I spend a lot of time on twitter. I have excellent Klout. As I also have an obsessive compulsive desire to be better than everyone else at everything while not actually beating anyone (I don’t like to make anyone feel bad) I watch numbers like my Klout score, technorati rating, Wikio and tots ranking obsessively. And my stats (of which I have a variety of types), obviously.
It’s not good for me. It’s not good for anyone. That isn’t what this blog is supposed to be about. It’s probably rather difficult to tell what this blog *is* supposed to be about atm, but it set out to be a way to stay connected to remote home educating friends when I didn’t see them for a while. To my shame, I’ve lost sight of that recently, and haven’t even been reading my friends’ blogs, let alone commenting on them.
It’s time to get my head out of the numeric sand, and remember what this is all about. This blog has become both more, and less, than a record of our family life, and that’s OK, it’s OK for it to evolve and change. I’m not entirely sure who is still here reading who has been here from the beginning, and who has disappeared off, bored to tears by book reviews and competitions. I don’t really know who has arrived along the way, maybe drawn in by picture memes or carnival posts – I hope you enjoy it here anyway.
There needs to be more of us here, which is a little difficult, given that the children are aware of the blog and rather more loath to have the everyday minutiae of their lives shared to all and sundry. So I think I shall have to discuss the delivery of home education, rather than the receipt if that makes any sense? Which is a shame on a lot of levels, as I’m incredibly proud of how they learn, think their interests are fascinating and their independence awe inspiring. Perhaps I’ll just ask them proofread the posts that particularly mention them.
Any failings (educationally or otherwise) of course are my fault. Isn’t that our role as parents? To be the beginning and ending, be the cause and bear the blame? At some point you hope that as the child becomes the adult they take on the responsibility for themselves, but not yet. No, not yet.
So where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. I do a fair bit of waffling around I know, but I just thought I’d share a little decision with you. I’m going to stop checking my technorati score. I’ve unfollowed KloutPerks. I’ve unsubscribed from the daily email I was getting from Postrank with my engagement score and I’m not even going to look at my Klout from now on.
It’s going to be tough. I may wibble in a corner for a little while. There may be pathetic wailing from time to time – please help me stay strong? I’m not withdrawing from Wikio or tots though – both of those support my ulterior motives, and even more importantly, they aren’t daily scores. The wikio ranking looks fab when I’m asking for books for me and the kids to review to support our fundraising efforts, or that we then donate on to families in NZ (and quite a lot of them are good for our home education too). I’m not earning atm, given the whole home education at home with three children thing, and reviewing stuff lets us get our hands on things that we couldn’t otherwise afford. And tots is exposure in the mainstream of the mummy blogs for home education, which is ulterior motive enough in itself. So there you go.
Is this liberation or lunacy? Only time will tell.
I don’t actively check any of my stats anymore. I just don’t have time and I think it would depress me. Now and again I log on to analytics to give people my daily unique numbers but that’s about it.
I’m a lot happier with it that way. I hope you will be too.
How do you keep track of who has been linking to you for the Where I am posts? Checking the various stats had become my nightly routine and you are right, it was depressing me. And using up time I could be doing other things with, so definitely time to chuck it. I really should know better by now.
Hey
Good for you
Lots of love Jax – I know how much it is a way to measure not just yourself, but your blog.
Merry´s most recent post ..What is that in the distance
@Merry so easy to lose yourself in it all though!
Good for you.
I think we all go through the obsessive stats thing at one time or another. I know I did and I’m over it now and much happier for it too.
x
Sian – MummyTips´s most recent post ..The Gallery Trees
@Sian gonna be tough for a few days I suspect (am already twitching over not checking technorati last night!) but am hoping end result will be greater happiness indeed!
not enough time to do everything, do what is most important in your life,best of luck with that.
Can be so easy to lose track of what that is…
I had a little glance at your link, but if I were to become any more statistic obsessed it would be really, really bad news.
Good for you!!!
Sarah´s most recent post ..Adventures of a drying housewife
I think this is where your comping obsession comes in, lol! You’re naturally competitive and it shows through your stats checking habits too. It’s good to try and be the best you can, and you run an excellent blog, or I wouldn’t be here reading and commenting. I suppose the answer is to just try not to care. You are you, and your blog is what it is – disregarding all the numbers and the ratings. Something to do with being happy in your own skin, or settled with your own blog. xxxx
kay wilkinson´s most recent post ..A Resting Place
I know this might sound weird, given I run an index, but I almost never look at my own stats. It’s not what motivates me to blog, it’s not what I’m blogging for, and it’s actually fairly easy to forget.
Because I blog on Typepad, I see a 3 month page views graph when I log in so I can see broadly what the trend is, but I would only log into Analytics if I’m looking for something specific. I have no idea about Klout or Postrank or Inlinks or any of that kind of thing.
Honestly, once you don’t look at it for a while, you stop thinking about it.
Sally´s most recent post ..Learning Through Play
@Jax – ah ok, I do see inlinks because I have the Wikio inlinks plugin and (rubbish) WordPress inlinks on my WordPress dashboard. People sometimes tell me they have linked to me too and of course, I know who links to Post of the Week/Friday Club because I read all those posts!
I suppose when I think of checking stats I think more of rankings and daily visitors. But inlinks are a stat, so yes I do see those.
Ella´s most recent post ..Comfort
@Ella Wikio plugin? Can’t find that anywhere, do you have a link to it? Does it only show inlinks from wikio registered blogs.
Yes, when I think of stats I think of rankings and daily visitors, but it’s also a way to look for inlinks. The wordpress dashboard really is pants I’m afraid, I don’t think it’s ever shown one of your posts. And if I’m not looking at my stats, I can’t use that way of tracking links from other sites.
Here are the Wikio tools:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/profile/wikio
It only shows inlinks from wikio registered blogs.
ella´s most recent post ..Brotherly love
Thanks, I’ll take a look at that later