Metrics - The "Why" on Blogging #HazardousToYourSanity
Why do we blog? Why track metrics at all? (Yes, my day job is haunting me in my side job that I hope will one day be my day job.)
Is it the need to get out the thoughts in our head? The need to feel that someone is interested in what we have to say? The need to just do something rather than sit and do nothing?
I recently ran across a poll asking about views versus comments on blogs. Most people that answered stated that they have a large number of blogs to read and if they commented on everything they were reading...they'd never get to all the blogs that they enjoy.
That makes sense.
The huge issue is that some blogs, like mine, track unique viewers. So, if you drop by and click and go page to page and you spend 3 hours here and open 125 different pages on my blog -- you're only going to count as 1 for me. Whereas on another blog, they're kidding themselves and making it look as though they have 100s of unique visitors that day. Mine tracks my unique visitors as well as hits.
You can do the same. Just click on my online users at the top right of my blog. Sign up, it's free. Enter your blog details, add the users online option to your blog and you can easily see your real numbers.
Yes, the other numbers make us feel better -- but why sugar coat your lenses to get a burst of reality later on {and generally at the worst time possible}.
The next issue: How much should you post? In the poll that was conducted, most readers didn't care as long as you did post what you claimed you would. If you promised twice a month they were fine with that as long as you really did show up and post something to them two times a month.
Blog daily? Great. But most readers don't care if you do or don't.
So, why bother to put in the time to put up something new each day? It keeps your blog active. It keeps it moving and keeps recent entries up there. This allows more people to happen upon your blog. So, as long as you have something to say -- go for it, blog daily.
There's also a large number of meme's that you can do as well. These have certain days of the week to be posted. They generally aren't too time consuming to do and they allow you to share different aspects of you with your readers. You can also link up to the meme host...which helps in advertising your blog.
Although comments are great. I guess i can deal with the unique visitors that stop in and at least read my rambling. Sure, I'd love comments. But, when someone comments, how many actually come back to see the reply made to them? Right. Very, very few. So, in that angle, I suppose I get the lack of commenting in the first place as well.
Happy blogging...happy reading...happy commenting; just remember -- focus on your unique visitors not the number of comments you get.
1 comments:
I honestly don't look at the numbers very often. I sometimes do when deciding which blog a post should go on. My book promo blog is my most active with a post being published nearly every day.
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