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Your Stats Don't Matter, Your Blog Does

By Jennifer James, Founder
Mom Bloggers Club

I am a great believer in this notion: If you are incessantly preoccupied with your stats you will fall further and further behind.

My husband, who was a middle distance runner in college, told me his coach once said, “When in a race, if you look back you’ll take one second off your time.” In other words, he was telling them to not look back, don’t worry about their competitors, focus on their race, and keep running. I believe this holds true in how successful you are as a blogger. If you are completely engrossed with numbers from RSS feed subscribers to your followers on Twitter, it takes away from the time and energy you need to spend perfecting your blog, resonating with your readership and bonding with your personal community. Essentially you’re robbing yourself of authoring the best blog you can. Keep running.

My philosophy is simple: Forget the numbers and blog already! If you are overly absorbed in your numbers, you’ve already lost. It’s only when you let your passion shine through on your blog that you will truly become successful. Are you blogging because you love it and enjoy writing about that which you’re passionate? Or, do you experience an insatiable high when your stats rise and tumble into a dark pit of despair when your numbers plummet?

Remember, keep a keen eye on your priorities. If you don’t blog well because you’re fixated on your numbers, your stats will flatline or drop. Blog well and your stats will consistently rise. It’s the universal law of cause and effect. And we know how hard it is to circumvent universal laws!

Stick to the fundamentals. They will serve you well as you continue on your blogging journey.

Read more about what I have to say about social media and blogging in my NaBloPoMo posts all this month.

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Comment by Patti on November 7, 2009 at 11:45am: My yoga teacher once told us to "stay on your own yoga mat." Meaning, focus on our personal work and don't compare ourselves to others. Jennifer, you hit the nail on the head.

Patti Londre, Fearless Leader, http://www.campblogaway.com

Comment by Amy @ Frugal-Mama on November 6, 2009 at 10:50pm: Very wise advice. Content is king. (Marketing matters, but ... if you don't have the best material to market, what's the point?)

Comment by Cascia on November 6, 2009 at 12:33pm: Great point! Thanks for sharing this. Sometimes I need a reminder because I tend to look at my numbers and I do a lot of comparing with other blogs and I shouldn't do that!

Comment by Elizabeth on November 6, 2009 at 11:21am: Fantastic advice! I couldn't agree more. I think often, bloggers do get caught up in Google Page Rank and other statistics that, in the long run, don't matter if you have nobody reading your blog!

Comment by Melissa on November 6, 2009 at 9:06am: Awesome post!

Comment by Mary Davis on November 6, 2009 at 8:03am: So true, Jennifer. So often people are afraid to just put themselves out there and write. It can be crippling. Thanks for the reminder!

Comment by Justbeingamum on November 6, 2009 at 4:54am: Thanks for the advise, you can really get sucked into thinking that all the RSS feeds and following are so important. Great advise, I like to blog because I enjoy it myself, I hope that people read it because they want to. :)

Comment by Maopa Lutui on November 6, 2009 at 1:24am: Thanks for that post..I agree too..I needed a refresher on that one.

Comment by Michele Pfm on November 6, 2009 at 12:33am: I couldn't agree with you more! My blog is small, and sometimes I visit blogs and see huge stat numbers and think, goodness, I'm such a little bug in the blogsphere...what am I doing here? Sure, I'd like to be read, but I'd prefer to focus on quality of content rather than numbers of visitors/followers/etc. I probably could do more to market my blog...but I'd rather write for it.

Comment by Kim Mustola on November 5, 2009 at 11:49pm: Thanks for the advice. I am a new mom blogger and have almost no followers yet. Sometimes I wonder why I started this and want to give up. Then I get a comment and feel elated that I've reached someone. I will try not to pay attention to numbers, and just go with the flow.

Comment by melissa on November 5, 2009 at 11:25pm: great advice. i just was told that i didn't get invited to an event because i don't reach enough people. and that annoyed me. because i'm a blogger who is in it for the writing. the events are a fringe benefit. and if i don't get invited because i don't have thousands of people coming to my blog a day...then pr people can kiss my rosy red rear end.

Comment by Dagmar Bleasdale on November 5, 2009 at 11:22pm: I absolutely agree: "It’s only when you let your passion shine through on your blog that you will truly become successful." I encourage women all the time on my blog to find their passion and pursue it, because if you do, you can't fail.

I am 100% percent sure that I am doing what I am meant to do at this time of my life -- blog about my experience with motherhood, attachment parenting, natural birth, breastfeeding and frugal and green living. Those are the things I am passionate about, and this is reflected in my writing.

My readership increases all the time, and it is nice to get those comments that say: "Hey, I feel the same" or "Nicely said." If you have something to say, keep blogging! :)

Dagmar
Dagmar's momsense

Comment by Robin Wright on November 5, 2009 at 10:50pm: Thanks for the reminder and the pep talk.

Comment by melanie feehan on November 5, 2009 at 10:37pm: I totally agree. Excellent points! Focus on what you have to share and you will attract the right followers.

Comment by LizzieBtv on November 5, 2009 at 10:19pm: Thanks for the post Jennifer. As a newbie entering the mom blog world can at times seem daunting. I love the advice - point taken!

Comment by Average Moms Wear Capes on November 5, 2009 at 10:03pm: thank you for saying that! that is something that i really needed to hear! i always think, "if you write it, they will come!" but it's always such a weird tossup, you think you've written gold and no one comes, then one day you write drivel and you get a ton of comments. sometimes it's all strangeness!!

Comment by JOdy on November 5, 2009 at 9:54pm: Thank you so much for that Jennifer...very well put..I am fairly new to blogging & just love to express my opinion!

Comment by Anastasia Borisyuk on November 5, 2009 at 9:32pm: Thanks for the reminder, I needed that!!!

Comment by Josie Maurer on November 5, 2009 at 9:25pm: oh yes. obsessive compulsive on the stats is a crippling condition. free yourself! Muwahh!!