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When you’re a blogger, especially one who makes some money from it, it can be very easy to get caught up in all the talk of stats, Domain Authority (DA), your place in the blogging charts, and all the rest of it. Particularly if you are a part of the blogging groups on Facebook, you can start to feel really shit about your blog and how well it is doing compared to everybody else, and those ‘big bloggers’.
It has happened to me numerous times where people have asked about others stats, then someone has said ‘oh, my pageviews are really poor at the moment – I’m only getting about 20,000 pageviews a month’, or something along those lines. It makes me, and I’m sure lots of other people feel really pants, when we are getting way, way less than that.
If you don’t really know what I’m talking about, but are still interested (thanks!), when a blogger or a PR is talking about stats, they are usually referring to a blogs pageviews and unique views per month. Pageviews are how many times a blog has been viewed in total over a period of time – so ten of those could be one person clicking through lots of different pages and reading. Unique views are how many people have visited a blog – so even if one person visits a blog ten times in one day, it will only count as one unique view.
Some PR’s that work with bloggers are interested in your blog stats and numbers and will ask you for them, some may be more interested in your DA, and some don’t seem particularly bothered about either of those things, and may instead look at the quality of a blog, or the engagement that a post receives.
Really, the best thing to do is to not care about any of it – to just keep doing what you are doing; making sure you put out quality content, promoting it a bit or a much as you want to on social media, and not caring whether you have gone down 500 places in that blogging chart. Because most of it can’t actually be controlled by you, and a lot of it just doesn’t mean much. I don’t think that those with the highest stats get all of the best opportunities, or are necessarily paid the most for sponsored posts. I don’t have great stats compared to a lot of bloggers, or a big devoted readership, but I have had some amazing opportunities through this blog, and been paid very highly for some campaigns.
I know we do care though, and it can be very demotivating to work your arse off on your blog and be really proud of it, only to see that someone who you think has a pretty crap blog (I’m sure I’m not the only one to sometimes think these things, in fact I know I’m not!) is talking about their stats and gets tens of thousands more pageviews than you each month.
Two things: One – if they are blogging on Blogger rather than WordPress and they are quoting their stats from Blogger – they are bullshit; massively inflated so just completely ignore them and move on. They might not know that they are inflated, but I know that some do and still give them when people ask.
Two –
Take everyone else’s stats with a pinch of salt.
If a blogger runs giveaways on their blog then chances are that their pageviews are way, way higher than they would be if they didn’t have any running. My pageviews are WAY higher when I have giveaways going, especially if it’s a popular one. Most of my blog giveaways get thousands of entries because I promote them in lots of different places online, so my stats are much, much higher when I have some running.
One day last week during which I had a Bosch iron giveaway and my Yankee Candle Christmas giveaway running (and ending soon), I got 1,235 pageviews (my highest ever I think). The day after they had ended I got 233, the next day even less. If a blogger has loads of giveaways running at any given time and they have staggered the end dates, then their stats are likely to be massively inflated. Not a problem, and it doesn’t make their pageviews false – but it’s worth remembering that a hell of a lot of those people were there to enter a competition, not because their content is so awesome they couldn’t keep away. High stats do not mean a blog is good, nor better than yours. Unless it’s a blog who doesn’t give anything anyway – in which case, yes – their blog is popular, and much better than yours too… 😉
There’s nothing wrong with running giveaways if you want to, and pageviews are pageviews when it comes to PR’s asking numbers. But just remember to bear that in mind when other people have shared their huge figures and you feel like you might as well just quit blogging right now.
Do you worry about your pageviews as a blogger? Is it something you even check?
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Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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This is so interesting lovely and, as always, I adore your totally down to earth approach. I have healthy stats but was getting really demoralised this time last year because of ‘those charts’. So I left! I’m not in any charts or groups, don’t bother with awards, deal directly with PRs and brands and don’t even know what a DA is! 🙂 There’s something very liberating about doing your own thing and breaking free. I make my living from my blog and my work hasn’t suffered at all as a result of ditching the charts. In fact I’d say it has only increased. We are worth more than a silly number! Xx
Yes, unfortunately I constantly worry about my views. Since there was/is a gap in my content, I feel that I am running a race against people in my niche that I can’t possibly win. But I keep at it because for the most part, I enjoy it. It is a bit of a losing game to play.
really good point about comps Lou! It makes such a difference
Here! Here! Really sensible points, Louise!
It’s something that I pay attention to but try not to obsess over. I’ve found that its really hard to predict when something is going to be a hit, and when I’m just yelling into the wind. I’ll just keep chugging along
I don’t care at all, as soon as I saw the impact a single competiton could have on them, and then I ran three at the same time I realised that actually half the charts are crammed with inflated stats. I love what I do, I love writing, I love that I couldn’t care less about stats! I also love you for writing a post about this.