I’m no successful blogger – if that is going to be merely defined by the hefty amount of followers/readers. page views and overall site visits, number of comments on each posts, and/or the perks (i.e. free stuff, event invitations, etc.) that one gets.
In spite of being in the blog-verse for more than a decade, I still don’t see myself wanting to do this gig professionally.
Free products are great. An all-expense paid trip to some breathtaking place because you’re being sponsored by a particular brand is fun. But it’s just not for me and this is not what I want as my career.
Why? Simple answer: I just don’t.
Of course, I want to earn a tiny sum of money through ads (emphasis on this because I don’t want to publish a half-assed post in exchange for some money) and sure, freebies wouldn’t be hurting anyone. But the thing is, I love writing but I don’t want to be “pressured” into putting out content just because I was compensated for it or the product that I’m reviewing and writing about was provided to me for free so I kinda-have-to-but-not-really-explicitly-said-by-the-PR-company-but-you-still-kinda-know-the-drill (LOL what) write about it.
So here’s my unsolicited tip to you:
Never focus on your blog’s statistics; focus on your content instead.
I have encountered several blogs and blog posts that are focused solely on views and likes and comments. If you started your blog simply because of those things, then fine. I just honestly don’t see and feel the importance of these things.
Sure it’s heartwarming to know that you have a lot of followers and a lot of people are visiting your blog on the daily and people are commenting on your posts. But to up these numbers shouldn’t be the sole goal of your blog.
I personally don’t mind if you update your blog once a month or five times a day so long as they’re worthy reads. I don’t appreciate posts that are obviously published because “hey, I haven’t posted in a while” or “oh my god, it’s Wednesday and I’m supposed to publish a post today because of my self-imposed posting schedule”.
Your blog’s content should be about things that you care about; things that you are passionate about – may it be fashion, beauty, DIY projects, or current events and personal rants if you’re the kind of person who has a lot of opinion about things.
Don’t publish content just for the heck of having an updated blog or keeping up with your “schedule” and for gaining likes, clicks, and followers. At the end of the day, statistics are just that – they’re merely numbers and nothing more.
Wouldn’t you rather gain your stats organically and not because “oh this person commented on my post so I have to comment on his/hers”? Wouldn’t you rather have a solid following of people that are actually reading the content that you’re putting out because they genuinely believe and are appreciative of what you have to say about a particular something? Wouldn’t you rather have a published content that is well-thought-of, well-researched, and well-written?
Or are we just in this to gain thousands of followers and views and likes?
I have been going through quite a number of blogs for the past few weeks and a lot of these bloggers are putting out content because they are looking to up their site’s statistics. There is no competition here, people. There’s no award given for whoever has the most number of followers or the highest count of visitors.
Again, it’s uplifting and encouraging to have hundreds or thousands of followers but if they’re not actually reading your content and are just there, typing empty comments that makes it pretty obvious that your post was not read, then it just makes the numbers pretty pointless.
Personally, when I do comment on your post, be sure that I actually did read every single word. I have been here long enough to know the effort, time, and energy that it takes to put out a decent and well-written content so I’m not going to belittle that by not reading what you took the time to put together.
These statistics are something to be appreciated and you should definitely be thankful for, but it should never be the center of your blogging focus.
biktoryaa 
Do you ever have that feeling of agreeing with everything you’ve read and end up not having a single thing to say? That’s exactly what I feel about your post! You perfectly worded everything that’s wrong with the blogging world now. Some people just do it for the like or their 15 seconds of fame. It sucks.
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Thank you! 🙂 I will never understand it, really. But a lot of these bloggers are foreigners. I rarely find any Filipina/o bloggers who are so into the statistics (we have Facebook for that — “pasikatin natin to” trend).
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I’ve seen some Filipinos who do it. You can see it on their posts especially on social media – linking back to their posts, etc. I personally don’t like it but I have learned to just let them do their thing. I can’t control it anyway. 🙂
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I missed this original post so I’m glad you called it out! 😀
I view statistics are personal growth. It’s not for comparing to anyone but myself.
There’s a practice that people are doing that bugs me a lot… they re-post old posts with a new date just to bump it to the top of the WP reader feed. Like, I just see the same post bumped up again and again. It’s just for more likes. Why? It’s so silly and clutters up my feed! It’s not new content.
I find it quite rude when it’s apparent that someone hasn’t read my post. Don’t waste time and effort.
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OH MY GOD YES! I thought that I was the only one who noticed that. I even read on one blogger’s “tips” that bumping up her old content is a good practice. It’s to avoid “dead days” on her blog. It’s so fucked up and so annoying. I swear!
It is actually rude. I spent hours (sometimes days) on these posts so I really would appreciate legitimate engagement.
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I am the blogger who was after the stats before (or maybe until now) but, I realized that I should post when I have time to write and when I have taken a nice photo (mas gusto ko talaga yung photo part, nakakatuwa kasi pag maganda yung pics.) Wala nako masyadong time to blog (nakakalungkot pero ganun talaga) pero pag nakapagpublish ako, ang saya ko ulit. Hehe. Happy that you’re back to blogging! Kahit magbasa ng blogs, bihira ko na rin magawa. Kaya I backread na lang. 😁
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I think we’ve all been there — the person who was once more focused on the stats more than the content; or at least focused on the stats as well as the content. I mean, that’s fine if this is what one wants to do for a living, I just don’t think that when you are just starting, you have to focus on it more than the actual posts. Nakakainis lang kasi yung halos kakasimula palang pero instead of focusing sa content para maka-gain ng organic readers, napaka-focused agad sa stats na hindi naman dapat muna problemahin. Hahaha. And amen to magagandang pictures! Hindi rin ako nakakapagpost unless may pictures na. :p And yes, thank youuuu! Happy to be back. 🙂
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I love what you said about if you take the time to comment, that means you took the time to actually read. I’ve had comments before that are so generic and so obviously just addressing one line or one picture without actually reading the full post and it can be a bit disheartening. I really enjoyed the honesty of this post.
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You got that right! It really is disheartening to read generic comments from people who obviously didn’t even bother to read the entire post. It’s like “hey look I posted a comment on your post so please post a comment on mine, too”. Gurl, no. 😦 And thanks. Sometimes I can be too honest for my own good. Lol
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Just like what they say, the road to the top is never easy and that applies to any field. Sadly, today’s generation of new bloggers tend to forget that and rely too much on statistics and quantity. (This carries over from the instant gratification mentality prevalent in today’s time.)
I’ve been following some blogs that were obviously made just to collect likes. I’m not name-dropping here, but you’ll find their content as…shitty at first glance. A lot of grammatical flaws, if not the obvious press release. (You’ll know ’em when you see ’em.) In addition, the annoying non-sequitur comments from other bloggers (most especially from the foreigners) are something to watch out for.
Seconding you on the issue of content. It’s important that you don’t publish posts one after the other, to avoid saturating your readers. If I may share something that I do on my blog: don’t swamp readers with new posts everyday. Best to wait for some time (at least a week) before publishing a new one. That way, readers who find my blog get to “steep” in the newest post for some time. Heck, they even get to back-read some of my old posts.
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Hahaha. Shitty really is a perfect description. I absolutely hate it! I remember back in the early 2000s, blogs had more substance. Regardless if they didn’t have a set topic (say, beauty or lifestyle or fashion or whatever) for their blog, they still put content that had more meaning. Now, people are just posting for the sake of posting; for the sake of garnering likes and followers. 😦
And those comments, oh good lord, tell me about it! It’s a combination of “great post” (or the like) + their own blog’s link. It’s so fucking obvious that the content was not even read and the sole purpose of the comment was to gain a possible new follower or a comment on /their/ own post as well. It sucks!
As for the frequency of publishing of content, I really don’t mind. Like I mentioned, I don’t care if one publishes a post once a month or five times a day — the point is, these posts should be of substance and not just an obviously-written content for the sake of having a published post on that given day. Take Karen (from makeupandbeautyblog.com) for example. Granted, she already has thousands of readers on the daily but she posts like 3-5 times a day and every single one of those are very well-written. Of course, she has to keep up with the latest beauty/makeup releases that’s why she publishes that often but the point is that they’re not half-assed.
I just feel like these newer bloggers should realize that it’s never about the statistics, especially when you’re just starting.
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Thanks for the tips
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I really liked your words. Sometimes we give a lot of importance to stats, but they don’t mean anything if we are posting just for posting. I don’t really have a posting schedule, because I rather post once in a while than, say, every 2 days, for example. But when I post I really feel proud of what I’m putting out there, and I feel I couldn’t have done anything better. I personally believe in content over quantity, and I’m glad to find someone who feels the same! Xx
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I feel like a lot of newer bloggers are those who are more like this. They want to be up there right away and they’re sacrificing their content along the way, which is just incredibly sad. I actually got that schedule thing on one of the “blogging tips” post that I read somewhere. She mentioned something about keeping a blogging schedule and I was like “gurl, that’s not necessary, please!” These people are ending up putting out inadequate blog posts just for the sake of keeping up with their sched. And yes, that too! Definitely content over quantity!
Thanks! Glad that you read this post and that you feel the same way, too 🙂
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I agree with you. At the end of the day, all that matters is being true to yourself!
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Exactly! There’s nothing better than being true to one’s self 🙂
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Amazing! I could not agree with your thoughts more. I have slowly moved away from checking my stats on a daily basis. And now I am more focused on the content that I deliver, ensuring that I am proud of my ‘portfolio’ of work.
So this was a really encouraging piece to read. Thank you for sharing your perspective. 😍
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I still do check my stats from time to time but I don’t really give it so much of my attention. I would rather think about what I’m going to be blogging about next than think about how I could gain more followers. People should really start focusing on content more than anything else. If we’re blogging about quality topics and we’re writing about things that many people could relate to, then those *numbers* would just multiply naturally.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you feel the same way as I do about this 🙂
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I love that thought process! Because you are absolutely right. You want organic growth. And a loyal readership. Otherwise it will all begin to feel disingenuous. Would definitely rather 1 loyal follower over 100 that don’t even read what I write. ☺️
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I love the modesty of this post. I agree with you, there is a pressure from the new age blogger to push content just to up their sites stats. Personally, I love the theraputic side to writing and if I get one comment I’m happy.
Alexis||https://lidsandtricks.com/
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Writing is actually therapeutic for me, too. I started blogging in 2005 because of my anxiety and depression and writing about what I’m feeling definitely helped. And yes, a single comment still definitely makes me all giddy, too. 🙂
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