By I know, I know — we’ve told you over and over to use your statistics to grow your readership.
What gives? Are we backtracking? Not at all. Your statistics are still a rich source of information about your readers and what resonates with them, and you should absolutely mine them for helpful information… maybe just a little less often.
Your statistics are a measure of what readers react to and how they find you, not of your worth as a blogger. Having five thousand loyal, engaged readers is as much a function of your activity in the community and the serendipity of the internet as of the quality of your blog. Any number of things out of your control influences your stats: if most of your readers are local, a particularly gorgeous afternoon that drives them outdoors causes a precipitous dip, while a few well-timed Facebook shares sends the graph skyward.
If you’re serious about growing your readership, you’ll want to track normal fluctuations and understand what causes the spikes. But despite their significance, it can be a good idea to limit your stat exposure.
This statue used to be laughing, but then his last post got 23 views instead of the normal 35-40. Even stone can fall prey to Statistics Funk. (Photo by Alex Proimos.)
In the early stages of blogging, monitoring stats can give you a great confidence boost — it’s proof that someone, anyone is reading (and later, proof that someone other than your mother is). As your blog matures, it becomes dangerously easy to let your stats dictate how you feel about your own posts. An essay you’re particularly proud of is no less an accomplishment because it attracts few readers — but that can be hard to remember, and expectantly clicking over to your stats every 15 minutes doesn’t make it any easier.
Our suggestion? Moderate your stat visits. We know it’s tempting, with the little graph always up there in the admin bar, but limiting visits to once a day or once a week is great for mental health.
Keeping stats at arm’s length is also a great way to re-assert ownership of your blog. Sure, we love it when other people read, like, and comment, but many of us started our blogs because we had something we wanted to express. Readers or no readers, your site is still your space, where you’re free to explore and create. Cutting down your stat consumption is a helpful way to remember that you blog for yourself, not for other people.
Best of all, this gives you the headspace you need to publish your best. When you’re confident in your writing, photography, or art and are creating exactly what you want to create, you do your best work — which is more likely to attract readers. Win-win!
Are you a stat addict, current or reformed? How do you use your stats without letting them take over?
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The Daily Post 
On the stats page, there’s one section that helps me a lot and almost no one ever talks about it: the country statistics. I live in the U.S. but just under half of my views from here. The rest are remarkably spread out. This is not something I would have expected, so the international stat listings keep my audience visible to me.
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Hmmm. Am never happy. If I do particularly well on views, I want the likes to go up… a vicious circle. 🙂
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I like seeing where my readers are in the world. I used to get all excited when I got another follower, but once I topped 100 I suddenly started getting several a day, but they’re all people with a blog selling something. So it’s become kind of meaningless. I wish I could delete them somehow.
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Thank you so much for your great reminder, that we all should blogging for ourselves. I´m checking my stats twice a week, Thats why I can say: I am not addicted. Not yet! 🙂
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I really needed to read a post like this!
I’ve been blogging for about a month now, a lot of my posts have got a lot of likes, but there are one or two that mean a lot to me that haven’t got any. This inspired me to keep going and reminded me that I blog because I want to blog for myself, thank you!
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I don’t care about stats or comments. Most of my comments arrive via email. It does amaze me that 127 countries have clicked on my blog. Many of those countries and their “clickers” i believe are spam.
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I avoid the stats they discourage me even though I should check them.
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I have to admit I’m addicted to looking! But I am generous with my excuses for why my stats may be low, so my self esteem doesn’t usually suffer too much, lol. I think it’s fun!
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Thank you very much for this advice, Michelle. There admittedly are weeks when I deviate from the my intended publication plan just to be able to enter the Weekly Photo Challenge (which really can boost the stats – well it’s not only that, it also can attract new readers). Anyhow, after such “deviations” I often feel bad, like not being true to myself … And you just added a mosaic piece to this feeling, or the dawning insight that stats are, in fact, not everything. Cheers.
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If you’re still proud of what you’re publishing when you “deviate,” then I don’t think you’re really deviating at all!
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Alright now I need to check my stats. I have been neglecting doing so. Great post!
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I check once a day. The stat I like the best is “followers”… I get excited when I find that someone likes my stuff enough to actually follow me. I had to learn to not take “no likes” personally. The posts that mean the most to me often get the least feedback and/or attention. I am surprised by what does get attention though… A post about “bacon” is one of my most popular… Who knew?!?!
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Did you say bacon? Surprisingly enough that is the most search in my site as well.
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I agree totally! At the moment I’m having a difficult time writing because work is taking up a bit of my creativity. That’s what I hate about my job. I refuse to write anything until I can produce something that’s interesting to read.
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This really is so true. When I pay too much attention to my stats, my mind goes blank… Thanks for this great tip!
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As a new blogger who is lucky to get 1(!) view a day on my blog, I still find the stats page hard to keep away from. To be honest I’m happy when anyone reads anything I’ve written, so for now it’s still exciting for me. I also really like seeing what countries people have been viewing from – it’s quite interesting to note that I’ve had more views from the USA and Australia than my native UK.
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Early on, looking at stats can actually be really encouraging. I think the problems crop up when you publish a post, then reload the stats page every 10 minutes to watch the numbers go up. They’re helpful numbers, but that’s too much of a good thing!
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I LOVE seeing what country my readers are from. I was impressed that in my first month I had reached over 20 countries!!
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I love looking at my stats. Everytime I do I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It doesn’t bother me at all that some days I’m lucky to get five views instead of the twelve or so I average. The truth is I’m blown away that I’ve had as much activity on my blog as I do, I didn’t expect to get My Community as large as it is in the month or so that I’ve been on here. I only check my stats once every couple hours, so I don’t think I have a problem.
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I never thought it was possible to get OCD about my blog stats but I can definitely feel it kicking in. However I do not let it dictate my posts. One week has less views than another – so what eh? I just carry on regardless as I’ve got more stuff I need to get out of my head, readers or not 😉
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Thank you so much! I feel addicted to checking my stats, but that is something that I will definitely try to control. You are so right-how many people are looking at my blog is not the point.
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Good advice (not that I’m going to follow it)
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I don’t care about stats/traffic. I don’t have any anyway. My niche is rather taboo. I’m just trying to educate the world…for those who are willing to listen.
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This is wonderful! I know, like most, I’m still going to obsessively check just because…I’m human. I’ve also been checking regularly this past week since I’m having such a great week and monitoring which social media is sending me the most readers so I can focus on increasing the energy I’m putting into each. A wonderful entry for my self-esteem!!!
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Being fairly new to blogging and on a very narrow topic (reviews of sports books) I fear looking at them. Just knowing I have already received requests from authors for review and interviews keeps me going. Without spending a lot of money on things like Rafflecopter, not sure what else to do to grow readership. So again,I don’t look at stats. What advice does anyone have?
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Michelle,
I’m in semi-agreement with this post… You shouldn’t obsess over your stats, but they are an important tool which I think should be used daily, perhaps not as a measure of your success, although that is again debatable, but as an overall measuring tool, like a very light version of Google Analytics. They provide valuable information, and combined with a good knowledge of what’s going on (low traffic on July 4th, for example), can help you get a pretty solid idea of the success of one post… What I do agree with, however, is the degree of sanity a blogger should put into these numbers… And quite honestly, with the amount of spam sites that subscribe to our blogs on WordPress lately, bloggers should be even more vigilant around the new subscribers, and what it might mean these days… Unfortunately.
Le Clown
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They *are* a great tool. I think the frequency with which checking stats is useful depends on the blog. A small site with a small readership may not have enough readers to make daily stats meaningful, where a larger site with hundreds or thousands of readers might want to look at daily, even hourly, fluctuations. It also depends on how aggressively a blogger is trying to grow their site. I think we all agree, though, that you have to find the balance between using stats for their intended purpose and using them as a measure of worth.
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Michelle,
Agreed, completely… And I would put the emphasis on ” how aggressively a blogger is trying to grow their site”, as even a smaller site will benefit from looking at their stats very frequently to achieve a steady growth WITH a loyal readership/visitors.
As a measure of one’s growth, agreed again, which is one of the reasons I never talk about mine, nor do I display the number of followers ACOF have… And what measures my worth to me might just differ from what measures worth to you…
In light of this, I think it’s safe to say that I pretty much agree with your article… Argh.
Le Clown
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I look at stats to see what inspires others to read my work. It comes in waves of delight and disappointment. The posts I like the best sometimes are overlooked until months later… or what I quickly post, without any deep thought, are the most liked. Images are always a plus to add to a post as well… I am not addicted to stats… it is just part of the big picture of blogging.. I think if you love to write… it is important to keep on writing regardless of the states..
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Thanks a lot! I have recently launched my blog and at the beginning, tracking can be an obsession! I am trying not to think about potential readers and about what others would think or like. Not easy… 😉
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Aside from the country stats which delight and fascinate me (Belarus? Mauritania? Really???) I love to look at the search terms that land people on my page. People Googling “Bipolar For Life”….now, they KNOW what they are looking for…but who are they? Misterioso. but “Can Crazy Aliens Use Service Dogs”? ROTFL!!!!
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In the beginning… yes, I was, as my daughter called me, a “stat whore.” I pursued those stats like they were going to be my ticket out of blogging no-where-land.
Now, I find them amusing and informative. I see where people are coming from. I see what searches are bringing them in. I see some strange and curious stuff going on that I can’t explain. I enjoy my stats but have ceased selling my soul, or my blog, to get more readers or viewers or whatever.
Thanks for giving this reformed ‘stat whore’ a verbal pat on the back. I appreciate that. 😉
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Thank you so much… I have been going crazy the last few days with my stats…
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I look into my stats every day, at least once, maybe twice. But that does not keep me from writing what I like to write about 🙂
Have a HAPPY day, everybody 🙂
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Perhaps an WordPress can offer a service that emails stats to Admins once a day? Would definitely reduce strain on the WordPress network that hosts the stat service.
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Admittedly, I’m admitted to stats.
Co-incidentally, I got my highest traffic today
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I check them once per day … great indication on how my posts has been received and where the interest had been the greatest.
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