If You Want to Monitor Your Website Stats...

Authors, how is your website performing? It's an important question, because if your number of visitors is lacking, or people click on your site, but only stay for 48 seconds, maybe something's up.

I'm not going to get into the various website hosting options, except to say that many authors on a budget use WordPress, which can be as low as $4.00 per month. I can't vouch for it, having never used it, but I will say that I once tried to start a (free) WordPress blog, but it was so complicated, I immediately scooted back to Blogger. That could be just me, though.

Whichever hosting you choose, you might want to take a look at your stats from time to time. Granted, mine doesn't draw in many visitors, but within that small subset, I like to know which of my sections people are looking at the most.

My site consists of five sections ~ Home (duh), Books, Bio, News, and Reviews. I can't imagine what more I would need. Of those, my least viewed section is Reviews, but I still like looking at them, so that section stays!

Here's an excellent article about author websites, with examples.

Some hosting services may provide their own analytics, but when I was with Wix, it either didn't offer them or I was too dumb to find them. Not that it mattered; I had three whole books to promote, and they weren't exactly catching fire.

If your hosting service doesn't provide visitor stats, you should set up a Google Analytics account. It's so easy, even I could do it, and it's quite comprehensive. You can even customize it so it measures whatever data you want to see.

My most visited section is my books page, which is good! What else do I have a website for? Weirdly, my bio comes in second. (I really need to make it more engaging.) News comes in third, but sadly, I seldom have any actual news to report. 

Do you get spam contacts? I do occasionally. Here's probably why:

 

Not to single any specific country out, but The Philippines is where my scammer originated.

Arguably, I have one of the worst websites ever, but it's free and easy to modify. It's not horrible, per se, but when I see graphically designed sites, I'm jealous. Nevertheless, what matters is visitors. At least, unlike some sites I've run across, there are no pop-up ads! C'mon, people! Blogger is free, with no ads, and as I mentioned, WordPress can be really inexpensive. My site does have a bit of retention, so people must not hate it. 

Like me, you may not be an analytical person, but viewing my stats tends to spur me to try to improve my site. What can I do about the lack of views for my reviews section? I don't know yet, but I'll be thinking about it. After all, reviews might convince someone to give a book a chance.

Analytics is all part of the "business" we're in as authors. Granted, I detest most of the business parts, but I detest a lot of things that I have no choice but to do.

If you're not looking at your stats now and then, why not? Don't you want to know how popular you are?