Salted Caramel is asking further questions about our blogging habits. You can visit her blog here and browse answers to these and additional questions from a number of other bloggers.

1. How often, if at all, do you check your blog statistics?

2. What methods do you use to increase reader engagement, (provided you care about this)?

I think that checking blog statistics is something that we all probably do fairly frequently in the beginning, kind of like our first days and weeks of involvement in any new organisation when we’re wondering how we can get on and with whom.

I started blogging more than seven years ago and in the beginning, I checked a lot. It was pretty amazing to me that anyone was stopping by at all and of course, it was all very exciting. But over the years I’ve wondered why a rather mediocre blog will take off like a rocket and another doesn’t move much, even though the content is interesting and well presented.

I’ve thought about that a lot where my own posts are concerned as well. I’ll check the stats and be blown away by the number of visits on a piece that I was dubious about posting. The opposite happens, too. I’ll think I’ve done a good post, and poof! As my blog-friend Brian would say, sit and watch the tumbleweeds blow through.

So, after all this time, I don’t have any great insights into generally, what types of posts work and what ones don’t, even though I do check stats in an attempt to try to figure this out.

Increasing my readership is not something I’ve worried about. My blog is quite slow moving, probably because I’ve never bothered with that, and this has also been a blog that I’ve done for myself. It helps me to think, sort and organise, and it’s always been a de-stressor, a place to socialise and visit. I limit the number of blogs I follow because I want to read them, and I only have so much time. But when I do have the time, I travel all over the blogosphere and I will like lots of posts without necessarily following the blog. I want the blogger to have the like or likes, but I don’t expect a return visit.

How about you? How often do you check your stats? Do you do much (if anything) to increase your readership?