I made it! The 8th March, my blog reached its five year anniversary. It has been fun coming up with ideas for content and writing posts. I’ve met lots of readers, expanded my bookish horizons and received endless book recommendations. I’ve also learned a lot about blogging and the blog has fulfilled its original intention which was:
- Give me an outlet for writing. I quite like to write and a blog seemed to be a suitable platform: Informal and fun without any restrictions or guidelines. Perfect!
- Even if my spoken English is fine, writing in English is more difficult for me. Compared to five years ago, I feel more confident now and my written language has improved. Still, you are always welcome to correct me, if I make mistakes (which unfortunately does happen).
It’s no secret, I am a data analyst by heart. I don’t think blog stats are particularly important, but when presented with stats, my brain will inevitably start to analyse, interpret and search for patterns. So I might as well share it with you. In this post, I will discuss general blog stats and look at, which posts get popular. In part two, I’ll look at blog visitors and how they find me.
Before diving into the stats, I should emphasize, I’m a fair-weather blogger (around two posts per month on average) with no participation in social media or blog tours. Bloggers with a different profile may have stats characteristics very different from mine.
1. The Overall Blog Stats
My five-year stats are the story of “almost”. In my five years as a blogger, I almost wrote 200 posts and almost reached 100k views. But not quite.
1.1 Viewing Stats
The first year, I had no clue what I was doing. I experimented with content and played around with layout. My viewing numbers were below 6k. From then on, I’ve seen an exponential growth, which, admittedly, is a lot easier to achieve, when starting out from such a low level.
Blog growth over time is to some extent a question of mathematics. The more posts you have on your blog, the more views you receive. At least that holds true, if some of your blog posts are evergreens (see section 2.2). Furthermore, older blogs may have a higher likelihood of achieving a decent Google ranking.
1.2 Interaction Stats
For many bloggers, interaction is a lot more important than views. I have thoroughly enjoyed the interaction part of blogging, but in later years I’ve been less focused on that aspect, mostly due to time constraints.
I believe, many bloggers were more active in the blogging community during the first years of Covid, when some of us were in full lockdown. After the lockdown years, there has been a significant drop in my interaction stats. This may be a general trend, unrelated to Covid. Many people I “talked to” the first couple of years are no longer active bloggers. And video (Youtube / TikTok) is the dominating medium these days.
2. Categorising Blog Posts
Blogging stats provide a jungle of interesting data to analyse and I’ve identified a number of recurring stats profiles, which I will discuss below.
2.1 The Evergreen
Evergreen posts will keep your blog alive, even when you don’t have time to post. Bookish posts with potential to become evergreens include:
- Posts about classics (Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- List posts (Dark Academia Books: Can anything match The Secret History?)
- Discussion posts (Should you be reading outside of your comfort zone?)
- “How to” posts (On the Kindle: Unread books and how to keep track of them?)
The last post isn’t really a “How to” post, but I’m sure people click on it, because they think it is. Unintentional clickbait?
What I Learned from Frankenstein has a typical evergreen stats profile. It got views around the time of posting, mostly by blog subscribers. Then it took a while to achieve a decent search engine ranking and after that, it has got a trickle of daily views. Without being super popular, the number of views still add up over time. The dip in views over the summer may indicate a certain amount of the views are related to schoolwork.
2.2 The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is a short lived post, which does well when first posted, both in terms of views and interaction. After that, it pretty much falls off the radar. A good example are meme posts such as WWW Wednesday. These posts get attention due to the community aspect, but after a few days, they have already become irrelevant.
A stargazer-specific example of a Shooting Star is my two-year anniversary post, Judging a book by its cover, judging a blogger by their avatar?. With 93 comments and 91 likes, it is one of my most successful posts in terms of interaction, but it barely gets any views these days.
2.3 The Seasonal Post
Many people read seasonally and you’ll find lots of posts such as Beach Reads for the Summer Holiday, Christmas Stories and Books with a Winter Setting. These tend to get the most views in the season they relate to. I have a few of those. My most extreme example is the April-themed post, Spring Reading – April is the Cruelest Month?, which gets its vast majority of views in April.
2.4 The Event-driven Post
Sometimes, certain events may give a boost to an older post. Typical examples from the bookish world include film adaptation of a novel, book prize attention, controversy around an author, death of an author or publication of the next book in a popular series.
My review of The Doll Factory was shaping up to fit nicely into a separate blog post category, namely the no-hopers with very few views overall. Then in November 2023, a television adaptation in six parts started on Paramount. Unsurprisingly, this increased views of my post significantly. By now, the show is over and I suspect the post will disappear into obscurity once again.
3. Conclusion and advice to new bloggers
In the above section, I showed different examples of post, which have gained some degree of popularity, although in very different ways. Some achieved good social interaction, others a decent number of views. Some had a slow trickle of views, others a short-lived burst.
Can you use this information about which posts get popular to optimise your views? I doubt it. Bearing the stats above in mind, it should be no surprise, that my blogging views are mostly driven by evergreen posts, with the event-driven posts providing a boost now and then.
However, if you are a small, insignificant blogger like me, it isn’t necessarily easy to predict which posts will make it to evergreen status. Writing a post about a classic is no guarantee. The downside about classics (in terms of blog views) is the large amount of content already out there.
I’ve never done anything to optimise my number of views. Instead, I’ve stuck to the advice below. So that would also be my recommendations to new bloggers out there.
3.1 Write about what you find interesting
If you start to write in order to get views instead of focusing on what you enjoy, you won’t make it long as a blogger. Also, your enthusiasm for a specific subject is bound to come out in your writing, making it more fun and engaging for the reader. The correlation isn’t perfect, but there is a strong link between posts I’ve highly enjoyed writing and posts with many views. If I don’t feel inspired to write about a specific book, I won’t. Honestly, if blogging is a hobby, it shouldn’t feel like homework. Enthusiasm should always be the main driver.
3.2 Make an effort
There is a clear tendency that posts, where I’ve put in an effort, get the most views. Putting in an effort and being proud of a post, also makes blogging more fun and satisfactory for me. Making an effort can materialise in many ways.
- Write an in-depth review or analysis. This is typically more interesting for other readers compared to posts, where you just write a brief summary of the plot.
- Come up with an original idea. Even when writing about books with thousands of reviews, a different angle or an original take can make your post stand out.
- Do research for discussion posts. I’ve got lots of ideas for discussion posts, which are all held back by me needing to do some research. However, I think it’s worth it and I always enjoy, when other people do a well-researched post.
3.3 Have Fun
The most important advice, trumping the two previous suggestions by miles, is to have fun. Silly memes, random spur-of-the-moment ideas and very alternative reviews; my blog contains it all. For a casual blogger like me, fun really is the key-word. If you have fun blogging, who cares about the number of views?
Phew! That was a very long post. If anyone else out there looks at their blog stats, I would love to know, if you observe the same patterns as I do. Which posts get popular on your blog? You are also welcome to ask me questions or leave blogging tips in the comments for me and other readers to see.
Finally, a big thanks to everyone who has visited my blog, commented and liked over the years. It has been a pleasure…
Which posts get popular (list of posts with 1000+ views)
Yay! Congratulations! Great milestone! 🎉🎉🎉
I love looking at my stats. My most viewed post is my review of The Upside and You Saved My Life. I read them after watching The Upside movie, and I think the movie is what brings views to the post. My other most popular reviews seem to get views in short bursts, so I assume that’s when there’s a deal on the book or when the author has released another book.
Thanks! I am glad to have stuck to this hobby, even if my blogging frequency has been somewhat erratic.
Good to hear, I’m not the only one, who is fascinated by data and statistics. It is interesting, that your popular posts are more of the event-driven types rather than the slow-burn evergreens, which seem to dominate my blog. You are probably right, it could be the movie adaptation, deals or new release in a series, which drives is.
Thanks for your comment, I find it equally fascinating to hear about stats from other bloggers compared to study my own numbers.
Congratulations and Happy 5th Blogiversary! Loved looking at your stats, it was really interesting, especially about the evergreen and shooting stars posts! 😀
Thanks Nicki! I’m glad you found the stats interesting. I did wonder, if I’m the only stats nerd in the book blogging world 😀
Congratulations on your 5 years, Stargazer! I always enjoy your posts 😊 Carry on blogging!
Thanks so much Sandra! I think you were one of my early followers back from the beginning of my blogging journey. A lot of people from back then are no longer active in the community. Of course new bloggers have arrived, but I’m still very appreciative of the ones, I have “known” for a long time.
Let’s try commenting again! I’m no fan of statistics, but I am a fan of the connections I make through blogging. This was an unexpected delight. I think that reading figures don’t bother me that much, but if the comments stopped coming, I’d feel bereft. I was glad to ‘meet’ you – I think through Six Degrees.
I am glad to see, you found a solution to commenting and sorry for the inconvenience. Even if we can’t live without it, technology can sometimes be a bit annoying.
It seems your blog is one of the more successful ones, when it comes to interaction. Many bloggers say that the community aspect of blogging is dead or dying, but your blog certainly shows differently.
It took me a while. I didn’t even realise blogs could be interactive for ages, but if people talk to me, I’ll willingly talk back!
I didn’t know about community aspect, when I first started out, but it has certainly become one of the most enjoyable things about blogging. Unfortunately, I struggle a bit finding time to post and engage too much these days, but hopefully that will change again in the future.
Retirement is brillant. You decide the rhythm of your days for yourself. Recommended.
Sounds good to me!
Happy Blogiversary and thank you for all the enjoyable posts!
Thanks so much Jane!
Happy 5th blogiversary! I like all your data analysis. And you’re creative and thoughtful with your posts which helps. You feature interesting books & topics!
Thanks Susan! Admittedly, it was a somewhat geeky post with all the data, but it was an idea I’ve had for a while and I’m glad a few people liked it. 🙂
Congrats on your blogiversary! 🙂
I love posts like this. I used to do a lot of stats tracking just out of curiosity; I definitely also subscribe to the “post what you want, not what might get the most clicks” methodology. But I had to take a break from blogging for a couple of years and was astonished when I came back that somehow my views had just kept increasing all the while, like so much more than when I was actively posting? Seeing my best “progress” happen while doing absolutely nothing gave me stats trust issues lol. Your stats trends and observations make so much more sense!
Thanks so much! Glad I am not the only one, who enjoy posts like this. I always read it, when other bloggers talk about their stats, it is so fascinating.
I haven’t taken such a long break as you did, but I have noticed in my shorter breaks (3 months or so) my blogging stats have been absolutely booming. Very strange and in some sense not very encouraging. 😆 I wouldn’t recommend stopping posting as a methodology to get more views, though. Most likely it is just a consequence of your blog getting older and achieving better ranking on average.
It is great to see you back posting and I’ll head over to read some of your Women’s Prize reviews shortly.
Congrats on your blogoversary, Stargazer!
Thanks so much!
Oooo! i see, i see! also, congrats!!
Thanks!
Happy Blogiversary! Your posts are always insightful and fun, and a pleasure to read! My native isn’t English either (have I even said it correct? lol), so I especially love to fraternize with “international” bloggers, expats or otherwise!
Thanks Diana! One of the joys of blogging is “meeting” other bloggers from all over the world.
The way you categorise the posts is so interesting and has got me thinking how this applies to my own blog. Looking at my stats it does seem to match your experience in many ways – I have a lot of shooting stars – monthly reading updates, Top Ten Tuesday kind of posts. I read somewhere that these are the posts you should delete after a while because they affect your ranking. Haven’t done that myself though….
Reviews of classics in haven’t had the longevity I might have expected but that could be down to the fact that it’s a crowded space and a) i wasn’t as clever with my headline as you are and b) I need to work on the SEO
The one exception is my reviews of “classics” from outside the Western canon. There is one from Somalia which I reckon must be on a school reading list since it gets spikes in traffic once a year.
My most popular post was a. review of a thriller by a lesser known Welsh author. It had a bit of attention when I published it first but then Netflix came out with a series based on the book and suddenly the stats boomed. 10,000 views have made it my most popular post by far!
Interesting advice to delete the short-lived posts later. I wouldn’t do that, though. It’s all part of my blog and if it hurts the SEO ranking, I can live with that. With classics, it may be a bit random, whether you achieve a good ranking, but a good headline and a different angle certainly seems to help. A classic from Somalia and a thriller by a Welsh author? That is so interesting. Thanks so much for telling about your stats, I find stats from other bloggers as interesting as my own stats.
Congrats on the blogiversary! Loving the numbers’ breakdown. It always gives us run a wonderful breakdown of what works and what doesn’t. 😀
Thanks Lashaan! It is quite fun to look at the numbers, isn’t it. Even if stats don’t really matter.
Congratulations! I love how the blogosphere can bring similar people together. I’m a data analyst with English as Second language that love books and started a new blog recently, so I think we have a lot in common =)
I had many blogs over the years, but ending up abandoning them, mostly because I got tired of the topic. This last one is a personal blog with no set theme, and I’ve been enjoying it much more.
My main goal is just to have writing medium, but I can’t help keeping an eye on the stats. Your post helped a lot!
Thanks! 😀 Yes, it is fun to meet all sorts of people via blogging, both bloggers in different parts of the world, with whom you have lots in common, but also bloggers who are completely different from yourself.
When I started blogging, I didn’t have a firm idea of what I wanted to write about. In the end, I did narrow it down to books, with a bit of travel, films and other things thrown in. I get easily bored, but for some reason, I still enjoy writing about books.
Like you, I also write for fun, but I can’t help looking at the stats!
PS. I tried to leave a comment on one of your posts, but it may have gone into the spam filter.
Congrats, and great post! Another advice I would give to new bloggers is to take part in memes. For instance Top Ten Tuesday (https://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/) and the Sunday Post (https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme) always give me tons of views, every time I participate
Thanks! It is great advice for new bloggers to participate in popular memes. Many of the bloggers I follow, I’ve found via Six Degrees of Separation.