You’re attractive and engaging. Now what?

I don’t believe those claiming not to care about their blog stats. Why in the world are you writing on the web then? Perhaps a pocket-book or journal will suffice? Anyway, like I said, I don’t believe you. You might read through this post kicking and screaming but I think it will do some good to know what really matters in the notorious world of blog stats. Of course, it’s different for everyone.

I compare blog stats to online marketing. In that world, attractiveness, engagement and conversion are arguably the most important measurements in gauging effectiveness.

Attractiveness

Attractiveness in blogging will mean number of hits. It measures how many people are interested enough tto click on your post title. I find many personal blogs that are “attractive”. They get hundreads of hits a day! These blogs usually provide information that is of  popular interest. Some are just great marketers that visit hundreds of blogs who return the favour. That’s a lot of work. If you have a niche blog focussing on a certain demographics or topic, then your blog may not score high on attractiveness – and that’s not a bad thing.

Engagement

Engagement measures how many times people have a say in whatever conversation is on the blog. Essentially, it measures number of comments. This is my personal favourite because I think motivating people to talk is not an easy task, especially if they are complete strangers! How many times have you read an article, had something to say but never wrote it down? A lot of times, right? It doesn’t matter if your comments are in agreement with the blogger’s point of view. That you are passionate enough to comment means the blogger caused you to react to something. That’s worth a lot. But is it enough to be engaging? What about making people come back for more? This is when it becomes a religion of sorts. You have to convert them…

Conversion

This is when it starts to get really tricky. You get loads of hits, visitors can’t stop blabbing away in the comments section but they don’t come back. This is what being Freshly Pressed cannot do for you, I’m afraid. It can’t make people come back. In basic terms, conversion is the number of followers you have. Followers get alerts each time you post. It could be an indication that they were impressed by your last post.

 

 However, reality shows that even your followers may not come back as often as you’d like. Yes, blogging is hard if you want to stack the stats and make them the ultimate goal. In fact, blogging is hard, full stop. If you have a life and you are also managing to come on the web to try to reach out to strangers, you have a convert in me. So keep blogging, folks! It’s already February and there are lots to discuss before the year runs out.

Thanks for reading! (at least, I’m attractive ;-))

Related articles

• Six@Six: Tips for Building a Loyal Blog Following (bulletproofblog.com)
• Best Blog Posts Round-Up: Blog Niche Ideas (theworkathomewife.com)
• When Bloggers Should Care About Comments… and When They Shouldn’t! (famousbloggers.net)