{DISCUSSION} Blogging Stats

Do blogging stats really matter?

Having been a blogger for over two years now (and struggling to keep up with the energy and free time of newer, younger bloggers), I find myself asking why I blog and what I am looking for in return from blogging. To be honest, some days I don’t know. Hahaha! Some days, I stare at my blog and all the comments and go: “This is WAY too much effort. I’m too tired. I have other things to do,” and I don’t respond to comments or wait until the last minute to write posts. (Like what I’m doing now.) And while I have TONS of thoughts on blogging, I’d like to focus on one that gets a TON of attention no matter whether you’re a new or experienced blogger:

Blog Stats

Blog statistics can be very important for personal or professional goals. A lot of people, when they start their blogs, want to be famous! 😉 Because that’s a sign of success and people like us. (Though, follows and likes are definitely not a sign that people like you. Hee hee! I would know.) But we believe that higher stats means more popularity. For some people, that’s all they want. They want to be heard. They want to interact and so having lots of followers and lots of comments and lots of likes, is all they are aiming for.

Others, however, are looking for high stats for professional reasons. High stats mean you are successful, that people enjoy your content and subscribe and read regularly. If you are trying to make this a business, that’s very important. You need to be able to grab attention and gain a following if you want to make money off of it. So stats are vital. This same thing could be said for book bloggers looking to snag some fancy schmancy ARCs or beauty bloggers looking to pick up some swag to test out and review. In those cases, stats are very important as well because the larger your following, the more people see your reviews, and the better for the company.

HOWEVER!

Blog stats are NOT everything.

I know. I know. I literally just gave you very good reasons for why blog statistics are important, but are those high stats and faceless, nameless numbers really going to be enough to pull you through when you’re busy? Are they going to be enough motivation to get you to write posts when you’re swamped, stressed, and sick? Frankly, I quite doubt that. I think most people need something more than that. They need an internal motivator.

For many, it’s love of blogging and sharing ideas. For others it’s a database to store all their reviews and thoughts and have a record of their lives for a period of time. And then there’s me.

Why does Melanie blog?

I. Don’t. Know.

Yup. I said it. I have no idea why I blog. I mean, yeah I like having a place for my reviews, but GoodReads. Yeah, I like getting ARCs, but I don’t get nearly enough for that to be a legit reason. Yeah, I like chatting with people, but even that becomes quite taxing when comments are 4 paragraphs long and you have 10-15 of them per post and you haven’t had time to respond in 3 weeks.

And I now have over 900 followers on my blog and almost 7,000 comments. That’s freakin’ huge. I mean, I know people who boost their stats higher in less time, but for a casual blogger (who is hella busy), that’s amazing and I am proud of those stats. (especially because I have a very aggressive, loud, crass writing voice that is a total ice storm compared to the other cheery, friendly book blogs out there. Frankly, I’m amazed I got this far without being attacked yet by readers or publishers. Hahaha!) And I do feel that I owe my readers posts every week. But my stats aren’t what keep me going. If my Youtube channel is any indication, my stats will fluctuate up and down whether I’m posting content or not. So stats, to me, don’t really mean anything.

Stats are like money, time, or distance.

They are arbitrary constructs of human society to better understand and quantify the world around us, but at the end of the day. They really don’t mean anything. They only mean what you let them mean and I don’t let them mean anything. That much was made very evident when I didn’t reach my 2017 goal of 1,000 followers because my blog didn’t vanish, my apartment didn’t light on fire, my bank account didn’t empty, the world didn’t explode. Nothing bad happened because I didn’t reach my randomly set goal of 1,000 followers by 2018.

I guess what I am trying to say in this absurdly long, horribly tangented tirade is that blog stats mean nothing and anyone who thinks they are better than anyone else because their stats are higher, needs to stop. The blog-o-sphere is a community. We don’t compare stats. We are not competing with each other. This isn’t the olympics. There are no gold medals or awards. It’s just for fun and everyone should treat it that way.

P.s. If anyone is ever nasty with you in the blog-o-sphere or GoodReads or Twitter, hit me up. I do not tolerate – nor do any bloggers I follow tolerate – hateful bashing or boasting and we will support you (and definitely call that person out for their inexcusable behavior. And you’ve all seen how well I call out bad books. 😈)

But what do you think?
How important are blogging stats to you?
Leave your thoughts below!

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And check out my discussion from last week:
“Professional Appearance“