Blogs and Stats and Objectives

Jordan McCollum has a great post for writers introducing site analytics and what to look for. Web marketing is a strange combination of advertising, customer appeal, and raw magic.

Tracking your blog: using the data: “What do I do with this information? Again, look for trends. What makes these posts your most popular? The subject? The tone? The search engine presence? Was it informative? Social? Fun? Funny? Personal? Then do that again!

But if you see that certain posts turn away visitors significantly more than average, take a look at those posts. You don’t necessarily have to change them, but you might think twice about using such a negative tone or writing about that subject again.

I agree. There is value in knowing what your visitors are reading and interested in.

It is also pretty darn important to have a clear objective as well.

Jordan is a writer, and maintains a blog for readers and fellow writers. The site has good stuff and is worth following, and the objectives are pretty clear.

I don’t manage that here at The Age of Will. But I’m also not trying to build an audience. Not really. I enjoy writing, and putting my thoughts down in this form helps me gain some clarity.

So I end up writing about personal things, technology, the occasional post about writing…whatever, not a lot of consistency and planning. But it works for me.

Enjoy!