Blogging measurements, and how to avoid them

I like to think of myself as a fairly successful blogger.  If you were to measure success by number of posts I am the Dude. Likewise, if you measure success by duration I am doing alright. So, the measurement I choose is number of blogs, or years blogging. Easy to understand, easy to implement, no code to install, no sites to visit.

Still, once in a while an article will grab hold and force investigation.  “5 Metrics Every Blogger Should Measure.” But, in the end it will be a lot of words, strung together in some things that look like sentences, and assembled into what appear to be paragraphs. However, since most of the words make very little sense to me, the sentences are a little silly, and the paragraphs might as well be written in machine code.

For one thing, why “metric’'? Which is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary of English and Grammar (a free app on the Windows Market Place Store)  as “of or using the meter or a system of measurement based on it.”   Why use a meter, some vaguely European unit of length? And how do you measure a blog one meter at a time?

Additionally, most of them insist you add some “simple line of code” to the “HTML” of your blog. What? I don’t know anything about code, and HTML, I tried to add Google analytics to one of my blogs, and it about melted my brain. Plus it kept saying no one was looking at my blog, it was like the flat line in a medical drama. I kept seeing a doctor pounding on the lifeless chest of my blog, as a nurse said consolingly “he’s gone, Jim, you did everything you could.”

Naturally, I didn’t look at that again. Even if no one was reading my blog I certainly didn't want Google rubbing my face in it. And I am pretty sure at least one or two people said "hey, I read your blog," once in a while.

 I went to a Tae Kwon Do class for several years and every class ended with the entire student body screaming “I am a success, Sir” to make us feel good about ourselves, even the class where I separated my shoulder, which did not make me feel successful at all ended in the scream of self assurance. So when I look at my blog, I thing “wow, that is a lot of posts.” And it makes me feel like a champion.