Blogging Part 5: Viewing

Screen Shot 2013-04-24 at 11.09.59

As I sit here watching my WordPress follower number steadily approach the big four-oh-oh, I’m thinking of things that I’ve done and can’t help but wonder if others do it too.

One of my lazy habits for a long time was to go to the Readers menu and go through all my followers blog posts. If I was feeling guilty, I’d quickly go down the list and hit “Like” on the ones with the titles that impressed me most. (or thumbnails)

Now besides showing a sort of “kack-handed” support, it also showed just how lazy I could get. It also doesn’t show up on the bloggers view count. Now I did not realise this, back when I was doing it. It only became apparent when I paid a bit more attention to the “stats” for my site.

I would get a notification that “so-and-so” and good old (fill in site name here) had “Liked” my latest post.

But…

My views had not increased. It took a little concentration on my part, but, I eventually made the connection. In a moment of serendipitous epiphany-age, I put two and two together and, besides getting four, I realised they’d hit the “Like” button without actually reading the post.

Now, I’ve always had a “thing” about my view counts. I had it on my first blog at Blogger.com and I had it on my second blog on Tumblr.com and I still have it. I’m attached to my view counts and will (throughout the day) keep checking them to see if they’ve gone up. I am, almost, OCD in my feeling about my view counts.

I then made another connection. I was doing that myself! I felt a little bit ashamed. I mean, I read incredibly fast (always have) and it seemed worse than cheating for me to ignore the actual content of the bloggers I was following to not at least look at the damned post!

So I have stopped that heinous habit and started really liking the post versus, liking the idea or the notification of the post. I would like to point out that I didn’t do that all the time, just occasionally when I “felt” strapped for time. Something that, now-a-days, I’m not but old imagined stresses are hard to break.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this preoccupation with viewing figures.

So how about you?

So you have anything that you obsess over? Do you compulsively check your follower numbers or views? Do you even bother to look at your stats at all? Do you succumb to this “lazy liking” and not read posts at all?

Let me know.

My obsession.
My obsession.
Related articles

Author: Michael Knox-Smith

Former Actor, Former Writer, Former Journalist, USAF Veteran, Former Member Nevada Film Critics Society (As Michael Smith)

43 thoughts on “Blogging Part 5: Viewing”

  2. I can understand it though, when it still existed I was on the IMDB hitlist and those huge spikes in traffic were awesome to see, what you had with your Freshly Pressed article.

  3. I find the longer that I blog, I get a bit less “worked up” about my stats, but that is a very recent development; as in since that post. Only because I’ve been so busy that I haven’t the time to keep looking at them! LOL Thanks for the feedback mate, it is always appreciated! 😀

  4. At first I was like you checking the stats a lot. Now I don’t look at them as often anymore, it’s more about comments for me. As for likes, I simply disabled the option on my blog.

    I subscribe through email on a lot of blogs and will read them through mail, if I like it I’ll go the blog and respond, but I will not just visit a blog to increase a stat. As a blogger I’m not that worried about the numbers and just happy that people read my work, even if that’s just through reader or via email.

  5. ps … because of Teepee12, Marilyn, is how I found the most incredibly talented people. I owe my new found discoverys all to her, so it was awesome when you recommended her.
    LOL, I consider your site a gift from Teepee12. Goes around!

  6. I’m always checking my stats too!
    Something that I do to other people’s sites far too regularly is load up a load of posts that I need to catch up on, then by the time I read something and like it the view and the like don’t match up so it looks like I’m not reading what I’m liking 🙁

  8. Hmm, not being a blogger I only understand a wee bit of what all of you are discussing, I’m ok with not knowing.

    I click on your gravatar and your site opens. I read and comment. Sometimes after you site opens I will click on reader and read they way.
    I have to close reader to read another post on your site.
    So, don’t I count as a view just by opening post, it’s there to read?

  10. Interesting post, Mike. I usually READ everything. Sometimes I feel I don’t have anything interesting to add as a comment so I “like” the post just so the writer knows I’ve read it. Marilyn pointed out to me that it is helpful to to the Blogger to have “likes” to have a measure of who’s reading.

  12. like done, I always go to the page to do it too, made the link sometime ago, I hope people do the same in return but I doubt it 🙁

  15. I think my bugbear is Stats. Always has been and probably always will be! LOL I follow folks who have a site that interests me or blows me away. I also love photo sites and fledgling authors sites. I don’t get enough time to be a “good” follower but I try. Thanks for the great feed back mate!! 😀

  16. I’ve pondered over this for a time. At first, I followed everyone who visited my blog, but not really visiting their blogs or seeing their posts. I would also go through and just “like” everything. I’ve since stopped that bad habit. Since I started The Blog Identity (and this may be in part to starting this site int the first place), is that I look to see who is following my blog or “liking” the posts. I hope that the people that choose to follow The Blog Identity are actually interested in reading and getting posts that are submitted and sites that I’ve researched and taken the time to go through them. That is my point. Now, I go to each site that follows my blog and actually look at a number of posts to get the feel for them. I’ll “like” them after I read the entire post and then if it really grabs me, comment on it and even ask them to contribute. I’ve found that this is much more engaging. I don’t really follow blogs now unless I’ve gone through them and really like them. In fact, I have more followers at this time than I follow other blogs. But as I find more and more blogs and posts that interest me and I figure this will likely interest my readers, so I intend to do features on these really cool blogs. I’ve now gotten away from actually writing posts, to reading them. I’ll still do a good write up on blogs that fascinate me and think up new features for my blog. I enjoyed reading this one. And, by the way, I don’t even look at stats anymore.

  19. Yeah..but its gets crazy afterwards. Last I checked..I’m following something like 430 blogs…on one Saturday I come back from errands and there’s 150 new emails to read *faints* Thats when I’m happy a part of those are photography blogs..haha

  23. I used to be like you skimming through but then, I realized that it was horrible to do that, so I now put almost all the blogs that I follow instantly emailed to my email…its ridiculous how many emails I get a day but at least I know I’ll read them all. Better late than never 🙂
    Oh right and I love to check out my stats…

  26. If I ‘like’ it means Ive read it. I learned early doors about it not counting towards stats so I try and make the effort now. Except yours Mike, I need to take views away from you. That most viewed day is a mighty impressive number dude!! 🙂

  31. I always read the post I like, whether I comment on it or not is up for grabs. Nice numbers by the way.

  33. Lol I have many obsessions, but not really too bothered about stats. I do get excited when they are high or beat my highest view count though xD I’m obsessing a bit at the minute about my Derren Brown post mind because it’s getting loads of views every day…more than my more recent posts xD
    I occasionally ‘like’ things without reading them, but if you click on ‘comment’ next to like in reader you can read the post from the reader page anyway…without actually visiting the blog,…I don’t know if that affects stats though or if it does count as a view, but it saves going to their blog to read it xD
    I get more excited about ‘likes’ and comments than views though

  35. All of your likes are lies!!! Haha no but I do something similar like for example if its a really long winded post I like it and then bookmark it for later when I have free time. So if I have liked a post and then commented 2 months later that’s why 😀

  37. Well, that’s my take on it. I could be completely wrong! LOL And no worries on the award, well deserved, says I. 🙂

  38. Reblogged this on SERENDIPITY and commented:
    I didn’t actually know that using the reader didn’t count as views to the authors. I really just started using the reader occasionally, mostly to pinpoint what looks worth further attention, who’s got something new, etc. Is it supposed to work that way? Or is it a glitch? I thought it would be a way for me to streamline the process of trying to visit all the people whose work I enjoy. Guess not.

  39. Snap! I’ve noticed the same thing! I think I just have this “thing” about view counts! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it! 🙂

  40. I didn’t actually know that using the reader didn’t count as views to the authors. I really just started using the reader occasionally, mostly to pinpoint what looks worth further attention, who’s got something new, etc. Is it supposed to work that way? Or is it a glitch? Anyway, that’s for the award and the information. I thought it would be a way for me to streamline the process of trying to visit all the people whose work I enjoy. Guess now. How annoying.

    Thanks again for the award!!

  41. Views is something I keep an eye on but not something I obsess over. It is always nice to see an increase though. I don’t read every post of every blog I follow, I simply wouldn’t have time, but if there’s something that piques my attention I’ll read it. I’ve noticed that sometimes someone must just blindly like something of mine as they like it literally seconds after I’ve posted it and no-one can read that fast!

  42. I don’t obsess about reading other posts, but I do worry that I don’t do it enough! I try to go through my readers list first thing in the morning, while I’m opening my mail and having that all important first coffee of the morning! Thanks for sharing that mate! 😀

  43. I read every post of every blog i follow and i’m starting to worry that the more people i follow the more posts i will have to read and then i won’t be doing anything but reading blog posts!
    I subscribe by email so even though i’ve read a post, the blogger won’t necessarily get a ‘view’. Anyway i’m obsessed over having to read every post. Even if i went on a holiday without Internet, when i got home i would read every post i missed.

Discover more from Mikes Film Talk

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading