The holiday stats went up and down, you read…or chose not to read… the end of year report from WordPress. You may have looked with longing at the likes/comments/followers of other blogs…or you may not actually give a hoot how anyone else is doing in comparison. Stats, after all, are notoriously inaccurate.
The rumour is that any views via the Reader don’t show in your page views. Nor will a reblogged or tweeted post that can be read in entirety on another site…or those who read in email and don’t have to visit… And then there are all the ‘likes’ on posts that were never actually read and the imported followers that come from other accounts and have never set a digital foot on your blog… There are even inconsistencies within the stats on your page, so chances are that if you do look, you take them with a large pinch of salt and use them to give only the vaguest of idea of a general trend.
There are ‘stats’ that do give you a real sense of whether or not people are reading. The familiar faces or regular visitors, the comments from people you have come to know and recognise, whose stories you also know, people who, after a while, cease to become visitors and become friends.
There is another set of stats that are worth considering too. Apart from a few, a very few globally, no blogger is more than a very small fish in a pond bigger than we can imagine. WordPress recently published some year-end figures of its own; bloggers on WordPress.com sites alone posted over 660 million posts last year. It is very easy for one small voice to be lost in such a sea of numbers. The chance of any one post being read at all is therefore very slim. It also makes every reader a privilege.
That is the beauty of the blogging… each voice has an equal chance of being heard. A simple click, a recommendation or a search query will bring someone to your site. If they like what they find, they may come back again. They may follow links and trace comments back to their source and find other blogs with similar themes and interests… or completely different ones that speak to them in other ways… and before long, you have a community that spans the globe, taking no account of borders or divisions. A community, moreover, that supports its members and journeys with them. When that happens, you know that behind each avatar is a real person with their own stories to share… and those elusive and illusive stats seem far less important.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Well said, Sue! I admit that I get hung up on my site stats sometimes. This is a nice reminder that blogging is not about the numbers, but the people behind them. Great post! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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The stats only matter because they are representing people, after all 🙂
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Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Thank you!
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I found myself nodding all the way through this post. I get a lot of visitors on my blog but well over half of them come only for the how-to guides. They rarely stop to chat and it’s even more rare for one of them to become a regular. As for reading my fiction…not impossible but very, very unlikely. So, whilst I’m not complaining, I know exactly how deceptive those stats can be.
But then there are the other reasons for blogging, the ones that end with ‘visitors becoming friends’. Those have value beyond measure. 🙂
I hope you have a happy and productive New Year.
-hugs-
Meeks
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That last bit is the most important ‘stat’ of all, that and the sense of community that develops over time. As to people reading books… well. we can hope and dream 😉
Hugs.
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-grin- Hope springs eternal?
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It probably needs to on that one 😉
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lol
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wonderful piece – I’m stunned by the overall volume of WordPress
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Incredible, isn’t it? Thanks Paul.
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Sue, this is a terrific post/ The visitors to my blog and the owners of the blogs I follow regularly that have become my friends are the only stats I need.
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They are the only ones that have any real value.
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All this time I thought I was a lil Cao.. I am just a lil fish. –.– going to pass this forward tomorrow bc I am grateful for every friend/follower/absent wanderer I have and I follow bc wp brought me to my sister to the East of me ♡
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Thank you, Cao 🙂 My gratitude to WordPress, even though I occasionally rant about the technical stuff is boundless… so many friendships have been made ❤
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I probably should, but I pay no mind to stats. I like the engagement. A friendly “like” and hello in the comments means the world to me.
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Same here, Susan. It really doesn’t matter what the numbers say till you get that virtual hello.
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I have no clue as to my stats. I do, however, agree with you on the ‘stats’ we get by receiving comments from those who have indeed become our friends. I am constantly blown away by all the little circles that have formed, most times, I cannot tell how! I just appreciate and keep doing what I’m doing, numbers be damned!
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It really is the engagement with people that matters…everything else is just numbers.
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Couldn’t agree more…
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🙂
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Very wise thoughts Sue. I have discovered there are many hidden agendas on the WordPress site , such as marketers, strange egos and even stranger people promoting weird philosophies.
I agree in particular so much with your words,
‘The familiar faces or regular visitors, the comments from people you have come to know and recognise, whose stories you also know, people who, after a while, cease to become visitors and become friends.’
That is why I have kept blogging, its the sharing, encouragement, support and creative buzz.
I look forward to more of your haiku, photos and Ani exchanges in 2016 and do hope you reach an agreement with your lodger.
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It is one of the great things about WordPress that there are so many different voices, expressing some very different views.Even if you do not agree with an individual, the fact that they can express themselves here is a mark of freedom.
As long as the lodger stays out of sight we’ll do just fine 😉
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The stats thing has been a subject of several of my later posts last year as my views figure plummeted in November and has not recovered. Hubby’s on the other hand have rocketed. And I mean into orbit. From thirty or forty to peaks between 1400 and 1500, twice! In January, he has had over 6000 views already. He says they’ve gone back to normal now….. yesterday’s were 426! (O know he’s trying to make me feel better, bless him). I’m pleased for him of course and realise there is no way my little corner could attract such interest, but I have my regulars, lots of likes and comments, so I’m content.
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A lot of people saw figures drop around then, it would seem after reading many comments on that. It may just be a seasonal thing. As you say though, it is the people who actually read and talk with us that are important.
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Interesting, Sue. My favourite blip is when 1 visitor from a dozen or so countries makes three figure views. The wonder is that it works at all
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No idea, Derrick, it remains a mystery.
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I too found myself nodding away. Initially I had no idea about this whole stats thing before a friend introduced me to the concept and then I was only interested in the page to see the diversity. It tickled me that across continents we could actually have such proximity in mind and heart. That is the real stat that is important and as you say the comments left are an indicator of such proximity. Of course we don’t always have the time to comment or perhaps other people might have commented in extenso what we meant to say so our comment would be redundant but it is true that comments is what I like the most too. It gives an indication of the proximity and also allows you to delve into the mindset and philosophy of life of other people. Sometimes it is similar and that may be comforting, other times it is quite different and that is so enriching. I was astounded by the figures you gave for the WP community. I did not imagine that much. It’s nice to know that within such a large community it is still possible to form friendships and some sort of poetic family. Be well 🙂
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Other than the comments, my favourite bit of the stats page is the map. There is a sense of amazed gratitude when you see that map coloured by the readers across the world and an incredible sense of being part of a global family in a very real way. Like any family, you get the occasional disagreement, lots of differing opinions as well as shared interests and views, but the sense of being there for each other.
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You’re spot-on about the bottom line Sue – The Regular Visitors who become Friends (like you) are who count! – The rest are just statistics 😀
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It’s a bit like a good marriage, you don’t have to live in each others pockets, just be there… 😉
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Indeed Sue 👍😃
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🙂
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Great post, Sue. I’m gob-smacked at the number of WordPress posts last year – and although I guess WordPress is the biggest there are lots of other blogging platforms, too.
People need people.
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That’s just the .com sites too, never mind the self hosted ones! But without people, not one of those posts would exist 🙂
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“cease to become visitors and become friends.” That says it all, Sue. 💖
Side note…I use the Reader exclusively; surprised to see that those visits do not count in the stats. Interesting ?
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❤
Apparently they don't, Van. And as the sites are being geared to using the Reader more and more, recorded views are going down for bloggers, some of whom have become so discouraged they have given up altogether, which is sad when the stats really don't reflect who IS reading. Between the Reader and other places where posts can be read without leaving a page view recorded, I wonder just what the figures for most bloggers would look like if such views actually counted.
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I have to agree Sue that having ‘visitors that become’ friends and belonging to such a fantastic community is what is important. 🙂
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Isn’t it? You meet some great people here.
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Such wise words! I think now it has become far to easy to see how many people are looking and it can easily become a bit of an obsession, and then people forget why they started the blog in the first place!
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I cast the occasional eye at mine out of curiosity, but it was only in the very early days, when every view was such a rarity that I got excited about it 🙂
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I am sure one day I’ll hit that point – there is still an excitement about getting views! but am trying not to loose sight of the bigger picture!!
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Excitement long ago turned to a real sense of privilege that anyone reads here 🙂
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I loom forward to also getting that!! 🙂
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🙂
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I couldn’t agree more, esp. with your last paragraph. It’s what I’ve come to love about blogging – the wonderful authors beyond the page. 🙂
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That’s the bit that makes the rest worth every minute. 🙂
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🙂
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Quite right. It’s those who appear and say hi that really count I believe. That said non bloggers are reluctant to comment I find. It’s almost as if they don’t know the entry code or etiquette. Similar to non writers not appreciating how useful reviews are. But they too are important even if silent most of the time.
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Not everyone leaves a comment, it is true, but the familiar faces are still around… you see the footptint of a ‘like’ or tweet and that silent presence also matters.
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I dont think people can comment or like unless they have a wordpress account. I have had a few people who have opened one just to comment, but most people won’t do that.
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That depends on the blogger’s chosen settings, Ali. You can alter them to allow non-registered comments, require an email address to help prevent spam or just leave them open. I agree, most people won’t bother if they have to start filling things in or are ‘backed into a corner’ and have to open an account just to be able to comment.
https://en.support.wordpress.com/who-can-comment/
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Gosh I didn’t know that! Must play around a bit and find out where that lives. See… always learning! I have no idea how mine is currently set.
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I keep finding stuff in the settings and having a play. Sometimes they are buried several layers deep.
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Bravo Sue! Bravo!!!!
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Thanks, Colleen 🙂
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I must admit, I have been worrying about my stats recently rather much more than I should. You are quite right, of course. The Internet is so truly massive, even the hugest blogs are actually very small in the grand scheme of things. I enjoy the community side of blogging very much too, so I should probably just concentrate on that. Funnily enough, the one set of figures I wasn’t too worried about were the end of year ones. They were so clearly wildly inaccurate, even I could tell. 🙂
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Even the daily ones give only part of the picture. I was fascinated by the stats early on… but that wore off a long time ago. Now ‘m just grateful people come on over. 🙂
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I’m sure that’s a better approach than the one I’ve been adopting up to now. I probably have been keeping my eye a little too closely on my numbers. 🙂
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I was talking to Nick about it earlier… and, case in point, had twice as many ‘likes’ on a post as it had registered page views…
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That’s very interesting. I must admit to being a little surprised, though. I wonder who they have working at WordPress. I didn’t think there was anyone else on the planet as bad at mathematics as I am.
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I might be 😉
It is, I think, the discrepancy between liking via the Reader and actually visiting the page, but it just highlights how little store can be placed on the numbers.
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Yes, it seems it can give a misleading impression. I guess it’s yet another reason not to get too hooked up on numbers.
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Absolutely.
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I stopped looking at our stats when I noticed how violently they fluctuate….
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It can get depressing, can’t it? I’m sure WP do it just to keep us on our toes 😉
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Thank you 🙂
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A lovely post, Sue. It’s a rather lovely neighborhood that grows here. I like how we all kind of overlap with each other. It’s great fun. Have a wonderful 2016.
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A global neighbourhood, with all its diversity 🙂
You too, Diana 🙂
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That’s a pretty good summary of how I also feel about the whole thing. The more I analyze, the less i feel i really know. So I don’t analyze. It’s what I like about “likes” … the faces and symbols that tell my friends have dropped by and left their calling card. That familiarity is very comforting.
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I agree… that tiny little square with a familiar image gives the same feeling as clearing the teacups away after a quick cuppa with a friend.
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I personally never like a post unless I’ve read and liked the content. I didn’t get an end of year report to over analyse a years worth of stats.
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I confess, I spent a whole minute poring over the end of year report 😉 I ‘like’ a post for a number of reasons… the style, the humour, the content, or the conviction that it shows.
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This is so true – the community I’ve met through blogging is the best reward. I do check my stats but sometimes the numbers make no sense at all (one visitor, thirty likes). I just keep writing anyway 🙂
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Oh I know… the numbers make no sense at all …but the people do 🙂
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Oh yes, absolutely! A perfect way to put it 🙂
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🙂
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Great post, Sue, that put less importance on bare stats than friendship. I also had no idea how big WordPress was. That is impressive. 🙂 — Suzanne.
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25% of the internet, they tell us…
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Can I just say I was looking at my site stats when I saw this post? Talk about timing. Loved the insights 🙂
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A bit of a coincidence 🙂 Thank you!
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Stats are weird at the moment, aren’t they? All over the place. But you are right, it’s the comments and likes, the fact that people have bothered to read what you have written, that’s what matters. It is like building a mini community, one that’s very supportive and understanding, and that’s such a wonderful thing to be a part of.
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Weirder than usual, yes 😉
The sense of community is priceless and the support people give just amazing.
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I agree, and that’s something I wouldn’t be without. There must come a time for some blogs when they grow beyond that point, where suddenly the community is too large and you lose that personal touch. Imagine if you received so many comments to each post that you couldn’t answer them all! That’s not for me! 😊
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No, I wouldn’t fancy getting to that point either. X
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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Thank you.
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My pleasure. 🎁
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🙂
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