Is it vanity, metrics or both?

I'm not for metrics, never have been, although there was a time, many moons ago, that I wanted to know everything that happened on my site. But looking at the numbers gave me anxiety!

So in the past few years, I stopped counting. I stopped tracking and stopped thinking about it. However, sometimes it's good to know what's happening, so I'll tip my toe into the metrics I do have.

I use Fathom for my website, Transistor for my Podcast, and Bunny.net (for my videos) the latter two have their own built-in tracking.

My Tech Minimalism content is quite a niche, so I don't expect it to be that high, nor do I have numbers to compare to anything, but I was pretty surprised at the numbers for my Podcast.

So you're telling me that between the period of Jan 2020 to Jan 2021, there were around 3.5k listeners?! WOAH, I wasn't expecting that. It's not huge (I guess?), but happy that some are enjoying it 🤓👍

There was a lull over the summer months due to me having some time off, but I feel this year the numbers will be higher.

So, are metrics just a vanity thing, or are they useful?

Well, I have to be honest, in the past they were vanity, 'oh look, someone on my site!!!' Now they help me understand what works and what doesn't and as long as you use that data without harm to the visitor, listener or watcher, then it can help you see if your content works the way you need it to.

I'm now on a mission to make content for people who want to learn more about my niche.

There's a downside to not having all the metrics some providers give you though. For instance, HEY World doesn't give you any metrics at all, other than the number of people subscribed to get it via email.

So you have to ask for feedback.

I hate the ask and love it at the same time. It gives the reader the opportunity to reply so you can have a conversation without thinking of numbers that generally don't mean anything.

It's engagement that matters, not vanity metrics.

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