It frankly means piss all to me except maybe some days a whole whack of people googled something that led them to my blog. For example, my IKEA sofa post gets shitloads of hits almost every day. It sure as hell doesn’t mean (to me) that I’ve suddenly written something so amazingly amazing that all of Blogdom needed to read about. THAT day.
The only real ‘stats’ that mean anything to me are the people who leave comments and interact on my blog.
I love it when people drop in to say hello, comment on a topic, give their quiz results or engage in a serious debate. Because to me that’s what casa az is all about – a place to stop by and visit and have a chat, and perhaps meet new friends. I never feel like I am writing to an ‘audience’ or that I have some sort of ‘blog status’ to keep up. I’d actually hate to think that way because I think it would take all the fun out of it.
How do you feel about blog stats?
casa azahar 
Hello!
As for blog stats, I fear I am an addict. I like to see when a new post brings in some outside traffic. It’s fun to see referrers. I also feel like it’s a good day when people check out my “about” page, because I figure that means someone was interested enough to see
what kind of freakwho I am. And like you, what I love most are comments.Like you, also, much of my traffic is search engine hits. I think images get more hits. Does your sofa post boast a picture?
Have you ever checked out quantcast, by the way? I followed the link from the WordPress blog at some point, and discovered that you can check the traffic on basically any blog that has a wordpress domain name. It shows returning visitors vs. passersby, and also unique visitors, which I find interesting.
I miss the feed stats, though.
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if i get less than a 100 hits i don’t feel very good. but then again, like you i appreciate comments more than hits and i’m lucky that it’s been a long time since any of my posts hasn’t receive at least one comment! i do try my best to keep up the quality of the content too, so that helps. 🙂
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Personally, I am addicted to my site meter. It may not give me all the details yours does, but I particularly love the google search engine keywords people use that bring them to my site. I’m sure you’ve read the lists I’ve posted. As for numbers…I’m curious, but not too concerned when they go down a lot, or doing the yippee skippee dance when they’re up.
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That Quantcast is interesting, alejna, though I’m a bit confused about the difference between visits and uniques. And also what the Top Subdomains represent. If they are visitors I don’t recognise any of them.
It also confirms my suspicions that most of my hits are just passers-by – 81% of Audience Composition and 55% of Share of Visits according to Quantcast. So it’s really ‘nuthin personal’ when my hits go up and it’s mostly passers-by.
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Forgot to answer your question about the sofa, alejna. Yes, that post has a picture of the sofa on it, but all my posts have pictures (usually a thumbnail) on them.
WC, the search engine words are sometimes quite mind-boggling, aren’t they?
And yes, sulz, it’s awfully sad when a post doesn’t get even one comment. I find responses to posts are totally unpredictable. Sometimes a post I think is quite interesting goes totally unnoticed and others I think are mainly of interest to me end up with tons of comments.
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I regularly look at my stats, but being someone who has fairly low levels of traffic to my blog on any particular day, I don’t get too worried if certain posts are not read so much. More interesting to me are a) what sites people are finding me, and b) the search terms they use. I also enjoy comments when they do arrive. I may not always answer them due to time constraints, but I always appreciate them.
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I hardly ever read my blogstats. Actually I have to think before remembering how to access it 😳
I’ve blocked searching since I see my blogs as a way of keeping in touch with cyberfriends. Occasionally a new face shows up, which is nice.
This approach has so far saved me from being spammed more than at a couple of times.
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“That Quantcast is interesting, alejna, though I’m a bit confused about the difference between visits and uniques. And also what the Top Subdomains represent. If they are visitors I don’t recognise any of them.”
The “visits” I believe are comparable to the WordPress “hits”, and “uniques” are individual people. (Ie. one unique visitor may make multiple hits/visits on a given day.) What I’m not sure about is how they determine “unique”. Is it the same ip address on a given day? In a given hour? Or some longer time. I haven’t been able to find that info.
The Top Subdomains are just the top WordPress sites, and won’t change looking at one WP blog or another. Quantcast treats us as just part of the WordPress domain, rather than as separate websites.
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I admit it. I am a stats freak. I love the comments and the interactions I have with the friends I have found in the blogipelago but the stats tell me something very important. What are my visitors interested in? I know the majority of visitors are “fly-bys” but they have come to see something. I like to know what catches peoples imagination.
In some ways I know a lot of bloggers blog as though they are writing a letter to a friend. This is a completely valid way to blog. Then there are the bloggers who are frustrated writers or editors. These are bloggers who need a mass readership to feel justified in continuing to blog. Just as a comic needs the applause from an anonymous audience.
Yet, while I need good stats to assuage my egotistical needs it is always the comments which brighten this blogger’s life.
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Yeah, I reckon that’s probably the bottom line for most bloggers, Archie. It’s the comments that really matter.
Did you check out quantcast?
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I blog for no apparent reason (including having anything much worthwhile to say, 😀 ). So stats are minimally important.
In the past month though, I dropped from a couple hundred hits a day to about twenty. A few days ago I took off to over 100 again. It always intrigues me what the keys are.
Lately I think it’s the niqab. And my girls are always popular.
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I look at the stats, but I agree that many ‘hits’ are a result of a search for something or other and are not representative of the small circle of people who keep coming back. That people do keep coming back is a matter of constant amazement to me. I like comments and interaction too, although I get a lot fewer comments than many people do. I’m not sure what that means.
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I admit to lurking more than I should, considering how much I appreciate comments. But often it’s a question of time, when I read something when I am busy or on my way out and mean to go back and then …
Hey mister anchovy, I just noticed I am on your blogroll – thank you! And now you’re on mine. 🙂
Curiously my hits don’t seem to affect the number of comments, now that I think about it.
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I’ve never looked at my site’s stats. Any kind of statistical information just makes me shudder.
I love people’s comments but I write what needs to come out, not what others might be interested in reading. 🙂
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You’ve never checked out your stats??? Wow. As I say, I’m not so taken by the daily hits but it’s fun to see where people are visiting from.
Writing what comes out is basically what I do too, though it’s always nice when other people find it interesting.
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