years ago, there was a sponsor we were promoting hard and heavy, and we checked our stats daily. i’d worry on days when traffic was down, exalt when it was up, on days when sales were up i’d try and do more of what i had done recently, then despair when i did those things and traffic went down. on days when traffic was down and sales were up, i’d have mixed feelings, but be depressed when sales were down and traffic was up.
want to know something funny? at the end of each month, no matter how large the daily differences were, our sales - and traffic - were very close to the same. and i mean REALLY close. all those daily changes averaged out. and when there WAS a real change, you could only see it by looking across a month or more. otherwise it’s changes looked like the day to day changes.
now i only check stats daily if i have a new campaign and am changing things one at a time and it’s part of knowing what to tweak next. say adding a large new traffic source or changing text on some links. mostly i don’t check any stats even once a week - it’s closer to once a month.
Stats do drive me crazy at times. Some days I just get in my head that something is wrong… and any little thing can set me off on a stats quest. I check, poke and prod… until I find something that I think is sign of my own doom.
But then after a while, i look at it again and notice it was nothing… and as you say, the only really good way of using stats are over a longer time.
Day to day there will always be what you might thing are big changes, but month to month, not soo much. And if I look at it over years, its very clear its going well and upwards.
I am a stats addict, no matter how hard I try I just can’t break the habit of looking at stats first thing every morning before my eyes are focused enough to take in what I am looking at.
Constantly checking where traffic is coming from and what can I do to make it better.
Funny thing is no matter how hard I look at the end of the week they are what they are.
I think I will go looking for a support group now !!
Thats is so true, no matter how hard you look it doesnt change them.
[quote=barnkin;23426]I am a stats addict, no matter how hard I try I just can’t break the habit of looking at stats first thing every morning before my eyes are focused enough to take in what I am looking at.
Constantly checking where traffic is coming from and what can I do to make it better.
Funny thing is no matter how hard I look at the end of the week they are what they are.
I think I will go looking for a support group now !![/quote]
we should form stats-a-holics anonymous. i’m sure a LOT of webmasters will fit right in
[quote=barnkin;23426]I am a stats addict, no matter how hard I try I just can’t break the habit of looking at stats first thing every morning before my eyes are focused enough to take in what I am looking at.
Constantly checking where traffic is coming from and what can I do to make it better.
Funny thing is no matter how hard I look at the end of the week they are what they are.
I think I will go looking for a support group now !![/quote]
I always look at stats in the morning while having my first cig and coffee… It takes me about 30 seconds to see how much sales I’ve made and if rebills are there…
Years ago I looked at the stats almost every hour and was depressed if there were no sales… then I learned that It was just plain crazy, so those 30 seconds are good enough for me now:)
Yes apart from statsremote each morning, its probably best avoided to check to often.
[quote=milivanili;23463]I always look at stats in the morning while having my first cig and coffee… It takes me about 30 seconds to see how much sales I’ve made and if rebills are there…
Years ago I looked at the stats almost every hour and was depressed if there were no sales… then I learned that It was just plain crazy, so those 30 seconds are good enough for me now:)[/quote]
My stats are my friend. I dont want to give them up. Of course when sales die they are also my enemy and depress me. I probably spend too much time worrying about clicks and sales and ratios etc but its the only true measure of my performance that I have, as I have no manager to tell me if Im doing OK or not.
With stats remote, checking stats is quite a passive thing for me. I just tend to hover my cursor over their icon every now and again. It passes the time when I’m waiting for a page to load I don’t check the specifics with a sponsor unless I see something unusual on SR.
