A nice Squidoo piece in the New York Times yesterday gave us a chance to learn a lot about perception and demographics.

Our analytics data shows that a visitor who came via the link in the article viewed 300% as many pages as a typical first timer.

That’s a huge difference.

One explanation is that a Times reader is just different. More inquisitive, maybe, or slower on the uptake…

Another explanation, and the one that makes more sense to me, is that when you are reading the Times, it changes your posture. Makes you–anyone–more interested in poking around. That good writing can pique the curiousity and push the reader to do more.

All of which goes to make the point that where you run your online ads and where you focus your PR matters. Because different venues generate different actions, even among the same audiences.

Which is why they cancelled the Beverly Hillbillies TV show when it was still in the top 10, and why network TV might not be the very best place to run your next ad campaign.