[Part of problogging series, i.e. 'What they don't teach you at D-Harvard Blogging School', where I would like to share my experience of running pluGGd.in]
Almost every day, I have to answer this tough question on pluGGd.in’s traffic – how much daily visits do we get? PVs per visitor? UUs? (i.e. unique users)? Bounce rate?
Typically, all such queries are answered with a clueless face or some vague numbers.
The fact of the matter is that I really don’t check my blog stats very frequently. Not that I don’t have the time for it, but just that daily stats don’t matter to me.
Isn’t traffic statistic the most important metrics?
No. Not in my opinion. If you are in the blogging world for a long run, I strongly suggest you not to check your stats daily (even though lot of probloggers will tell you to analyze and dissect your stats).
And I really mean that.
The reason is very simple – If your blog traffic is going down, you will get disheartened (and lose interest, no matter how passionate you are) or get desperate to plug the traffic (for e.g. write 10 posts a day, without keeping a tab on quality).
In essence, you will end up doing right damages to your blog ensuring that it doesn’t get traffic!
And I am not saying that one should not check stats at all, do it but don’t get bogged by it.
If not stats, then?
User Engagement.
A good blog (which need not get lot of traffic to start with) attracts people to share their opinion/insights.
Infact, user engagement should be the only criteria you should judge your blog on. If you aren’t getting comments, go back to the whiteboard and analyze what’er you are writing is relevant to others or not.
Remember that visitors share a comment only when they agree/disagree (i.e. opinion) or have an insight/analysis to share.
And as a blogger, if you aren’t doing your homework (i.e. collecting insights, analyzing the market), don’t expect your readers to do anything on your behalf (rest assured, they won’t even come back).
Here is a simple ToDo for you:
Make a wishlist of number of comments you would like to see in your blog, for each category.
Don’t be too ambitious in the beginning, be reasonable (i.e. don’t expect TC like, or Big B like comments).
For e.g. I don’t expect comments on posts related to “India Business“, but I do expect some min. number for posts related to core theme of pluGGd.in, i.e. review of indian startups.
Last but not the least, Be the change that you want to see in your (blogging) world!
Simply put, if you want to see reader’s comment on your blog, have the decency to share your comments/analysis on other’s blog.
It’s a win-win situation!
Right?
Got questions? comments? suggestions?
Hi Ashish
In india people not comment much on blogs..for new site this is extremely difficult..
So best way to motivated is traffic…yeah i know in starting this is again difficult but couple of week u can see surge in traffic from search engines….
and if u start getting click on ads (adsense) then this again motivate you to work hard..
@niraj
“if u start getting click on ads (adsense) then this again motivate you to work hard”: this is not true for ashish as far as my experience is concerned with pluggd.in.
most of indian blogs are mashed up, but here is the real juice
hope u get what i mean.
BTW, if click on ads inspired u to write blog, why u didnt mentioned ur blog here in comment.
We all came to know so many startups, entrep tech and biz news thru this site, i have couple of blogs from india that dont rearly go the way this blog is going.
And you can also see the impact of this blog as compared to others, i.e in terms of Fusion of Tech, Biz , Friendlyness.
this blog is full force with wannabe entrep and startups.
Dont Blog just for Lucre. Compare RWW with TC. You will come to know the Difference.
Niraj – this is where I completely Disagree with those who says Indians do not post comment on blogs.
This is 100% wrong assumption. I’d rather ask you – how many Indian blogs throw some analysis and insights?
How many strong content sites do we have in India?
Very few.
Most of the indian blogs are either a mashup or (many women bloggers) talk about sex/fun (and they get lot of comments!:).
There are a very few “original content” bloggers and I guess, only they will survive in the long run.
As far as adsense clcking is concerned, happy doing that
hi mahesh
i am not talking about ashish or pluggd.in.. i am talking about new breed of bloggers…who want to earn money from blog or site..
I have been blogging for more than a year now and that is one pain point I see when I get a amount of visitors for the niche jewellery that I blog on. But getting people to leave comments is another art bloggers need to master.
SO I would agree with niraj that one turns to daily stats as a means to get solace.