3 ms·
> I removed them in back in 2017, with no discernible negative impact on my writing motivation In other words, “I don’t need analytics on my blog”? Sure, some
by dahart 3y ago
> I removed them in back in 2017, with no discernible negative impact on my writing motivation
In other words, “I don’t need analytics on my blog”? Sure, some people don’t need it, and sure focusing on analytics can have downsides, but why assume or project your assumptions on others? Maybe the slightly dramatic or hyperbolic title is something the author learned by watching analytics or seeing what other popular blog titles do… ;)
For anyone who wants to reach a wider audience, analytics can be great. Speaking from experience trying to write a blog for a startup -- analytics will show you that the things you care about aren’t the things your audience cares about. :) Analytics can help you learn what topics engage your audience. They can also show you how when you go deep and technical on things, hardly anyone reads to the end or engages. But! Sometimes those kinds of posts will have much more staying power in the long run. Personally analytics helped me bring more balance and variety to my posts, and not shun the deep dives necessarily, just avoid overdoing them. That was nice in a way because it made writing easier; I thought I needed to do a long high quality piece every time, and that assumption was wrong.
- woodruffw 3y agoIt's a post about a personal blog; I don't think the claims in it necessarily apply to a corporate or startup blog, where business interests may trump what (in my opinion are) healthy personal blog-writing habits.
- dahart 3y agoSure, though the title doesn’t say ‘your personal blog’, so if it was meant for a subset of blogs, that’s another way it’s making assumptions and could have been more specific… but then it wouldn’t have people reacting to it! ;) Personally, I think my point is valid for personal blogs too. Writers who would like to grow their audience can benefit from seeing the analytics. I don’t know what healthy writing habits are… I suspect my HN commenting habits aren’t super healthy. ;) It’s definitely possible to focus too much on analytics, my point is simply that saying “you” don’t need them at all is perhaps silly. They’re a useful tool, one of many.
- woodruffw 3y agoThe second sentence of the post says that it's about personal blogs. You're right that "I don't need analytics on my personal blog" would be a strictly more descriptive title. But I don't write blog posts for titles, I write them for their content, expecting people to actually read the content and contextualize it as necessary. One reasonable form of contextualization would be a value judgment like "actually, I do care about reader numbers" and ignoring the rest of the post's prescriptions.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dahart 3y agoYou’re right. This is all in fun, the post is being a little cheeky. My crit is too. I don’t write posts for the titles either, but you know as well as I do that titles are especially important. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be a little intriguing or dramatic with a title, that is one of the valid functions of a title, but I think it’s fair game to call it out when the title is misleading or inaccurate or makes assumptions, no? The fact of the matter is there are plenty of people who like seeing analytics on their personal blogs.