3 Reasons to Ignore your Analytics
I’m a numbers guy, and I have been for a long time. I love the map that they provide – if the numbers don’t add up, do something else. I’ve often felt that the numbers don’t lie- to be a great blogger I need big numbers. This has lead me to believe that to have self worth I need to have numbers, and that’s the danger of metrics.
Numbers can be deceptive…
The Numbers CAN and DO lie
The Numbers DO NOT make YOU who YOU ARE.
I have had to train myself to keep the numbers in mind, use them to shape my behavior, but not change who I am. Recently I read (and if I can find the source – I’ll post it in the comments) that somewhere around 75% of site owners obsess about their Google Analytics but only 20% of them use that information to do something differently. In his book “Crush It”, Gary Vaynerchuk warns us about not paying attention to metrics for the first year as it will only distract you! I love that – but cannot bear to ignore them all together. So here are three reasons that I’m going to tell myself that I need to focus on analytics less.
1. ) It’s not about the amount – it’s about the amount that they care.
Not having the right kind of numbers is about as bad as having no numbers at all. The fact that I have a small number of people who really care about who I am, and comment about what I do is awesome. I think back to others that I have worked with who have a huge number of followers (in the 6 digits) but they could not get any of them to come to a FREE web event. They had numbers, but their numbers only wanted the reciprocal follow back to make their numbers big too. FYI – if you are involved in internet marketing, having a ton of other internet marketers following you doesn’t matter at all; they don’t care about you. If you un-follow them, I’m sure that they will do the same (some automatically) and with that being the case what’s the true value of that relationship?
2.) Your self worth is not in the numbers – nor it should not be.
I know that I said this above, but it needs to be said in more than just one line. After three years of trying, I still consider myself a budding blogger because I am still not where I want to be. But maybe the whole issue is tied up in “where I want to be”. My wife summed me up and called me out in one reply to a rant on Facebook. (I’m so grateful that God gave me a wife that understands me more than I do!) When I posed the question of why I am never happy with my own site design, she said , “Because you need to be constantly creative and when you don’t find creative satisfaction in the work given to you my others, you pursue it in your own endeavors. Also you become dissatisfied/bored easily and therefore seek change for something bigger and better again and again.” At times I have place parts of my self-worth into things that I become unsatisfied with – making me unsatisfied with my self-worth. Regardless of what Fight Club said, you are not your job – you are special, you do matter, and you have meaning. (At least you can!)
3.) If it’s YOUR numbers that YOU are worried about it will remain about YOU.
If the focus of your life is about you – then you’re missing it. Let me tell you from personal experience, you can live with a purpose when you come to regard your needs as secondary. In ignoring your analytics and truly analyze what your readers, your viewers, your audience, regardless of size, needs and answer that call you will win without question every time. If you make them the focus (note that I didn’t say to make them first) they will take notice in your posts, videos, and interactions. Yes, you can get a glimps of what they need via the data trail that they leave in coming and going, but you will not find it if it’s not there. The best way to do this is to flat out ask what they need more of!
On a more personal note:
If I can ignore or make analytics or metrics less important and in the process recognize your needs more, I think that I might have a shot a getting to where I want to be.
So I guess the next question is:
What do you want more of???!!
I was going to post a poll – but then I’d have to guess what it is you’re looking for – so I’m going to leave up to you in the comments to tell me. We’ve had tons of response regarding backup solutions, and becoming a better computer users. I’ve also had guest writers who have spilled their guts about what’s working for them in their new DSLR workflows. Because I’m making Powered Production about you – you’ll need to tell me what you want (please).
BTW – If you’ve not read Seth Godin’s book, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Numbers, Numbers, Big or Small….
Thanks Brad for the honest Post.
I remember asking you what the Bounce rate Meant on the Analytics,
and after you explained it and I realized the impact of Bounce Rate
varies;, depending on the Master Plan (Definite major Purpose of the Website/Blog
it became clear to me that was not important in my situation.
But for the past 50 years marketing and consulting, I firmly believe HISTORY, and questioning the "WHY" of any result is imperative for the smooth Growth of any Business Venture. That being said we have always looked at metrics…just not as easily in the past.
I actually enjoy seeing change in Numbers, improvement in areas I CONSIDER Important, but the real IMPORTANCE is in the Bottom Line.
What is my return on Investment of Time Energy and Capital
Your last three posts have been Stellar!
Another note on THE NUMBERS…
It is still imperative that your Story be told to large numbers of people who want to hear it.
The skill set to hone is the ability to get your message to THEM
I included one of my old Rant Videos…
[youtube G-I-q1flkvI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-I-q1flkvI youtube]
I agree with you chuck! I am also finding it very difficult to get time to write about all the jobs we do and using the numbers from Google Analytics. I have ended up outsourcing my SEO.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brad Parler, Chuck Bartok. Chuck Bartok said: More Brilliance from @Brad_Parler ..Three Reasons to Ignore Analytics | Powered Production http://bit.ly/dwnDcg He is on a Roll! [...]
Let's see….. What do I want more of? Time would be nice, but we all know that is an extremely limited supply and we never know when it will run out for each one of us.
So next on my list would probably be funds. Not just for myself and my family, but enough to be able to make a positive impact on others peoples lives.
I enjoy the feeling I get when I am able to help someone. Whether it is helping them understand how a website works so they can start building their own websites, or giving my time and capital to local kitchens to help feed and cloth the poor.
As for the numbers, you can get the numbers to lie by applying different metrics to them so it is all about how you WANT them to look. If I have 50,000 visitors to one of my sales blogs, and discounted all the returning visitors. Then took THOSE numbers and compared the new visitors to sales, it would be easy to say that a product is currently running at a 40% conversion rate. The issue is, most of my visitors are consistent readers and return quite regularly. so if I get 40 sales out of 100 NEW visitors and not a single sale from existing readers, I could easily 'say' that the product is converting at 40%. But I am making the numbers 'lie' in my favor by pruning down the data to give me a more positive stat to show to my affiliates. This is very common practice in marketing today.
I am not about more regulation, but I WOULD like to know HOW the stats are being generated when someone puts up a promotion or sends out an email touting their newest product.
Thank you for the opportunity to let you know what I would like !
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Well Mark, I didn't mean more in your life – but more at this site, next time I'll be more direct.
I agree with you about number, they can be spun to say what ever you want.
Well now that you say that,……
I would say more good info on video creation, storage and editing. Like which software works best for the money and if there are decent editors out there that don't cost an arm and a leg.
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