When it comes to new year’s resolutions, I have to admit I usually have some, and am pretty good at keeping them. Last year I was about to start training for the London Marathon, and one of my resolutions was to stick to the training plan, not to give up and to run it in an OK time. I managed all of that, and am very proud to say so. As being given the opportunity to run the marathon had a bit changed our plans for trying for baba number two, my next resolution was to start working on another member of our family straight after being recovered after running the big race. And again, we were very successful and I fell pregnant straight away, and now am 30 weeks so a few more weeks left and our little baba will be here.
This year I have decided again to have a few resolutions, but am not going to reveal them yet. When thinking about them, I was focusing a lot on my love for blogging and writing, and have also been a bit more realistic that once the baba is here, I will not have that much time for this passion. In March it will be 3 years since I have started blogging…the time really flies by, and that’s when our baba will arrive. Many things have changed in the past 3 years, from having almost no followers to quite a few. I have also learnt many interesting things, have made a few great friends, and some of them are PRs. One thing many bloggers always talk about are statistics. When I started I had no idea what the fuss was all about, but I was slowly learning, and also because of PRs I have also realised I needed some good traffic going my way to keep companies interested to be mentioned on my blog. Of course this is not the main reason for writing this blog, as that is sharing my personal life as a mum and wife, but as I really love blogging and my goal is to become a full time writer / blogger, working within the parenting industry and also use my social media skills, I also need to be concerned about my blog statistics and popularity.
I have no idea why it took me so long to finally go self-hosted and change from Blogger to WordPress, but I did so last September. I kind of knew that it could have an influence on my statistics, but I haven’t realised it would be so huge. After being regularly listed in the top Tots100 for a year, my blog suddenly became some strange number #560…. and also Wikio ranking went down. I managed to keep all my Google Friends Connect followers, and e-mail subscribers, as changing the URL didn’t have the tragic influence on that.
I know from Technorati rankings and Sitemeter statistics, that my traffic hasn’t changed much, and that is what matters to me, approximately the same amount of people visiting my site, and that’s what traffic is about, isn’t it? Also it has been a few months, and my Wikio rankings are back to what they used to be before, but my Tots100 listing is still some ridiculous number… should I be worried? To be honest, I was at first, but then I realised that except that all my traffic statistics are back to what they used to be, so am not as worried anymore, and hopefully after a few months, it will go up as well.
One thing I can tell you for sure, I only wish I wouldn’t have to be so concerned about the statistics and traffic. Unfortunately, as PRs and companies always/ or very often ask, I have to be and that is the not so nice side of blogging.
What do you think, are you interested in your blog statistics, are they important to you?
January 3, 2012 at 6:05 pm
I am definitely interested in my blog stats. I think they’re a great way of seeing what readers respond to most, what brings them to your blog – and as such, if you’re interested in increasing your audience they’re useful.
For many people, too, seeing stats increasing is nice – it’s validation that your blog is gaining ground, being read, being linked to.
What I’d say though, is I wouldn’t let blog stats define my mood. If they are low, or lower than someone else’s, I just remind myself I blog how I like, about what I’m interested in, and I’m creating my own record of these years – and that is what makes me happy, not metrics.
With regard to the Tots100, unfortunately we do score you based partly on links to your site, and when a site changes address, it does take some time to catch up – we’d usually recommend people allow 6 months (that’s how long we advise new bloggers to wait before signing up to the index for similar reasons). But it does come back eventually, honest!
January 4, 2012 at 11:34 am
Thanks Sally for your comment, and I will be anxiously waiting to be back in then
))
January 4, 2012 at 11:09 am
It is horrible isn’t it? I’m totally with you on this one and my stats sadly are far too important for me to ignore them for the same reasons you have mentioned. I too transferred to self hosted back in March and my TOTS slipped to 1114 at one point – I was mortified but hey ho it seems to have jumped significantly these past few months back in the top 100 only I’m told it’s a fluke (lucky me eh?)
When I get to anxious about it I remind myself that I am blogging for me and everything else that comes along is a bonus – sometimes it works xx
January 4, 2012 at 11:35 am
I agree, it’s not the end of the world, hopefully will see the same chnage for me too
January 4, 2012 at 11:41 am
I am most interested in stats like where most people come from and if I need to spend more time there (such as Twitter), or which posts people respond to most. But even these things cany vary for reasons beyond my control so they aren’t 100% pieces of accurate information! I take it all as a guide, that’s all.
January 6, 2012 at 2:47 pm
That’s definitely a healthy way to look at it
January 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm
I look at my stats mainly because of curiosity of where in the world my readers are and what google searches lead them to my blog (that’s what comes of being a professional translator I guess!).
The stats that best define my blog are the comments I get, sometimes on the post itself, sometimes on Twitter or sometimes in a DM or an email, from people who read what I write and tell me that they can totally relate to it, that they are going to try that and, through one of the sections of my site, that I have helped them reach more clients and I have been a great support.
Also, if someone tells me that they love the way I write and express myself, even if they were the only ones to read that post, then that makes my day! Actually it probably makes my month and they will always be more important to me than any statistic, because they are people who I have helped in some way and that is the whole aim of my blog and it has turned out that the posts that are more difficult to write, that take me longer hours are the ones that touch more people, they may not be the ones that get more readers, but if they move someone to get driving again, to look at their face differently… then I’m happy with my statistics.
I know statistics are important to PRs but if every time you start feeling down about numbers, think about the people instead, perhaps about someone you made happy with one of your fantastic competitions (you have such fantastic ones!!!), it’s bound to make you feel happy.
January 6, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Awwww, that is a lovely advice. Thank you. I know I shouldn’t be upset and focussed on the statistics and ratings that much, but as have many plans with “my baby” (the blog I mean, not the baba I am currently carrying
unfortunately have to keep my eye on them too.
January 5, 2012 at 10:38 am
very interesting post! I have only started blogging 3 months ago so I am fairly new to it. I think stats are of course important if one wants to do reviews and what not. I have actually decided to opt out of all indexes as I feel a lot of people end up writing “crowd-pleaser” or “controversial” posts just to get more comments. I might be wrong, but I often find that the more successful a blogger gets, the more they kind of start losing their real voice and I don’t want to lose my, slightly insane admittedly, take on things. This is of course not true of everyone and I love your blog and Mari’s too, but I just feel that way as a reader about many other that I used to follow and have now become a bit predictable. This is just me as and of course it’s the old “whatever floats your boat” thing. Good luck with the pregnancy xxx
January 6, 2012 at 12:18 am
Really interesting to see you say this. I have thought this of some blogs too. Mich x
January 6, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Thank you for your view as well. I think that is happening very often, and we all know about that. Good luck with your blogging too!
January 5, 2012 at 4:37 pm
As I said on BritMums, I don’t follow my stats at all, apart from my ranking on Tots100. I’m nowhere to be found on Wikio or Technorati and it really doesn’t bother me. I think my blog is successful enough not to be worried about stats, ranks and lists etc. It’s important to enjoy blogging because it is time-consuming. The minute I have a day where I’m not enjoying it, I take a break. I never used to be like that, I’d battle on regardless and end up in a fowl mood if I go few comments when I’d written what I thought was a great post. But I’ve since learned that it really doesn’t matter.
Being on Twitter and FB is also important to me, not from a stats point of view but from an interaction one. After all, interaction is important when we communicate online.
CJ x
January 6, 2012 at 2:53 pm
You are so right CJ, I wish I could do it like you do. Maybe I should stop worrying about it and just enjoy what I love doing!
January 6, 2012 at 1:09 am
My stats tell me what posts are popular and what is not. They tell me what time of day my vistors land on my blog the most. They give me the push to go on because I know that there’ll always be someone there to read what I produce.
January 6, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Another great healthy way to look at statistics, thank you.
January 6, 2012 at 2:37 pm
I agree with @Crystaljigsaw. I do *exactly* what she does and for the same reasons. I blog what I want, when I want and if it gets comments it is a bonus!!! I am not making a living out of blogging but using it as a way to record what we get up to, like etc etc I am loving Project 366 as my blog has now become an online family diary!
I had no idea when I started that you could review things, to me these are an added extra and I am thrilled when someone thinks I am relevant for a brand. That said, I only review things that are relevant to me rather than say “yes” to everything and I try to keep a balance on my blog between the odd review and post.
Have only ever been asked for my stats twice in over a year……
However, if you want to make a living out of your blog, I can see why you need to keep a more regular eye on things.
Peace and Love
S.A.M
January 6, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Hello missus! It feels like ages since we had tea at John Lewis!
Anyway, I couldn’t help but read when I saw the title of your post. Me, I don’t spend a great deal of time looking at my stats – for the first 3-4 years I did but saying that, it dwindled with occasional bursts. I use stats for checking overall traffic which some advertisers ask for, occasionally checking what’s popular, and seeing if there’s any fluctuations. It has been known for me to go a month or two without looking. I don’t really follow any rankings or lists. I just write and press publish. For me personally, I’ve found that many of these things we feel we ‘have’ to do are distractions.
I think for blogs with a commercial aspect, such as yours, you have to have an awareness of stats, as your interactions with pr’s etc basically require you to market yourself, especially when they have to differentiate between who to work with. Beyond that though, I think stats and how useful they can be is all relative – there are posts on my blogs that are very popular today, that might not have been a year or two ago. I used to drill down into the data a lot and craft posts around what I found – this can lead you off track. Your blog is more than your popular posts and your audience is finding you through various ways, and even though some posts may not be as popular as others, a 3 year old blog with a lot of posts means that the sum total of people even reading the ‘less popular’ posts can actually be very significant.