10 Step Program to cure Stats Addiction

August 17, 2007 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Everything Else

Literally - from the first time I thought of writing this post today, I realized I am truly addicted to stats! Whether they are Google Adsense stats, Analytics, Webalizer, SmarterStats, Blog Stats, Commission Junction reporting etc… you get the picture! If your interest or job has ANYTHING remotely related to the demand, traffic, and success of a website, you are probably in the same boat - face it… your are a Stat-Junkie!

Start by asking yourself a few questions:

Do you wake up and look at web stats before eating breakfast?
Do you constantly compare yesterdays traffic or earnings to today?
Is Google Adsense and/or reporting tools one of your most clicked shortcuts?
Do you have ANY code on ANY website showing active visitors?

If you answered yes to ANY of the above questions… repeat after me:

Hi, I’m Mark (use your own name though) and I am a Stats Junkie!

I dont know exactly when I became so addicted to seeing a snapshot of daily performance stats, but suffice to say it has taken over almost every hour of my days! With more than 35-40 completed websites in my bag of tricks, I seem to spend way too much time looking over these wonderful graphs and pie charts! When I wake in the morning, I rush out of the shower to pour that first cup of coffee and head to the PC to start my morning ritual. First stop - Google Adsense to get a feeling on how the day is going to be! If I have not had 1000 impressions and at least 25-30 clicks by 6:00 am, its just gonna be a bad day, thats just how it is…

By 6;05 am, I am already well into my 3-4th website stats page looking over the daily traffic from yesterday. Was there more, less, equal? Did I snag a few new target phrases from engine referrals? Do I see any trends forming anywhere? A true 30 minutes of browsing stats and I notice my hair is all dried up and I have to get to the office… The whole time, thinking about those wonderful little stats!

The day is full of revisits to my wonderful little graphs, I would guess I spend at least 10-15 minutes of every hour looking at some site or another to see how the day is shaping up… all day, every day, 7 days a week! My eyeballs are starting to look like a webalizer pie chart! If only I could force myself to ignore all these stats during the day and only check them once… I guess its just a dream at this point!

I decided to try and put together a 10-Step Program to Cure Stat Junkies like myself. Here goes…

Step 1 - First and foremost, you have to admin to yourself that you are a stat junkie! Nobody can help unless you help yourself first.
Step 2 - Make it hard to get to your stats. Do this by removing all shortcuts and favorites in your browser and place them into their own separate folder somewhere. I named my folder… “Stat Junkie Links”
Step 3 - We all know that we are easily influenced by those we associate with. Avoid people who always ask how your websites are doing, even if it is the business owner! Tell them that you now have set a schedule and will provide weekly or monthly reporting only, it is a health decision you had to make!
Step 4 - Very slowly, start eliminating one stat-check each hour of the day! You cannot be expected to completely avoid these numeric creatures of fortune all at once or you will end up with…
Step 5 - Control the Stat Withdrawals by finding something more productive to do, or just one of the many sicknesses you may end up with is GASS, Google Adsense Stats Syndrome , described by JenSense as:

Sufferers face strong withdrawal when separated from a PC with Internet access and have been known to experience mild abdominal discomfort and general irritability.

Step 6 - Set a daily schedule for checking your stats and force yourself to stick to it! I dont recommend doing this just once in the morning and once at night as the stats will not have a wide enough gap to provide your fix. I will personally try once in the morning with my coffee, and once after dinner. Assuring myself of a full 12 hour span between dosage.
Step 7 - Limit your stats intake to specific metrics each day! For instance, choose the odd days in the month to focus on increasing conversion rate, and only focus on the metrics that will support that cause! Completely ignore all other stats on the pages and you may be surprized at how much quicker they form into trends!
Step 8 - Set yourself a plan to actually ACT on the stats you see each day! If you are like me, you will spot an interesting trend that you want to look deeper into developing, but you are too quickly distracted from looking at a darker, mysterious stat, that immediately makes you lose track of the first one!
Step 9 - Once you find the right stat program and the best way to work with those stats - dont let your friends talk you into looking at other stats packages just becuause they have better pie charts and bigger graphs! Be true to your stats and the information they feed you… why risk a new addiction when you finally figured out the best way to work with the first one!
Step 10 - Celebrate the small victories! If you can sit down for an entire meal without thinking about or looking at stats - you are doing good!! If you can make it through half the day… you’re almost there! Just like any addiction it will take time to fill the void left behind in your day!

Do you have other symptoms of being a Stat Junkie? If so, please share them with us so we can avoid becoming a community addicted to our stats!

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