Readers vs. viewers, which is better for blog stats? Upon discovery of “Feed Stats” now a part of the WordPress service offerings, I am curious. In the feed stats it tells Luke and I how many people read our blog each day through a particular service, like the ever so handy Bloglines. As a future PR-pro, I would think knowing how many people read a blog might be more valuable than viewers. But who is to say that “viewers” are not reading our blog just because they do not do so through a feed. Any thoughts or further insight?
Filed under: PR Quizzes, Public Relations | Tagged: measurement |
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Luke Armour - Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity 
I would certainly say people engaging and reading the content is more important than those just viewing it, but it’s hard to measure who’s who. I’m more concerned with those who are of the comment/no comment audience myself. I think a readers-to-comments ratio is something to consider when a person measures the success of their blog.If I get 10 people reading my blog and 4 of them comment regularly, it means more to me than having 30 readers and no comments. I’m sure you two can sympathize 🙂
Chris,
I totally agree with you about comments being a way to measure a blog’s success. I get really excited about comments. Feedback is fun! For my MA project I am counting the amount of comments on nonprofit’s blogs to see the strength of that community, because I think that is a valid measure. And yes I think we can sympathize.
Beth
Thanks, Beth. Sounds like a fantastic MA thesis. Perhaps you’ll share it with your readers when it’s completed?
I hope Beth shares as I’m interested, too.
This is an interesting question Beth raises about measurement. As blogs become more popular, justifying them and showing results will be difficult. Chris introduces a third part, so now we have readers v. viewers v. commenters. Blogs are supposed to be social, supposed to create conversation, that’s the “social” part of the media. But, you’re right, how do you get people to comment? That’s a whole other issue. If something resonates with a reader, they will almost certainly comment. But, some just like the passive side of reading your opinion without sharing their own. Comments are good, but knowing that people value my thoughts enough to read them is good enough for me. Comments are icing on the cake for me.
Viewers v. readers? I think it’s more like Viewers + Readers. I think that’s just a way to add the visitors together. Sometimes I read posts via my aggregator and never visit the website. These new stats provided by WordPress allow us to guess how many total “impressions” (ha ha), not just those who actually come to the site.