Is Viewing Your Stats Bad For You?

While you can learn all sorts of fascinating details, sometimes I can't help but wonder if being able to see things like from where people came to your blog, how long they were there, and what they saw and clicked is bad for the average blogger.

On the one hand, I discovered that someone did a Google search for Deborah Ng, whose praises I have sung a plenty. Apparently my blog popped up and they wandered over, spending 14 mintues here. I love that person! But it is good for me to care so much?

Letting Other People Write The LinkBait is a lovely post by Andy Beard with which I whole-heartedly agree. What I write probably isn't over the heads of people who want to write well, but people who are on-line solely to cash in where they can won't understand what the heck I'm talking about. I am more than happy to have them visit, but I'd rather have people hanging around who share an interest in improving the tone of the blogosphere and of articles on the web in general.

The question is, does that make me a snob? Well, yes, but not necessarily in a bad way. I can admit to enjoying the toys and tools that come with various programs. I check my stats at MyBlogLog and AdSense and be thrilled with that day's numbers or despair about ever finding success.

I have to continually remind myself that I have not been around long enough to build a base of steady readers. And obsessing over where those who visit come from on an individual basis is not going to help me over the long term. What I need to do is to watch for trends over time. To do that, I've got to give myself time.

I've been posting all over the place looking for feedback, too. I see that there have been quite a few people wandering by so I wanted to thank those who have taken the time. I'd like this to be an attractive and useful place. I appreciate the help!