My Stats (web stats) and on the subject of blogging
This seems sorta narcissistic, but it seems worth talking about. So as you no doubt know, I’ve recently started a blog. Ages and ages ago I had a blog. This was what I like to call “a real blog” which is like.. well I’m not sure.. but one hosted on a server I was paying for. And that blog got crazy traffic. I don’t know why it got crazy human traffic, I think a lot of it was spam or something.. but it eventually got to something like 30,000 visits a day.. at about that time the host pulled the script behind the blog, and so then I had no blog.
So now I’m starting a new blog.. which is supposed to be mostly a podcast, but i seem to be doing a lot of blogging. You’re supposed to try and blog daily if you want to get to some place of influence.. and I’m sorta finding that groove.. Though I should tell you that I blog a lot that I don’t post, or at least haven’t posted yet. The result being that I’m writing constantly. The good news is that this makes me better at writing.. And I surely need to get better at it if I’m going to make a blog worth your time to read!
So lets talk stats a little: Stats for blogs are different then stats for other types of sites.. or at least you want to read them with a different eye. The reason being that people’s “behavior” is different around them. Hmm, that’s a somewhat complex topic. See traditionally web strategy involves metrics.. well all business strategy really. Metrics allow you to measure your success.. and a lot of business, if you study business, is about trying to quantify things. But what about that which is not easily quantifiable? Indeed there’s a certain metaphysics to stats, you might say, which is to say “that which you measure you get more of..” just cause you’re measuring it.. and using it as the measure of success.. There for, before you start measuring.. you ought to have some sense of what your values are, what your goals are, what’s your big picture objectives.
Anyway… behavior is a generally difficult thing analyze, or its a new thing.. but lets not get into that..
My objectives and strategy is both complex and always in flux. Right now my life is one of.. well I have a heavy weight over my head in the form of financial problems.. and I need to find a way out of it. I figure blogging / podcasting / social media.. might help along this path, but I’m not really sure how.
Did you catch that last part? ”I’m not really sure how.” This is one of the things I LOVE about social media and technology. We are somehow closer to mystery then in other fields. There’s an important question that I think business should be looking at which is “how do you manage mystery.” This is perhaps a way of saying how do you measure the unquantifiable.. which is like.. well a strange question to ask. What sort of answer are you looking for anyway? But my point is… sometimes all this obsession with ROI (return on investment) and all this, seems a little crazy to me. Crazy because what you get back from this stuff is not all in the form of monetization.
Now when you hear me tell you that you might think I’m some new breed of technocratic hippie.. but.. if you really think about it “what’s your measure of success.” I’m not against money, but what do you want your money for? If you’re getting back from what you give.. there’s lots of things that could contribute towards ideas of success that are other then monetary. Can you dig that? You’re not going to accuse me of being a communist are ya?
Ok.. so my status. One interesting stat is that 27.7 percent of my visitors have added me to there favorites. This is sorta mind blowing to me as I tend to assume that reading what I have to say is something you do in order to learn that it’s best to stay away from this strange fellow who calls himself a “mystic prophet philosopher artist.” But apparently 27.7% of my visitors are in fact masochists. Who would have thunk it?
A less encouraging stat is that 79.8% of my visitors leave in under 30 seconds. This would be what we call in the bizz “the bounce rate.” Generally blogs have higher bounce rates then regular websites as you just stop by to read a little something, or look at a little something.. not navigate a site. But when we are talking under 30 seconds, considering how long my entries often are, I kinda figure those are people who figured this wasn’t what they were looking for.
Some more interesting stats: The average visitor visits 2.84 times, so far this month anyway. My take on this is the number is probably higher if you consider that includes bounces… That is the number of the people who bother to read what I’m saying.. you must come back a number of times, so I’m digging that!
The average visitor visits 3.52 pages per visit. Again this includes the bouncers.. but on a blog.. man you can just scroll down.. wonder why they’re going to all those pages!?
The status you probably really want is the number of visitors I have? Well frankly I feel a little shy about telling you because the numbers are pretty small, and I wouldn’t want to ruin the illusion that I’m “really happening.” Not that anyone reading this would ever be under such an illusion, but I can dream, right?
Well I will tell you that I think I have some upward momentum going for me, which I’m a little excited about. It’s hard to get a real clear idea of it, but it does look this way.
You know its not just false modesty when I say…. well things like I don’t think my writing is so read hot, or that I’m surprised that there are a lot of people visiting, and apparently spending time here.. or that this site has various issues. The real truth of the matter is I feel like I’m in a very early stage of trying to find my voice here. I feel like… I could turn this blog into something great, but I’m just very unsure of myself at the moment. So long story short I’m very thankful for your visits.
One example is that I tend to like to write long blog entries. I think most people would rather read something sorta short. I don’t know if long works for blogging.. but here I am with all these long posts. Another thing is that there’s a lot of strategy that can go into blogging. This is strategy that I’m not currently following too closely. I know of a good deal of it, but I’m not really bothering with too much of it. The reason being that I’m trying focus on finding my voice before I try and find an audience.. for the simple reason that I don’t want to turn people off if my stuff sucks.
Man, I can’t even tell you how much I agonize over feeling like this stuff sucks. I say this though I’m starting to feel like.. like maybe I’m onto something.
What’s the something? Well my feeling is that I have a highly original voice, even if I haven’t entirely found it yet. What I have found is.. Well that I’ve studied all this stuff in great depth and gone about the process of synthesizing a lot of stuff and thus am able to make connections that others wouldn’t be able to make.
I also think I’m sorta strong. I mean a lot of people sorta parrot what others are saying.. or its just common knowledge stuff or.. what have you. I mean there are these blogging / podcasting / what have you.. rock stars out there that get a lot of attention. It’s sorta natural to look up to these folks and… in one way or another play to that.
To travel a little deeper down this path.. I’m someone who’s had the freedom to think deeply about a lot of stuff, and read widely.. a lot of people have jobs that force them to be focused rather narrowly.. the result being that we become like children… when we wonder onto a subject… where we don’t really know all that much, but we kinda sorta think we do? I don’t mean to judge people for that, it’s a very human thing but…
Well.. lets talk education levels, I guess. Education gives us tools for understanding stuff. What happens if you don’t have those tools? Where you’re education is, there you have your tools. Most people navigate life in a somewhat conventional sorta way. If I were to say “I’m a web designer” whenever someone asked me what I did for a living… not that I do web design as a living at this moment.. but I mean if that was my principle occupation.. I would probably be inclined to hang out with a lot of other web designers.. as a part of my “career furthermost program” other wise known as “networking” or “professional development.” What I would find in that world is a whole lot of norms.. and as I build my identity, it would be in large part measured against that norm.
So inside the web design industry you will find a lot of norms surrounding what people are like. Who knows what these norms are.. I mean I’m not just talking about stuff that directly relates to there jobs.. I’m talking more about the whole human being. In these norms you’d see where there education is… maybe relative to a broad selection of topics. If your identity is built, at least in part, in relationship to these norms.. then if all web designer’s are X you can be X without standing out.. so X could be positive or negative..
So.. of the totality of our potential as human beings.. if you imagined that as a circle.. you could then draw some lines in that circle to indicate what is the norm for web designers in relationship to the cultivation of that potential, as you could with the people from any other sorta career path.
So to get back to what I was originally trying to say is: the reason I feel strong is because what I’m looking to cultivate is the whole, and it more or less doesn’t matter where you turn, your going to find that people are not really cultivating the whole, they are cultivating parts. So what does that mean for your discourse on X, Y, or Z subject? Thus, I hope at least, the idiosyncratic nature of my path through life might yield strategic advantages in the social media space. Or that’s what I sorta believe anyway.
Well I’m tired, and though I do have some misgivings about this entry, think I’ll post it anyway.