Comments on: What’s in a Number?

By: October Obsessions - Balanced Existence

October Obsessions - Balanced Existence — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:20:29 +0000

[...] obsession with subscriber numbers. This sort of thing can be a double-edged sword as Peter over at The Change Blog explained in what for me was appropriately [...]

By: Jean Browman--Cheerful Monk

Jean Browman--Cheerful Monk — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:38:36 +0000

Kent,
I’m turned off my the attention-getting techniques of a lot of blogs. I also agree that focusing on our numbers is distracting. I’m not aiming for popularity…I’m aiming for some deep conversations. It’s a different approach to blogging, but it works for me. Oh, yes, it sure does.

Jean Browman–Cheerful Monks last blog post..Doing Things the Hard Way…For the Sheer Joy of It

By: Kent & The Financial Philosopher

Kent & The Financial Philosopher — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:07:37 +0000

Above all, I try to limit any form of distraction and looking at numbers is highly distracting…

If we expand the thoughts put into your post, which I believe makes some excellent points, we may consider the larger problem that blogging presents for the readers:

Most bloggers are seeking to “steal” the attention of internet users to increase readership and falsely inflate their position on the web by asking their friends for “diggs” or “stumbles.”

If we, as bloggers, seek to steal attention with catchy post titles and mindless lists, then we are not providing a useful service to our readers and we become no better than mainstream media.

Unfortunately, the blogosphere is beginning to follow in mainstream media’s objective to steal readers attention by insighting emotion with less care given to accurate and useful information and more care given to the ultimate objective of increasing readership and/or selling advertising.

“… in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.” Herbert Simon (1916 – 2001)

By: axel g

axel g — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:55:36 +0000

Running a site can be a challenging undertaking and it’s obviously a wonderful high to get a big following.

I have to agree with what Peter says.

Identification with these thoughts only make for unhappiness.

Learning to accept things as they are, is very liberating.

One can argue that letting go doesn’t pay the bills and that’s a valid argument, so let’s opt for balance.

This way we can avoid major mood swings…

By: Seamus Anthony

Seamus Anthony — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:46:25 +0000

That’s funny. I just emailed you to hassle you to digg/stumble my latest article, then thought, oh better go reciprocate – and lo! in my face!

Ha – well, I get no particular satisfaction out of blogging into a vacuum, which I did for years before I ‘got serious’, so that is why I AM a little obsessed by numbers right now.

But at the end of the day it’s a just a game, and not a very serious one at that.

I think Bill Gates said something like “Business is a good game, lots of competition and money is just the way you keep score”. I guess in blogging subscriber counts / traffic counts are the currency that converts into bucks so …

Oh speaking of billionaires, I just read somewhere a quote by George Soros “the money’s not the point. It’s an indication that I’ve succeeded in the grand adventure of understanding reality. ”

Seamus Anthonys last blog post..How To Meditate While You’re Doing Housework

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:59:55 +0000

I think someone subscribing to your blog is one of the best compliments they can give you. That is, they are saying "I enjoyed this article and want to read more of what you write in the future." So I think subscriber count is definitely a good success metric to use. It's just that I see a danger in becoming obsessed with increasing it for reasons I mentioned in this article. In many ways it comes down to having a balanced attitude.