Comments on: stats, schmats

By: the sift everything experiment

the sift everything experiment — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:22:30 +0000

Celebrate milestones (no matter how small)

Unlike Hugh, I still check my stats fairly regularly. I enjoy it. It’s marvelous that we can own words or ideas, even if it’s just for a flicker of time. Imagine owning the two-word phrase “sift experiment“. Remarkable.
So…

By: R J Keefe

R J Keefe — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:34:32 +0000

This favorite card of yours, Hugh — it’s the first real Blue Meanie I’ve ever seen!

By: kadett hulsman

kadett hulsman — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:05:53 +0000

well ‚you all need something to go underneath that super suit, so why don’t you have a look at our website, al hand made and superb,
http://www.beautifulanddamned.co.uk

By: Marketing Headhunter

Marketing Headhunter — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:48:37 +0000

Noted with thanks. While normally I would agree completely with Hugh’s notion that blogging and high rankings are inseparable, I wonder if I’m the exception. Seems like I might be.

By: AdPulp

AdPulp — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:17:05 +0000

Search Trumps Stats

In a recent post on Gaping Void, Hugh MacLeod returns some of the love Google showers on his projects. Back when I was new to this whole internet thing, I would check my stats at least once a day. Now…

By: David Burn

David Burn — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:03:54 +0000

Dear Headhunter,
Blogs CREATE Google juice. Stale brochureware sites do not.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:03:17 +0000

Very true, Firas.
I’m not sure if I agree with Harry’s “Why bother blogging when all you need are high Google rankings” idea. As if you can seperate the two.

By: Firas

Firas — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:17:10 +0000

Well, personally, I don't pay enough attention to the marketing posts to find inconsistencies—I'm just referring to discussions like the one above: 'you said this, but you're doing that, could you clarify?' Splitting hairs over search engine rank vs the existence of a blog is not as important as a concept to take away from your current trend in posts as the idea of 'internal disruption', 'make things happen indirectly', etc., is that not true?

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 10:33:05 +0000

Interesting, Firas. So what inconsistencies have you spotted recently?

By: Firas

Firas — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 10:06:35 +0000

I think it's a mistake to try to tease out a cohesive thesis out of every few sentences Hugh strings together for a post—it's a thought, not a treatise. Yet I see his commentors keep trying to reconcile the inconsistencies, etc., which is a good thing in a way because it underscores Hugh as an authority figure in the blog-based marketing game, but ends up being a bit vapid; my suspicion is that of the dozen mantras Hugh drops in a month, if one stops making sense to him, he won't hesitate to diss the concept within a post a few weeks hence. Statements like "X matters more than Y" in a gapingvoid post are less guidelines to live by than concepts to chew on. At least that's what I've observed.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:34:32 +0000

Harry, I don’t check my stats every day. Like I said, they’re fairly meaningless.
High Google rankings is no guarantee of anything, either.

By: Marketing Headhunter

Marketing Headhunter — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:31:24 +0000

Howdy Hugh,
I’m confused: In your original post, you mention that you checked your stats daily. Did you mean your weblog stats? Because at first it seemed from your post that you and I have come to the same conclusion about blogs: What’s the point of blogging if most paying clients (whether these highly paid professionals pay in money, or sex, or brandy & cigars) find you through a search engine?
But your follow up post makes it sound like your blogging is actually good for your business — as I would have imagined.
What am I missing? Do you see your blog as being an integral part of your clothing business’ marketing? Or could you do just as well with a high ranking on search engines?
Just curious,
Harry

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:23:29 +0000

William, the Americans fly over to London. Also, we visit American cities [NY, SF, Chicago and Atlanta] four times a year.
I know one American chap– he’s not particulalry famous, but his compnay is– who orders 10 or 20 suits from Anderson & Sheppard, every time he pops over to London.
Marketing Headhunter, I would say if blogging works for you, then do it [it certainly works for me]. If not, try something else.

By: Marketing Headhunter

Marketing Headhunter — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:17:37 +0000

Re: stats, schmats — Makes ya wonder why bother blogging at all. Sometimes I consider chucking the whole blogging thing and just putting up a conventional website and sticking to what I do best: Recruiting.

By: William Mon

William Mon — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 02:32:31 +0000

Are the Americans flying over to get fitted or do they just send over the sizes? I read gapingvoid mostly through RSS. Why not consider something like feedburner to track your subscriptions? It's require re-subscribing, but... it might make your stats more useful.