Something completely out of character for me has happened: I went without checking my secondary stats for this site for over two weeks. What that means is that I didn’t check my Alexa rank, Technorati rank, nor my Feedburner stats for over two weeks now. For someone that usually checks them every day, sometimes twice a day (yes, I know most don’t update that often), that is definitely strange, and for me, there was a side effect to not checking these things: my posting level went down.

Sure, it was the holiday season and all, but it isn’t like I didn’t have Internet access. Not only that, but I had plenty to post about, and now after checking my stats, I see that the lack of posting has created a sharp dip downwards, making me feel a little like I have put myself behind the eight ball, and should spend a fair bit of time producing content over the coming days.

For me, how I am doing with a blog helps spur me into action. I want to see continuous growth, even if that growth is only one more unique visitor in a month, for me, that is a success.

So, for some people, moving away from checking their stats has been said to improve productivity by freeing up more time to write, but for me, and probably many others, not checking your stats can decrease your drive to produce, so don’t forget to look at how you are doing every once and a while, and remember that even one more person over a previous month is growth.

Originally posted on January 4, 2008 @ 5:54 pm