I hate statistics.
I hate Google Analytics, Statcounter, Klout and Alexa. I hate anything that assigns you a number and causes you to believe that you ARE that number.
There is no true measure of what a blog is worth. Truly.
Someone can have 100 followers and be an expert in their field. They can have those 100 people read every word they write, interact on a daily basis and re-tweet everything you post. They can stick to you like glue and talk about how fabulous you are to everybody they know. They can hang on every word and run out to buy the products you use and recommend.
Someone else can have 10,000 blog followers and post 3 blog posts a day. They can have thousands of twitter followers and facebook friends and be on every blogger list out there. And maybe, just maybe, they have about 50 people who actually read their posts. And maybe, just maybe, they purchased those thousands of followers and don’t really interact with any of them. And maybe, must maybe, they put themselves on every “10 most important blogs” lists out there.
Who has more of a reach? Who has better “stats”?
PR people will tell you that it doesn’t matter. It does. Stats matter to them, to the people who are deciding which blogger to choose for a particular campaign. The whole thing kind of stinks. From what I see, it’s the blogger with the lower stats that has the real reach. It’s the ones who have 1,000 followers as opposed to 60,000 followers who find the time to really interact. I would take the word of a “small” blogger any day over a “big” blogger who I know is being paid a boatload of money to write a review post.
So what am I getting at? I hate stats!
A blog post by PHD in Parenting titled Parenting Blog Analytics: How Do My Stats Compare? has been making the rounds today. In the post, the author provides a chart of median and average stats that would have even the most seasoned bloggers deleting their blogs permanently. I’ve also seen several bloggers wonder why they are bothering considering they are well below the average blogger’s stats. Considering that average was taken from only a small lot of 20 bloggers, I don’t think anyone should be worried. Honestly, if you took the same stats from EVERY single blogger out there, I’m pretty sure even I would be on the top tier of bloggers. Now if we can just convince brands, PR people AND bloggers themselves that blog stats are just numbers and that the real worth is in how we individually interact with our readers, maybe then we can have some true worth.
haha I’m just reading that post now. While feeling like low man on the totem pole, I realize I’m still fairly new in this blogging biz (as opposed to GA where our stats are pretty good but low for professional gaming sites). I hope that as I create more content on my personal blog that is geared toward who I am, that it will attract more people. Right now, I’m not sure what I can do to make people comment or come by. I guess they are coming by, but the posts with zero comments really sucks sometimes.
I hate to spam the so cal bloggers, but at the same time, it does help to have a group of women you can be like…hey look at this. Particularly because I straddle two different worlds.
my stats are pretty high (at least according to those charts) and i have to say work myself to the bone 24/7 interacting with my readers. so much so that it brings me to tears sometimes. i’m only one person and it’s hard to meet everyone’s needs when they contact me. i don’t get the revenue that everyone thinks “big bloggers” get, but i blog to serve, not to make money. i’m very hard on myself when it comes to making sure the needs of my readers get met; posts like this just make me feel worse when i can’t please everyone all the time.
If all I did was worry about stats, I wouldn’t be blogging. I don’t do for that reason, I do it for the pleasure it brings me as a writer and a woman.
My blog is less than a year old. My stats are so low they aren’t even on Ph.D in Parenting’s charts. They may never be. I’m not too worried about it, but my stats are helping me make changes to my blog and improve some of my techniques. I can see what time of the day I get the most readers or which days my readers are more likely to take the time to read more than one page of my blog. They are also helping me discover the topics my readers seem most interested in. My numbers are small, but I feel bolstered by the fact that Klout thinks I am pretty influential among those small numbers. That gives me the confidence to keep doing what I am doing. The numbers help me track whether or not my blog is growing or shrinking. I don’t write for the numbers. I don’t write to sell things. I write because I enjoy it and I also like interacting with my readers. The numbers do not define a blog. I think they are just a tool that helps bloggers make decisions and set goals.
It sounds like you are using the stats for all the right reasons. Good for you.
I went through a phase where I worried about stats, but then I decided to back off. I have three little kids, and other interests as well, so I kept my blogging at a level where I feel that I can give (and get) the most from it.
An interesting stat I noticed in that slideshow in that the average visit is 1:39. Is that a minute and 39 seconds? Or an hour and 39 minutes? I suspect it’s the former, not the latter.
Yes, that’s a minute and 39 seconds. As long as the time someone spends on your site is enough for them to actually read your post, then you’re good. It’s the bounce rate… where people just land on your page and get right off that means they are just clicking through and aren’t interested in what you are saying.
Great post, I agree, stats schmats! With people buying like’s and followers these days who knows what there real numbers are anyway.
I am right there with you! When I was a zero, and didn’t really know what that meant I almost fell over a blogging cliff. Now I barely even look!
The one thing I love about Klout are the freebies haha… there I said it! I think influence depends on the mood of the writer/reader and of course you have no control over it. Stats are basically numbers that computers put together… which means I don’t trust them 😉
Su (IEShineOn) says
Thanks for sharing your experience with stats. I know a lot of bloggers probably experience the same frustration. I wish there was a more accurate way to keep track of influence (or at least a free option). I thought Klout would be one but it’s been disappointing.
I read that post too and had to fight feeling kind of blue about it. But I try and remind myself that success looks different to everyone & those who have extreme or even moderate success have worked hard for it & if I want it too I need to work just as hard if not harder.
Thank you for this! I have been stuck at 199 Followers, like, forever it seems. but I don’t really care….I genuinely love all my faithful readers that come visit me weekly, or daily. we have great interaction and they each bring something unique to my blog with their comments. and most of them follow one another too.
It’s funny…I have spending this morning cleaning up and clearing out my Google Reader. If I come across a blogger who hasn’t blogged in over 6 months - I unfollowed. *gasp* I figure they won’t know, they’re obviously done. But I have also unfollowed any blogger who has never repaid a visit, or left a comment on my blog when I have repeatedly visited theirs. Sadly, a lot of them were the big Bloggers with the huge stats that you have mentioned. I guess when you get that many followers and comments, and have many reviews to do…..you can’t visit too much. But that’s not the interaction and relationship I am looking for.
And I hope everyone can understand that.
At least you get it, that the “big” bloggers can’t always really interact with people because they have so many followers. Yes, they have a lot of reach which is great for them… but it isn’t always so nice for people like US.