The Danger of Looking at Stats as a Content Creator

Growth takes time.

After weeks of mustering up the courage to release my writing into the abyss, I finally caved in and created a WordPress blog.

I named it Eat The Cake Anime (I just heard it from a Beyonce song and I thought it sounded cool) where I wrote anime reviews and put my writing engine in overdrive. A new post popped into the domain five days a week.

I thought my stats would shoot up without question. As my eyes panned at my computer screen hoping for at least one hundred views, the same crappy number seven would pop up. I’d throw my face on my pillow and go to sleep in frustration, wondering how the next day would be.

Nothing changed.

Now don’t get me wrong, seeing seven people view my post a day (and some even followed me) felt great at the beginning. But since my eyes became addicted to the stats screen of my computer, I kept looking ahead instead of at the blank canvas in front of me.

My frustration seeped out of my veins and the worst part is that I started losing my passion for writing. You see, the show I kept doing anime reviews on had a weird plot. Each day I felt like writing a review on it was a chore because I had to sift through the episode a few times to understand what happened.

I tried doing fun posts like writing fake battles between two anime characters so people could see who I thought would win — flop.

Heck, I got so desperate I branched away from anime and started writing occasional self-improvement articles with top ten lists of Christmas movies. Those articles somewhat gave me a few more views, but still nothing to run home to.

So after a few months of starting that blog and wasting a hundred dollars to get a custom domain, I cut the cord. The brand of the website got confusing, I didn't like writing anime reviews anymore, and most importantly, I kept looking at my stats.

Two years later, I get it now.

People who obsess over stats are trying their hardest to avoid doing the work.

They want to give themselves a pat on the back for getting a million views with their first post (which will never happen) so they feel vindicated enough to ease off on the gas. They lack the will to be consistent.

Now that I’m more aware of how much work it takes to be a successful writer, I’m miles ahead of where I used to be. My mindset is more focused on consistency than numbers. I only look at my stats page every blue moon just to see what direction I should take my writing.

Takeaway

Not looking at your stats as a content creator is a liberating experience. It’s a hell of a lot more fun to post content when you aren't obsessing over how well something is going to do.

The more fun you have creating, the more you want to post, and the more consistent you are. Weird conclusion: If you have more fun, you’ll be more successful.

So, stop looking at your stats and enjoy yourself! It’s all about the journey.