It's coincidental that others have commented on Sitemeter so recently. This week has been the first week I've had Sitemeter installed, and it's been both a blessing and a curse for me.
Sitemeter is, in many ways, totally fantastic - it allows me to see how many of you are reading this drivel, how often you visit me, and even (to an extent) where in the world you are. And I love it. But I don't think it's healthy. In fact, Sitemeter seems to be creating in me an addiction that would make even the most ardent Crackberry fan quail in fear.
You see, the problem is, you get up in the morning and think, "I'll just take a quick look at my stats for the day so far". Which is fine.
And then, at lunchtime, it's, "I wonder how many hits today's post(s) are getting?", which is also fine.
Then by late evening you're hunched over the laptop, frantically hitting refresh, watching your hits and mentally screaming, "Ohmigod, I've had five less than yesterday, does this mean I'm being less interesting and amusing and funny and were my last posts crap? And is that why I've got fewer hits than I had yesterday and is my Blogging falling apart and AAARGH! AAARGH AAAAAAAARGH gotta write something really awesomeRIGHTNOWtogetmyhitsbackupARGH!"
You get the idea.
Sitemeter is, therefore, the curse of the aspiring Blogger, turning hit-counts into a weapon that drives you, ever harder, to produce more and more better and better content.
It's probably causing me psychological damage. Therefore, as it could be potentially harmful, I can only call for Sitemeter to be banned forthwith.
Ban it. Like everything else.
Sitemeter is, in many ways, totally fantastic - it allows me to see how many of you are reading this drivel, how often you visit me, and even (to an extent) where in the world you are. And I love it. But I don't think it's healthy. In fact, Sitemeter seems to be creating in me an addiction that would make even the most ardent Crackberry fan quail in fear.
You see, the problem is, you get up in the morning and think, "I'll just take a quick look at my stats for the day so far". Which is fine.
And then, at lunchtime, it's, "I wonder how many hits today's post(s) are getting?", which is also fine.
Then by late evening you're hunched over the laptop, frantically hitting refresh, watching your hits and mentally screaming, "Ohmigod, I've had five less than yesterday, does this mean I'm being less interesting and amusing and funny and were my last posts crap? And is that why I've got fewer hits than I had yesterday and is my Blogging falling apart and AAARGH! AAARGH AAAAAAAARGH gotta write something really awesomeRIGHTNOWtogetmyhitsbackupARGH!"
You get the idea.
Sitemeter is, therefore, the curse of the aspiring Blogger, turning hit-counts into a weapon that drives you, ever harder, to produce more and more better and better content.
It's probably causing me psychological damage. Therefore, as it could be potentially harmful, I can only call for Sitemeter to be banned forthwith.
Ban it. Like everything else.
5 comments:
You have my sypmathies, Dungeekin.
I had that feeling with sitemeter, but then when my hits stayed low the buzz soon wore off.
I then found myself wanting something more intense, so progressing onto Google Analytics. It might not have the easy specfics of sitemeter but it's good and reliable. It's what keeps me going month after month, with it's exellent compare features.
I noticed the screen shot you have is of Woopra. Woopra is cool too. I have it for when I want something different, y'know, treat myself.
Plenty of toys on it.'specially the ability to open a chat portal with a visitor. Although I've never managed to catch anyone on my site.
Woopra downside? It can't ignore certain visits (yet) like Anyltics & sitemeter can which means my most loyal visitor is, ahem, me.
So, when you gonna write that awesome post then? ;-)
I knoqw where you're coming from here !
Like Sim-O I use Google Analytics but it's easy to let the stats rule your blogging life.
I started blogging simply because I enjoy writing, and I try to remember that the aim wasn't (isn't ?) to have a huge readership. Even so, it's hard not to frantically compare this week with last week and wonder what's caused the change.
As an aside, I got excited a couple of weeks ago because I saw a messive, unprecented spike in my visitor numbers. I then found out that the spike was purely down to the fact that I'd written a post entitled "League Cup Semi Final Draw - Prediction" and got a load of refugees from Google trying to find out what the draw was. All of whom would have been sadly disappointed. So my biggest ever week of readership was caused by - an accident.
Aye, it's the 'psychological damage' point that concerned me too. Not sure about banning it though. I think the reasonable among us are capable of making these decisions on our own cognisance. Yes I know that's probably just you and me, but at least we can help others along the way. :-)
I like sitemeter
It tells me that even though I hardly blogged for the last six months I had a steady stream of people through googling baileys irish cream
I also use Google Analytics. I now get readers in 54 different countries. But the mind boggles about the one person in Mongolia - I kid you not!
You need to discipline youraelf. I look at Analytics once or twice a month as people, on the whole do not leave a lot of comments so it is nice to see that you, or in this case, me, is growing. (Excuse the grammar).
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