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How overrated is blog-post-ranking site Techmeme, so much in this week's news? Scoring the top slot on the site's front door is good for bragging rights if you're a tech blogger. But if you value pageviews more than props, here's the hard truth: Techmeme's prize position will only send around 1,000 direct clickthroughs to your post, according to bloggers I pinged. As for the "influencing the influencers" theory so popular with second-tier PR firms, topping Techmeme means at most 5,000 extra pageviews total from around the Web, say sources who've been there several times.

That's a lot for a small-time blogger, but nothing for news sites that pull 40,000 to 1,000,000 readers per story. If you're hoping to bring the world to your door, forget Techmeme and go get yourself Dugg for 50,000 clicks — or better yet Farked, where 100,000 readers will be directly linked to your site without Digg's story summaries. If you've got a real news scoop, send it to Matt Drudge — your server can handle a million hits, right?

Got more precise numbers? Gabe? Post 'em in the comments. The bigger publishers' reluctance to share on the record is exasperating.