Reading the reactions of the people who were accepted into 9rules is always humbling to me. Always. I am very thankful and perhaps that is why I tend to be protective.

I was reading Transformatum and Scott said:

I’m thinking of installing Mint to make tracking easier.

You know how in the movies someone says “Noooooo!” in slow motion? That is what I was thinking. I just wanted to stop him.

Statistics are great but I compare that to a similar situation: a person trying to lose weight that constantly checks the scale. From a female perspective there are certain times when, to save your sanity, you should stay away from the scale because what the numbers say might not be a true picture of what is really happening with your body.

Same goes with statistics. I wrote earlier that traffic is not a true indicator of success or opportunity. In Amy’s case, she did not see a spike in traffic to account for everything she experienced. VC interest, TV opportunities. Yeah. Did you hear me? No significant spike in traffic.

Sometimes, fascination with stats can cause a writer to lose the style that got them the recognition in the first place when they attempt to get more traffic. A perfect example: writers realized writing “how-to” or “top 10 ways” type articles get them on Digg. They might not have written one before but to get on Digg they pour out those type of articles. Well, their audience wasn’t in to those type of articles so they exchanged smaller loyal traffic for large one-hit traffic.

I can understand wanting to know how many people are reading your site. From a commercial standpoint, it’s essential but again, if the content is good, people will follow. Stats drop, there is someone better than you and watching the stats isn’t going to help that, is it?

Stats are only indicators. I rarely look at my stats because for me there are more important indicators – like people interacting with me. But I write for myself not necessarily to be read. I’ve changed my sites many times – but readers are always there. I try to improve myself – but I don’t use the stats as an indicator of my success.

So you new 9rules people, don’t get to caught up in the stats. I’m not saying to stay away from Mint. Just don’t look at your stats everyday. Focus on your writing – people will come because you’re good. Period.