Minding your stats
To fully know the livelihood of your blog, I recommend setting up a Site Meter. This is relatively easy to do and free, so you can know where your visitors are coming from and how many pages they viewed.
If you’re hosting your own site and using WordPress, your server might have something like AWStats, or you could use WordPress’ global stats for more information. Either way you do it, you’re going to be able to easily track who comes to your site, where they’re from, and where they outclicked to (if at all).
You can see my site meter at the bottom of the page. I don’t have many visitors just yet, but traffic is something we’ll worry about later. Now, let’s not get into the habit of checking our site meters like psychos just yet, if your blog is still new. This is a trap that some of us fall into, because we want our blogs to be successful. If you write something valuable or something that people can relate to, the visitors will come.
Ummm…Stats. Who doesn’t like stats?
I will admin that I get obsessive about looking at my stats sometimes. I usually check my stats at least three times a day, if not more. I like those little surprises when someone links to you or you see a flood of traffic.
The only problem with looking at your stats all the time is that it dilutes your overall perception of your site’s performance. You start worrying about the day-to-day instead of consistent growth.
I wonder if there’s a 10 step program for compulsive stat checkers?
I love stats and have been guilty of checking the stats on both of my sites, like a raving lunatic. Stop clicking the sitemeter…lol I know it’s hard to do, but I gotta try, too….