For the last six weeks, I've been trying to figure something out. It's definitely NOT an important something; it's borne of my obsession with numbers.
Like many of you, I use a website counter which provides a lot of analytical information. Mind you, it doesn't track hundreds of visits to this blog each day because there aren't hundreds of visitors. Heck, I often find it surprising that there are any visitors at all because I tend not to write on popular subjects -- instead I provide a weird fusion of Taoism interlaced with my Asperger's life. Talk about a rather interesting combination!
Anyhow, over the past 2 months my "follower" count has doubled while, at the same time, my daily readership logs have shown a steady decrease. On the surface, this ratio seemed out of kilter. One would think that having more folks officially interested in one's blog would mean an increase in daily visits. But, as I stated above, my stats show the precise opposite effect.
So, what gives?
I think I found the answer by accident yesterday. While tootling around on my Blogger dashboard, I found that Google provides some tracking statistics too. One of the things it shows is the number of people who subscribe to this blog via a news feed. The number absolutely astounded me -- 81.
In the overall scope of things on the worldwide web, 81 is a pittance. It's like one raindrop in a 1 million gallon barrel. But to little 'ol me -- sitting here at my keyboard in South Bend -- 81 is about ten times higher than I had expected. (Note: My other "newsletter" blog, Greener Times, has nearly 450 subscribers via email and I don't know how many via the blog itself .)
This is when I had my DUH "Light Bulb" moment. Like many of you, I follow scads of blogs through a news aggregator. Several times per day, I log in to my Google Reader (I switched to it to cut down on the live bookmarks in FireFox because it was eating up a lot of memory) to see what you folks are writing. If I care to leave a comment, then I visit your blog, but, if I simply read your most recent entry and don't wish to leave a comment, my visit isn't logged on your site. That same scheme applies here as well.
What this all means is that most of us have no idea how many people read what we write each day. The number could be three, four, ten or fifty times higher than what we might think. If nothing else, it tells me I need to be more thorough in my presentation. I need to ensure that I think things through before typing.
This is not to suggest that I typically write in a flippant fashion. However, I do think it's human nature not to be as disciplined if we think that no one else is paying attention. If, for example, you or I think that only a few people stop by our blogs each day, there might be a few days here and there in which we knowingly don't put forth our best stuff. We think to ourselves, "Hey, who's gonna notice?"
On the other hand, if we're cognizant of the fact that many more individuals than we realize are stopping by to see what we have to say or think about any given topic, we'll each put a little more care into what we are attempting to express or share.
I can't speak for you, but I definitely will keep this in mind each time I sit down before my keyboard to add an entry to this blog.
Like many of you, I use a website counter which provides a lot of analytical information. Mind you, it doesn't track hundreds of visits to this blog each day because there aren't hundreds of visitors. Heck, I often find it surprising that there are any visitors at all because I tend not to write on popular subjects -- instead I provide a weird fusion of Taoism interlaced with my Asperger's life. Talk about a rather interesting combination!
Anyhow, over the past 2 months my "follower" count has doubled while, at the same time, my daily readership logs have shown a steady decrease. On the surface, this ratio seemed out of kilter. One would think that having more folks officially interested in one's blog would mean an increase in daily visits. But, as I stated above, my stats show the precise opposite effect.
So, what gives?
I think I found the answer by accident yesterday. While tootling around on my Blogger dashboard, I found that Google provides some tracking statistics too. One of the things it shows is the number of people who subscribe to this blog via a news feed. The number absolutely astounded me -- 81.
In the overall scope of things on the worldwide web, 81 is a pittance. It's like one raindrop in a 1 million gallon barrel. But to little 'ol me -- sitting here at my keyboard in South Bend -- 81 is about ten times higher than I had expected. (Note: My other "newsletter" blog, Greener Times, has nearly 450 subscribers via email and I don't know how many via the blog itself .)
This is when I had my DUH "Light Bulb" moment. Like many of you, I follow scads of blogs through a news aggregator. Several times per day, I log in to my Google Reader (I switched to it to cut down on the live bookmarks in FireFox because it was eating up a lot of memory) to see what you folks are writing. If I care to leave a comment, then I visit your blog, but, if I simply read your most recent entry and don't wish to leave a comment, my visit isn't logged on your site. That same scheme applies here as well.
What this all means is that most of us have no idea how many people read what we write each day. The number could be three, four, ten or fifty times higher than what we might think. If nothing else, it tells me I need to be more thorough in my presentation. I need to ensure that I think things through before typing.
This is not to suggest that I typically write in a flippant fashion. However, I do think it's human nature not to be as disciplined if we think that no one else is paying attention. If, for example, you or I think that only a few people stop by our blogs each day, there might be a few days here and there in which we knowingly don't put forth our best stuff. We think to ourselves, "Hey, who's gonna notice?"
On the other hand, if we're cognizant of the fact that many more individuals than we realize are stopping by to see what we have to say or think about any given topic, we'll each put a little more care into what we are attempting to express or share.
I can't speak for you, but I definitely will keep this in mind each time I sit down before my keyboard to add an entry to this blog.
I had the same revelation not too long ago. I was wondering why my weekly site stats from Sitemeter were showing a downward trend in visits. Granted, like you, I am surprised anyone visits and reads the stuff I write...especially now that is mostly about my trials and triumphs with vegetable gardening. I did a little research and figured out that, like me and you, more and more people must be using something like Google reader which doesn't register hits. Unless someone actually hits the site or leaves a comment it is all unknown.
ReplyDeleteHi R T
ReplyDeleteI have an analytics counter type thing. I have yet to fully grasp it's functions. I will trust your research and believe that lots of folks are visiting. Well, more than I am aware of anyway. I don't know that I will do anything differently with this information nor do I think you have to change a thing. O do appreciate the heightened awareness.
Love to you and Della
Gail
peace......
Well that's a comforting thought. My sitemeter shows NOTHING except when I went to check out the Google hits, it reads nothing too.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was a South Bend,WA. I live half an hour from South Bend,IN. For a second I thought we were almost neighbors. :)
Fallenmonk,
ReplyDeleteActually, you played a big role in my "light bulb" moment. Since we both use SiteMeter, I noticed that your visitor traffic was falling at the same rate as mine. This motivated me to figure out why two different blokes on different sides of the country who often deal with different topics were exhibiting the same trends at the same time.
Gail,
The analytical info is interesting, but, like you, it doesn't change what I write about. It's just sort of fun to crunch the numbers.
Moi,
You know, in the overall scope of things, we are almost neighbors. :>)
I disabled all the tracking software on my site with in a month of starting the blog. I found it to be a bit of an ego booster (or an ego slammer) and decided to turn it off and just write to write without bother of who or how many are reading.... I've been blogging for a year and a half and I have no idea how many people read my blog and I like it that way. It always trips me out when I get a new "follower" or someone from India leaves a comment... it's like a little gift knowing someone has found my site and is interested enough to take time to peruse and then leave a comment....
ReplyDeleteAnd also:
ReplyDeleteI don't use feeds or readers. I like going to each blog individually when I feel inclined. In my opinion, the readers and feeds don't give you the feel of the blogger's site and that is something important to me... getting the whole package, so to speak....
Val,
ReplyDeleteI hear ya!! In a case like this, there's no right or wrong about it. I can certainly understand your feelings re tracking software.
For my part, as I've stated many times before, I love numbers and statistics. In addition, I find it immensely interesting to see all the places visitors hail from.
I also love feeds or readers. I follow numerous blogs and I've got a slow computer, at least by today's standards. Consequently, by using a reader, I can read a lot more without slowly my computer to a crawl.