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Overcoming My Obsession With Stats
When I first started blogging about nine months ago, I was consumed, obsessed, addicted to my stat tracker. How many people looked at my blog? Where did they come from? Did they subscribe? Did they comment? Do they have a blog? I couldn’t get enough of it. The sad part was, no one was really looking at my blog(s). Yet I still checked the stats page like there was something to report on. It was depressing. It’s like I was just punishing myself. I was obsessed with the Freshly Pressed sites. How were they chosen? Was it how often they posted? How many subscribers they had before? How could I get Freshly Pressed?
I would check my email when I got up in the morning to see if anyone had subscribed or commented. I would check my blogs first thing when I got work to see who had looked at them. Then I downloaded the WordPress mobile app – not so I could blog on my phone…oh, no. I downloaded it because I could check my stats. Then I was able to check them right after I checked my email. If I had lots of hits or comments, I would feel ecstatic! If I had none, I would be sad. What a horrible way to start the day, right?
I have slowly been able to wean myself from my stats obsession. Don’t get me wrong – I still check them every day. But there are times when I will go most of the day without even thinking about them. I rarely check them on my phone (unless I am away from a computer for an extended period of time). So, what changed? I still want people looking at my blog. I still want people subscribing. How did I get over that unhealthy obsession?
I started focusing on what the blogs were really about – the blogs! If I focused on my content, readers would come (yes, I’ve been thinking about Field of Dreams a lot lately…”If you build it, they will come.”). I can’t expect people to find or subscribe to my blog if I’m not concentrating on the one thing that would draw them in the first place. Once I started The Daily Post challenge and I was posting to two blogs a day, I didn’t have as much time to worry about the stats. I had to worry about writing posts. And what do you think happened? That’s right…I had more readers and subscribers.
There are still some days when I think I’ve put together a really smart post and I only get a few reads. I still feel a bit of disappointment, but rather than dwelling on it, I immediately push it aside and focus on the next post. I’m blogging for myself, to practice writing, to find ideas, to push myself. That’s what I try to remember every day, regardless of the stat tracker. However, that’s not to say I wouldn’t be thrilled to wake up one morning to find one of my blogs Freshly Pressed on the front page of WordPress.com!