Statistics and Ego Stroking

This post is all about me feeling better about myself and bragging a little. If you can’t handle that, well, sorry. I promise the next post will get back to the usual insightful reporting you’ve come to expect. Not on this site, of course, but I guarantee that somebody is writing something insightful somewhere on the Internet in the next few seconds. The odds are with me on that. Of course the odds are against you actually finding them, but that’s not my fault.

Which leads me to statistics. I’m a bit obsessive in checking the stats for this site. I don’t know why. On a day to day basis, there’s really not a whole lot of change, usually, but I check at least 15 times a day; more if I’m not busy.

I have multiple statistics packages tracking this thing. They don’t always agree, which is frustrating, but when that happens I just pay attention to the one I like the most at the time. For example, this is the graph of page views over the last year:

Monthly page views in 2008

This is a graph I like. Eleven straight months of growth (hey, stop looking at August). I’m even willing to let December go and call it 13 months straight – after all, December has Christmas and everybody’s stats take a hit around then (plus I had a two day “issue” where no stats were collected).

You’ll notice there are no actual page counts on this graph. I like it better without the numbers. Looking at the actual numbers is a little depressing… but concentrating on the trend is fun!

Apparently I’m doing well with SEO, since most of my hits are new visitors, but almost none of them stick around for more than, oh… about 0.38 seconds. So that sucks. But again… concentrating on the trend!

To those of you who are repeat visitors: Thank You. It’s nice to know I’m not just talking to myself here (though I’d probably keep doing it anyway). My question is: Why do you come back?

I’m serious. What made you want to subscribe, or continue to visit? It’s perfectly acceptable to answer that you know me personally and feel obligated to read it. I accept charity. If there are other reasons, I’d be interested to know what you find most interesting about this site. It may influence what I post in the future (or I might just say, “hmmm” and then go on doing whatever I feel like at the moment).

So here’s your chance! If you’re reading this through some subscription method, click on the title to come to the site just this once. Leave a comment below. It won’t hurt. (But if it does hurt, don’t bother telling me. See if your boss will pay worker’s comp on it.)

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