Checking STATs
It’s been a struggle to find time in my busy agendas to do a little monthly chore. Mainly because it has become a bigger one with more and more websites to look after. That has been the matter of checking the STATs to see how many visitors come to each site, and how long they stay and what pages are most popular with them.
I used to fit it all into a couple of hours work on a slack night when I didn’t have so much to do for my clients, but now each evening is committed to a specific project or client and this year I’ve just been falling farther and father behind. Back in July I vowed that I’d take time for this on Wed. mornings when I usually do computer repair kind of projects before the staff prayer meeting. However, it seems each week other things were more urgent - so I still wasn’t getting to it.
Some clients like to have some notes about their site’s STATs when I send their invoice at the end of the month. That motivates me to get a few done.
Last week I got some done on Wednesday morning, but decided that it might work better if I just made a rule to check two sites’ STATs before I start answering emails in the afternoon. That way I should be able to make the rounds each month with less pressure.
Well, I have just two sites’ STATs to check this afternoon and I’m all caught up! Imagine that. Not only for last month, but for all the intervening months that I had missed, - like since April!
There’s just one hitch. It’s when I’m checking STATs that I often catch little things that need maintenance or repairs, like email addresses bogged down with bounced messages, (like yesterday, which turned into a 5-6 hour job to clean up the mess). Sometimes I spot bad links that need fixing. Hopefully by catching problems when they are few and small, will not add too much to my workload.
I mention this because it reminds me of the value of assigning a regular block of time for the things that are important for us. If we do, they get done and we have a clear conscience. If not, we tend to get overwhelmed. Then nothing, not even the work we love, is fun any more.
It has brought the corners of my mouth down to see how my neglected sites are dropping in the STATs. (sigh!) Now how can I make time for them?