Less than a year ago I was SOOO excited to discover Stat Counter – the free device I could download to track how many people visit my blogs. Finally, a way to see how popular I really am.
But recently, my numbers are slipping. There are actually more people following me than there used to be, but the daily number of hits keeps going down.
Huh?
As I contemplate this phenomenon I jump to my Google reader and peruse the blogs I’m following … whoa, jump back. Rewind … “I jump to my Google reader” …
DING! DING! DING!
If you’re like me, that handy little gadget has saved me hours of opening new pages and clicking back and forth. I like the ease of everything in one place, but that doesn’t help anyone who is trying to track their daily/weekly/monthly hits. At one point I had hoped to use my stats to impress agents and editors (Why yes, I have 61 followers and register 96 hits a day), but right now I’m averaging hits in the 20s …
Hmmm …
I’m not sure that there’s a solution to this. I’m not even sure if this is a problem. Perhaps this is nothing more than my inner Narcissus begging for attention.
Regardless, please know that I DO read other blogs. Sometimes I actually visit the blog, sometimes I don’t. I don’t often leave comments anymore, but I hope to get back into the swing of things. In the meantime, I will continue to believe that no one cares how many hits my blog receives … while I continue to figure out how to increase my traffic 😉
Hmm, never had one, so not sure if they're outdated or not.
I will say I never look at them!
LOL
Blessings,
Patti
I went through a period when I looked at statcounter fifty million times a day. Now, not so much.
I read an interview with an agent who said unless you have followers in the tens of thousands, they don't really care about your blog readership. They just want to see that you are willing and have the skills to maintain a platform.
You know, there are so many blogs out there and so many added daily. I think people get spread thin. When I started blogging, I avidly read the blogs I found, but more and more came and it got really hard to keep up with them all.
I'm sure others have the same experience. I don't take it personally when my numbers fall.
Though I’ve often wondered how some of the blogs I read get 18 to 30 comments, I don't really think about stats on my personal blog—not much, anyway. Frankly I don't know how many people read/follow it. The max I’ve got on any post is something like six. Sometimes I get just one. I think I'm just happy to know someone reads it. A few visits and comments I can handle; none, on the other hand, I can't
Speaking of none, I set up a writer's community blog some months ago. Got lost of people to join on Facebook, but somehow it doesn’t translate to followers on blogger. The whole purpose of the group and blog is to generate dialogue among aspiring writers from West Africa … and so far nothing. In the case of that blog, I'd like to know if anyone visits at all and just isn't leaving comments or whether no one's reading.
I might consider stat counter on that, cos I get discouraged when I think of the effort I put into that group and the following so far (sniff sniff)
Empi