I have Google Analytics and, to be honest, I haven’t looked at the numbers in a while, perhaps a month or so. Even when I do look, I just look out of curiosity. People come. People go. If you look to the right under the heading, Top Posts, you’ll see that Taking Basketball Photos is number one and, from my recollection, has been number one forever. Looking at Google Analytics, it gets lots of hits every week. I guess people just want to know how to take basketball photos.
At one time, I wanted to “be like Mike”. No, not Michael Jordan, but Michael over at The Online Photographer. If his site makes a reference to yours, you could get kicked off of your server because of all of the traffic. It’s kind of like Oprah mentioning a book on her show and it instantly becomes a number one best seller. Crazy. I used to think: How can I get more hits? The day that I wrote the taking basketball photos post and subsequent “Newbie” posts, my hits ran up. People like free information and techno talk.
So, could I continue to write like that? Perhaps, were I committed to it, but I just rather like to ramble along talking about photography, my life, my dog, and whatever tickles my fancy. The numbers will probably always remain low because, in reality, it’s totally worthless information and somewhat mindless entertainment for a very narrow audience. One thing that I can say, though, is that when I’m in the mood, it’s fun! When it’s no longer fun and I’m no longer doing it to entertain myself, I’ll stop and figure out something else. 
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10 Responses to “On blogging”
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I completely read your blog for its variety and compilations of random thoughts and great photography tips. I was particularly pleased to see yesterday’s three amigos, all of whom I have bookmarked their blogs. You are birds of similar feather and very enjoyable. Traffic, phooey. Keep up the great writing and photos!
Mary Ann
Thanks, Mary Ann. It’s good to see you commenting again!
My blog is mostly written for me too. The pages that get the biggest hits are one that is listed on another blog, and my “reviews” of various bits of gear. But, I usually write for me first. I consider it my photography “day book”, even though I don’t write every day.
If it matters, I enjoy your blog a lot. I hope it always stays fun for you.
Paul, your posts always inspire and frequently make me smile!
Hey, maybe you and I can talk sometime about how to install Google Analytics on my blog!
Sure thing! Piece o’ cake. There’s even a WordPress plug-in for it. You need to sign up for a free Google Analytics ID: http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html. Here is the plug-in that I use: http://ronaldheft.com/code/analyticator/
You have to ask yourself, what’s in this for me. Why are those hits important? Do I have a plan to, or am I already making any money on this, even if indirectly? Is it important that I have a measure to flash with in different relations? Then, stats are important. Otherwise, I think you can use your hard earned money better. You have WordPress, and the stats tools available for it show at least if someone is reading at all. It’s not really like asking ‘are you listening to what I’m saying’, but close enough for most of us. I would hope you would continue on the path you you’re already on. I’d rather read your ramblings than your tech talk, it’s simply more in it. If I need tech talk, there are good foras for that. This is something else, more personal.
My feelings exactly, Ove. No worries, I won’t be changing a thing!
To be honest, sometimes I think that just de-installing all those tools and services that gather completely meaningless data (for us as hobby-bloggers, that don’t have to earn a living with it) would be by far the best solution. As said before: why bother?
I like the way you say it, “ramble along talking about photography, my life, my dog (don’t have one), and whatever tickles my fancy.” However, every once in a while I do find myself checking the stats to see how many visits I get but those times for checking are far and few between now. I’m doing this photoblog thing for the fun of it, the long distance relationships that have sprung up, and for the insight I receive from other photographers. I read several blogs because I want to see that others are creating and what they will offer me (selfish).
And, mood does have a major part in all this.