Question of the Week: How much attention do you give to your blog stats – and do you talk about them?

Earlier this week, book bloggers were invited to participate (anonymously!) in a survey concerning blogger/publisher relations that asks some questions about blog statistics – not just about your numbers, but about your willingness to divulge them. From what I’ve seen, some of us will provide them only on request, and some of us will share them with publishers when we make a request from them – but unless they’re mentioned in our review policies, we don’t tend to share them with other bloggers. However, Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? was willing to bust that particular taboo this week by posting some of her recent numbers.

Some of my stats are mentioned in my review policy, but I do need to remember to check them and update them periodically. My subscriber numbers are public, updated daily, and visible to anyone who visits the blog, thanks to the Feedburner widget in my sidebar – currently, they’re above 500. Feedburner breaks down that information for my eyes only, and also reports bots and browser “hits” that don’t count in the subscriber numbers. Google Analytics tells me that so far in 2010, I’ve had an average of 23 unique visitors and almost 60 page-views per day. What I’m not clear on is how all of this translates into “blog hits,” especially since it seems that more activity occurs via the blog feed than on the blog itself. Does that matter, or are they considered the same thing for stats purposes? Is there a formula to combine these things?

While I’m slightly less hung up on my blog stats now than I was during my first year or so, clearly I do pay attention to them. I know there seems to be a huge spread between subscribers and direct visitors, and I’m not sure what to make of that, if anything. What counts as a “hit” – and is this blog a hit or a miss?

How much do you discuss, divulge, or obsess over your blog stats?

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