The importance of keeping track

Ack! I just checked my blog stats for the past several months, and I realized that when my template for my Sitebasics blog got changed, I lost the tracker css file reference, and I missed out on tracking all the traffic I've gotten from my mentions on decor8 and designsponge.

Huh. Well, just a reminder -- note to self: keep backup copies of all blog templates, so that if something goes awry, I can restore them without any issues. Like this one.

Stats count for last month is good -- I'm actually tracking trends. Here's what I've got:

Blog Hits

Counter	Nov. '05	Dec. '05	Jan. '06	Feb. '06	Today
veryperi			49	54	4
podtopia			37	42	1
subject2scrutiny			50	39	2
fuel			32	30	3
peapod			26	29	1
civilunion			8	11
sbn	11	41		8
totalwealth			2	3

VeryPeri is up there, looking strong, followed by podtopia and subject2scrutiny. Fuel and PEAPOD are following along behind... by no means are these tremendously impressive stats, compared to everyone else in the world who's getting thousands upon thousands of hits to their blogs. Or it could be that Sitebasics has gotten a whole lot of hits, thanks to my blog development work, and I just don't know about it.

Again, the importance of keeping track. (Note to self: back up those templates!)

But the most interesting thing about these findings, that I can see, is you can definitely tell when I started regularly updating my blogs -- it all started in earnest in December/January, and my stats reflect it. True, it could be that I only have 54 loyal readers in the world, and they're just shuttling between the different blogs I've got to see what I'm up to, these days. But best-case scenario is, I'm up to 200 readers for the month of February, and if I keep updating my content, I'll continue to build those numbers.

Gainers:
VeryPeri is up 10%
Podtopia is up 13%
PEAPOD is up 11.5%
CivilUnion is up 37.5%
Total Wealth is up 50% - from 2 to 3 readers... big whoop, but that's a 50% increase(!)

Losers:
Subject2Scrutiny is down 22% (because I haven't been updating it, probably)
Fuel is down 6.25% (only 32 -> 30 but probably because I was totally focused on finishing the book in February, and I didn't do many updates)
Sitebasics I'm not even discussing, because I lost my hit counter when the template was updated.

This tells an interesting story, in terms of what people are interested in -- essentially, it shows that VeryPeri (even though I haven't updated it much, lately) has a relevancy to it, that people are interested in. Granted, it's only 54 people in February, but that's 54 more people who were reading it than only two months before. And that counts for something.

Thing is, this work needs to be continuous, constant, almost compulsive, in order to be successful. My cross to bear, is that I'm always thinking "macro" -- if I figure out how to do one thing, I figure out how to do it a thousand times over, and just doing that one thing as a single instance, has almost no appeal to me. (Probably the result of working for multinational corporations for years on end. Or maybe it's just my world soul talking.) I think big, I work big, and because of that, I end up with a lot on my plate.

Not that that's a bad thing... it must means I keep busy, which is a good thing. For me, anyway.

Fuel virtual book tour reading #2 underway

After checking my stats and chastising myself for not being more dedicated or assiduous about my podcasting of the virtual book tour (it's been over a month since I posted the first installment), I've decided to take a different tack.

Question: What is it that keeps me from podcasting these readings on a regular basis?

Answer: The fact that I've bitten off more than I can comfortably chew on one sitting.

What does not work, is setting up the expectation that these virtual book tour readings are going to be just like real-life readings. They're not. They can't be. And one of the big differences is in the time spent.

Producing a virtual book tour podcast takes time. It takes two to three times the amount of time of the total reading, what with preparation, production,publishing, and promotion. It's not the same paradigm as a real-live reading, where the bookstore takes care of the promotion and the setup, and the author comes in to read and sign books, then leaves. It's much more author-intensive. And while real-live readings may require preparation by the author, still, when the evening is done, it's done. With a podcast, you have to invest some serious time in making it happen. Yes, it can pay off more in the long run, and you've got a permanent product, but it still is more labor-intensive.

That being said (and finally realized in the fulness of time), I've scaled back my podcast efforts, to encompass only one chapter per reading. This will make for a total of 12 readings, when all is said and done (more, if I break up the first reading into its separate chapters). That's twice the amount of my original plans.

Which is in fact fine. I was talking to my mother a while back about a live author reading she went to, and she said it wasn't long enough. Well, my mother is the kind of person who fills her glass to the brim, and then balances it carefully while she sips from the top. I had created the first reading in the "tour" with the intention of giving folks their time's worth. But you know what? Podcasts aren't supposed to be really, really long. In fact, it's best if they're kept short.

It's true -- this medium is audible. People take in information they hear better, when it's in short bits. Putting too much into an audio file just invites confusion and forgetfulness. Better, to keep it short and sweet, and give people something to look forward to next time.

And better, to keep production time to the lowest possible, so you can crank out the work without overtaxing your schedule... or your credibility.

It's all about content. And it's all about delivery. So, find a way to make it work quickly and smoothly, without sacrificing quality.