Checking Your Stats Can Be Motivating
Mar 15th, 2007 by msdanielle
As of today, my blog has been officially up for one entire week! 
I figured that would be cause for celebration, as well as a reason to check my stats and report them to all of you.
Today I’m just posting my stats from Technorati and Alexa. For those of you who are new to the blogging world, it’s good to check these stats to see how your blog is doing compared to the rest of the online world (vs. private daily traffic stats which I’ll go over later). In a nut-shell, Technorati keeps a running tab on how all the blogs are doing out there, whereas Alexa tracks all sites on the internet. Neither of these are exact, so you sort of have to take their numbers with a grain of salt. But they give you an idea if you’re progressing or not, and how you’re doing relatively overall.
My Technorati Rank
As of last night, my Technorati ranking was 1,812,587. This number represents “the number of blogs, plus one, that have more than 2 blogs linking to them.” I look at that as a good thing, seeing as how Technorati claims to be currently tracking more than 71,000,000 blogs. One week ago, I was ranked at 2,763,138. Progress? I’d say so! Hiiiy fiiive!!
My Alexa Rank
Alexa is a toolbar that can be installed on PCs, and basically tracks the sites that Alexa users visit. Your rank is a combo of how many people per million reach your site, and the number of page views you get per visit. Understanding what the numbers mean can be tricky, so I recommend reading their definitions and disclaimers carefully. But at a glance, for instance, my three-month average represents what Alexa currently projects my average to be (since my site’s only been up for one week, it’s pretty high). But my one-week average shows a rank of 892,803. Progression? I’d give that a resounding “Woohoo!”
As a blogger, I think it’s really important to celebrate the small achievements and victories. I’m celebrating my progress in Technorati and Alexa, and the achievement of maintaining this site steadily all by myself. If you don’t celebrate the small victories, you won’t be motivated to continue. It’s what kills many blogs. I won’t be posting my stats weekly, I just wanted to use these as an example. But it’s also good to constantly make goals, so that you have something to strive for. I’m hoping to soon be in the Technorati top 100,000 blogs, and have a weekly Alexa ranking of under 100,000. Can I do it? I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. 
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It’s amazing how quickly your stats can rise – especially when you get your name out there!
You can do it!
I think we’re all hoping for the same thing
Best of luck to you!
thanks guys! words of encouragement are equally as motivating!
I dont think I got my blog to rise up that much when my blog was two weeks old. Congratulations to you
I LOVE checking stats as you know . . . . i love tracking and graphs even more!
You are so right, must do this more often. Thnx for sharing a useful tip.
Looks like you really picked up a head of steam since March with Technorati…well all the numbers for that matter
Nice job 
I’m the same way. I like to celebrate even the smallest of achievements. I recently hit the 100 mark for my authority rank on Technorati with my thingsbymike site and I did a private little happy dance. It makes me feel as though I’m making some sort of progress. While I mainly just blog for fun it’s still nice to see the rankings improve. It’s much more fun when other people are reading and having fun with you