How do you measure "success"?

I don't. I don't care how many readers my blog gets. It's there for me as an outlet not as a means to any sort of writing success. Blogging is t the type of writing I want to become known for.

I used to think I was talking to a wall. Actualy I am pretty sure I do. But that voice bounces back. Hmm.

If you're enjoying blogging, then you're succesful.

If you have even one person read a post, then you're succesful.

If you have 900 hits a month, then (in my honest opinion) you're succesful.

I agree with all the statements above, now i just started blogging like two weeks ago so I can't say to much but I see that your blog is very informative and it seems as though you have a very strong connection to the topic at hand.

The non-fic has (so far this month) raked up 1,031 views according to the stats in blogspot. Do I use that as a measure of success? Nope. Putting something online which nobody else has listed is, for me, more of an achievement - thus far, there are fifteen or so posts which I have beaten everyone else online with. I have another thirty or so titles which aren't indexed anywhere so far that I am putting together material on. I am not competing with other bloggers for views or whatever (I really couldn't care less), but am competing with myself to dig deeper into things which have thus far been overlooked.

I use subscriber count. It's not that I don't notice if I get 500 hits on a post all of a sudden, but that's temporary. The proof of the pudding is how many subscribe and stick around.

The same goes for comments. Sometimes people get chatty. Sometimes they go quiet. But they're still reading.

Subscriber count won't go up consistently though. Expect it to have mini dips and plateaus, followed by sudden rises. So don't panic if it lowers a bit over a holiday or stays stable for a couple of months.

Oh, this drives me nuts. I know I shouldn't keep obsessing about my blog stats but I do! (I'm so bad I do searches for other people talking about what kinds of numbers they get so I can compare. And every power of 2 of blog posts I've started doing a post about my numbers so other obsessive people searching out the same thing can compare. I am an enabler! Aaa!)

And the subscriber thing drives me mad because I'm pretty sure Wordpress only records people who subscribe in particular ways -- for instance, I get a lot of hits from Google Reader, way more than the number of subscribers I have, so I'm pretty sure Wordpress isn't recording those in the same way.

Like the OP, I try to measure things by whether my stats increase month to month relative to themselves. But it's hard not to compare to other people. And I also don't get a lot of comments -- though I've started to wonder about commenting, because when I crosspost to established communities, what I write gets a LOT of comments. On my own blog, only a few, even on posts that have gotten Tweeted and Facebooked around a lot and have gotten a lot of hits. So I do think there's some aspect of community at work, and that people will be more likely to comment if there's already a lively comment thread they want to respond to....it's all about getting that first critical mass of commenters, I think!

I never look at my stats, unless I'm using my daily hits for professional purposes (e.g. requesting books for review, and that's not something I do these days) or fishing for amusing search terms to blog about (I do round-ups a few times a year).

I write for myself, my friends and family, and a small circle of writing and blogging friends whose blogs I also try to comment on in turn. If a few new commenters visit, that's fantastic, but I'm not blogging for fame or fortune.

To expand on the original question, when would you all consider your blog/facebook page successful in terms of selling a book proposal? I've been hesitent to use them as selling points because I don't know that the #'s are impressive enough, but reading this thread I'm thinking maybe I'm doing okay.
I have a FB page (with the same title as the book) with 1700 fans. My blog was getting around 1000 pageviews per month in the first half of 2012 and after a 20,000 spike in July, 3000-12000 per month (it has 39 followers & that has increased very slowly.) I'm certainly happy with those numbers & where they are going, but when communicating with a publisher or agent, at what point would you call your blog or facebook page "active" or "successful"? or would you quote the #'s?

I know this is a couple days late, but here goes my assessment of things.

New visitors a day/month are a vanity metric. It doesn't convert to anything, sometimes those visitors are just older spider bots, sometimes they are someone who clicked a link then went back to google. You're much better off focusing on return visitors and engagement levels if you're looking at "visitor" metrics.

As someone else above said, subscribers, in particular ones you can get on a mailing list are significantly more valuable than any other viewer. If you haven't started building your email list you should start now.

Facebook is a different ballgame, if have a Facebook page you should read up on EdgeRank. It's Facebook's algorithm that helps aggregate your content to all your fans. Just because you have fans, doesn't mean they even see your content. It's a combination of creating affinity, posting regularly, and engagement. You have probably liked page in the past, then forgot about it. If you (the fan) don't engage in the page, you slowly stop seeing the pages updates.

Determining the success of your blog/Facebook page is determined more on what your goals are for it. As you've seen from the myriad of responses, some have a blog just to write for a small group and others are using it to sell. Are you wanting to sell 20 books or thousands? Or do you just want a group of friends and family. From your initial question it sounds like you want more of the selling or larger following. Don't compare yourself to "others" and their visitor counts. It's a can of worms for low self-esteem because you see "x-writer" with +2,000 views. It takes time, be patient, and address your goals.

Hope that helps!
Tyson

slhuang said:

Like the OP, I try to measure things by whether my stats increase month to month relative to themselves. But it's hard not to compare to other people.

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Just thought I'd mention - I really like your blog. It's one of my faves.

I measure my success by whether I'm happy with a particular thing of mine. I started my blog about a week ago, and I'm happy with it. I have only two posts on there so far, but I plan to post when I feel I have something important/profound/interesting to say. I don't intend to check out stats.

On a different note, I did check out LiterateParakeet's blog and slhuang's blog, and I appreciate them both!

Determining the success of your blog/Facebook page is determined more on what your goals are for it. As you've seen from the myriad of responses, some have a blog just to write for a small group and others are using it to sell. Are you wanting to sell 20 books or thousands? Or do you just want a group of friends and family. From your initial question it sounds like you want more of the selling or larger following. Don't compare yourself to "others" and their visitor counts. It's a can of worms for low self-esteem because you see "x-writer" with +2,000 views. It takes time, be patient, and address your goals.

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Welcome to AW, Tyson! And thanks for all the insight. From what I've seen here most writers on the board are interested in attracting followers, and most in particular are interested in attracting followers that will translate into readers of their work in addition to their blogs. There have been a lot of threads on whether blogs are even at all effective in boosting book sales (personally, I've found I like blogging for the sake of it, but I've seen others on here whose only goal is boosting book readership and would rather be writing their next books). Since it seems like this is an area of expertise for you, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on how AWers can convert blog readers to book readers? (I realize this might be a bigger question than I'm aware of, so if you don't have time to answer it and/or want to point us toward a blog entry instead, that's totally fine with me. I don't mean to be taking advantage of your expertise. )

mccardey said:

Just thought I'd mention - I really like your blog. It's one of my faves.

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Oh, wow, thanks! ::blushes:: I'm really quite incredibly flattered now.

Slhuang - I would love to take a moment to answer your question. I'm out about with family today, but will get you an answer and some ideas before the weeks end.

Also, I'm open to any questions or comments, so ask away. If I don't know, I'll tell you. Have a great day!

I look at success in my blogging a few ways.

1) Is my readership growing? Repeat visitors? Subscribers?
2) Are people commenting? Are the posts starting conversations?
3) Is it doing what I wanted it to do for myself? For me, that's giving me a spot to be honest, and have some people enjoy, engage, and respond.

So, at the moment, I consider my blog successful. Not a heavy hitter that would impress many, but it continues to grow. I'm a blabberfingers, and I do want people to read, and enjoy enough to think of my blog and return for new posts.

I just want to jump in here to recommend everyone use more than one method of measurement, particularly if you're self-hosted. You may be totally shocked by the difference in numbers. Google Analytics is universally considered the most sound, but I know early on with my site they missed a lot of activity. On the flipside, there are services that will include all bots and spiders, which aren't "real" traffic and will inflate your stats.

This is something to keep in mind when comparing yourself to others. If someone says they're averaging 1,000 hits per day? Maybe they are, maybe they aren't.

Also, every site is different. Your 50 subscribers might be way more engaged than someone else's 500 subscribers. I have a hell of a time getting a decent number of Facebook likes compared to what my readership is. I've tried different things, and I just can't make it happen. Oh well. *shrug*

That said: try not to worry about anyone else's numbers but your own. I have competition in my niche, but most of those sites have staffs of writers and techies that make it impossible for me to compete on that level. All I can do is generate good content, and then smirk to myself when they link to it.

slhuang - To address your question on converting blog readers to book readers, I would focus heavily on developing a mailing list, then a subscriber list. (I can go further into the difference of the two if you'd like.)

The reason is this, how many blogs do you check a day? How many RSS feeds do you follow? Add in Facebook, say you have 1,500 likes, what is your reach? What happens when Facebook changes their algorithm and you can only now reach 200 unless you're willing to pay?

Now most people don't give out their emails to everyone that asks anymore. So you've got a tighter focus group. On top of that, when people get emails they often spend time going through each one, opening each email, or at least paying attention to the title. You can drip content about book releases, new blog posts, and engage your readers. Emails can be a double edged sword though, too many emails and you'll get flagged as spam; too little emails and people forget who you are and when they signed up for your blog/newsletter.

I hope that answers your question. Take care,

Tyson

Tyson, that is extremely helpful! Thank you so much!

Using your blog to build a mailing list won't help convert blog readers to book readers: all it'll do is get you a list of people who have visited your blog.

Consistently blogging entertaining, interesting or useful articles and writing a good book and publishing it well will help with sales, though.

I delete unread all the sales emails I get of the kind that TheSocialSketch describes. Most of my friends do, too.

Content is key. Tricks like SEO and mailing lists are not really effective for most writers, especially writers of fiction, no matter what genre they write in.

IMHO, few people love a writer enough to read endless mailings from them. How many such lists do you subscribe to and actually read? I think that, in most cases, there is a more direct path from online contact to sale.

But then my experience with newsletters was that even I am not that interested in me.

TheSocialSketch said:

slhuang - To address your question on converting blog readers to book readers, I would focus heavily on developing a mailing list, then a subscriber list. (I can go further into the difference of the two if you'd like.)

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Bluntly put, this is stupid advice unless you're a well-established author.

It's really stupid advice, unless you're a marketer who can charge authors.

How many of you have bought books because of a newsletter?

Not a book from an author you're familiar with but someone who has sent you email?

Or, far more likely, spammed you.

Let your publisher run lists.

Writers should spend time and energy writing books—not funding SEO marketing dweebs.

For measuring your success, you should make a list with your aims like the ones, ap123 mentioned. These aims should be set in relation to the last months, to stay realistic. When one aim for example is to increase your traffic by 2% a month, and you do not accomplish it, try to put more links on other sites with more traffic.
This is a method, which keeps you improving.