.dailykos.com/...
14 http://www.dailykos.com/
15 http://www.dailykos.com/...
16 http://www.dailykos.com/
17 http://www.dailykos.com/...
18 unknown
19 http://www.dailykos.com/...
20 http://www.dailykos.com/...

How about on page 2?

21 http://www.dailykos.com/...
22 http://www.atrios.blogspot.com/
23 unknown
24 unknown
25 unknown
26 unknown
27 http://www.dailykos.com/...
28 unknown
29 unknown
30 http://www.dailykos.com/
31 http://www.dailykos.com/
32 http://www.dailykos.com/...
33 http://www.dailykos.com/
34 http://www.dailykos.com/...
35 http://www.google.com/...
36 unknown
37 unknown
38 http://www.dailykos.com/...
39 http://www.dailykos.com
50 http://www.dailykos.com/

Or pages 3 to 5?

41 unknown
42 unknown
43 http://www.dailykos.com/
44 http://www.dailykos.com/
45 http://milwmom.dailykos.com/...
46 unknown
47 unknown
48 unknown
49 http://www.dailykos.com/
50 unknown
51 http://www.dailykos.com/
52 http://www.dailykos.com/
53 unknown
54 http://www.dailykos.com/...
55 unknown
56 http://www.dailykos.com/
57 http://www.dailykos.com/...
58 http://www.blog.mattjordan.com/
59 http://www.dailykos.com/
60 http://www.dailykos.com/
61 http://www.dailykos.com/
62 http://www.dailykos.com/
63 http://www.dailykos.com
64 unknown
65 http://www.dailykos.com/
66 http://www.google.com/...
67 http://www.dailykos.com/...
68 http://www.dailykos.com/
69 unknown
70 http://dsl.sbc.yahoo.com/
71 http://www.dailykos.com
72 unknown
73 unknown
74 http://www.dailykos.com/
75 http://www.dailykos.com/...
76 unknown
77 unknown
78 unknown
79 unknown
80 http://www.dailykos.com/
81 http://www.dailykos.com/
82 http://www.dailykos.com/
83 http://www.dailykos.com/
84 http://www.dailykos.com/
85 http://www.dailykos.com/...
86 unknown
87 unknown
88 unknown
89 http://www.overspun.com/
90 unknown
91 http://www.dailykos.com/
92 unknown
93 http://www.cursor.org/
94 http://www.dailykos.com/
95 http://www.dailykos.com/
96 unknown
97 http://www.michaelmoore.com/...
98 http://www.dailykos.com
99 http://www.instapundit.com/
100 http://www.dailykos.com/

It's plain to anyone with brains that most of DailyDean's hit numbers are generated internally. I have little doubt that it was designed that way for the express purpose of driving up the numbers. Ignoring the "unknowns," we find only 10 referrals from outside DailyDean. 10 out of 63 (100 minus 37 "unknowns"). So, if we apply that ratio to DailyDean's numbers on TruthLaidBear we find that DailyDean gets roughly about 67k external hits, which would place it at #9 on the list instead of #1.

A minor scam, yes. Nothing illegal. Just incredibly dishonest.