I have a confession.

I obsessively check my blog reader and visitor stats.

I’m kind of embarrassed to tell you how often…

And then I go into bloglovin or Google Reader and check how many subscribers other blogs have and how close I am getting to them.

It’s ridiculous.

It’s pointless and unproductive and essentially meaningless.

But this last week Seth Godin wrote about the internet as the envy generator – and as always, he’s right:

Now, if you choose, it’s easy to find someone taller, richer, more successful, better liked, with more followers, online friends, connections and endorsements. And certainly it will be someone less deserving than you.

Seeing that I have XX number of bloglovin subscribers always feels awesome, until I see that so-and-so has twice that.

Spending the time comparing my number to another blogger’s is pointless because:

• I am not her. Neither of us is working on the same thing (growing the same blog, audience, sponsors, etc) so the comparison is inherently meaningless
• It’s a waste of time. Even IF the comparison itself meant something, there are far better ways I can spend my time than checking my numbers 6x per day.
• I have no control over it. While I can hope to create content that help influence whether or not someone wants to subscribe to Lemon and Raspberry, I can’t actually do anything directly.
• High subscriber numbers is not the actual goal. High community involvement is. I should be spending that time responding to comments, or commenting on my readers’ blogs or any number of other more productive things.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pay attention to your analytics – I’m saying you should have something specific that you’re looking for.

SO – I need to focus on the things I CAN control – like better blog content – and I need to pick another way to measure how I’m doing with growing Lemon and Raspberry …. something other than blog reader numbers.

I haven’t totally decided what would be best (and hardest to go crazy with), so any suggestions are welcome.

P.S. For a reminder to myself, here’s a post I wrote last summer that’s related: It’s not about the numbers