Yesterday WordPress let me know I now have 500 followers. Hooray?
Honestly, it’s humbling that so many people are interested in my blog and are following it, but that number is really misleading.
1. The Lily Cafe first ran from 2013-2015 and gained just under 190 followers. Returning 3 years later, that number hasn’t changed. What has changed is the bloggers. The vast majority of them seem to have left the blogging world, or, at least, WordPress. Yet they are still listed as followers. But most of those 190 followers will likely never see one of my posts from this year. Though, if you do read this, I’d love to know it. Hello again!
Taking out those 190 followers, there’s somewhere around 310 or so new followers. That’s still a nice number for a busy mom of 2 who just started up again in January. But still almost 200 short of the 500 WordPress is congratulating me on.
2. That number (310) is nice, but it’s still not an accurate reflection of the Cafe’s followers. See, many of them are very large blogs who likely follow thousands. So they’re unlikely to actually read a word I write.
3. If there really are 310 followers, then shouldn’t I see a ton of views on my stats? I’m not greedy; I have very nice stats (for me), but I don’t watch them like a hawk. But if I really have a following of over 300, then shouldn’t I see hundreds of views a day? Like I said, I like my stats, but it’s not that high. And that’s okay.
4. Bloggers leave. That’s a fact. Life gets busy. Blogging loses its appeal. Once avid bloggers just…vanish. They’re still listed as followers, but they are no longer active.
My point is that 500 is a nice number. But it’s not an accurate reflection of this blog and it’s followers. It took hard work to get to that number, but it’s not real, and I really don’t care.
I care about the content I post and whether or not I can reach one person. I care about the other blogs I follow and what they have to say. 500 is nice, but please don’t pay attention to the numbers.
They’ll just drive you crazy!
The Lily Cafe 
Just some comments. The stats drive me crazy also. And another one: I follow you via email. I find it very handy: I don’t need to open a browser to read you. So I don’t know if my reading is counting as a visit. I do visit, of course, if I want to write a comment, like now.
Please do not care about it and keep writing! 🙂
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Hmm, I don’t really know how they calculate the stats, but I honestly don’t pay enough attention to them to care. I’m just happy that you read and enjoy! I just think it’s interesting that there are blogs with hundreds or thousands of followers, yet I see no comments and maybe a handful of likes. I’ve also seen a lot of posts about reaching a certain number of followers, likes, views, etc. It makes me wonder at the true meaning of numbers. I find it makes me happier to ignore them. Thank you so much for your comment, and I definitely plan to keep on writing!
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Lol =) Numbers will drive you crazy. And the percentage of followers who will be active and engaged with you is always much lower than the overall number. Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s typically in the 2-5% who will be active with your posts. Great job on reaching 500! You get a fair amount of comments too, so great job on engaging with people =)
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Oh wow, that’s a really low percentage! It’s amazing how much stock some people put into numbers. I see posts celebrating reaching this many followers or having so many likes and I wonder how active their community is because sometimes I just don’t see a lot of engagement with their posts. Which makes me wonder just how accurate the numbers are and what they really mean. But I hate numbers, so I don’t pay attention to them. Besides, they’re often not a true reflection of a blog or blogger. But thanks! Now if I can just count to 500…
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That’s really true. Stats are misleading to what amount of reads and followers we actually have in reality.
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Yes, and when social media followers are added in, the numbers are just ridiculously inflated.
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I know what you mean. I’m meant to have over 6,000 followers but most of them have vanished into the ether, or read one post, follow and never appear again. Why they follow in the first place is beyond me. 🙂
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The blogging world is indeed very strange and confusing. I often wonder what people are thinking when they follow and vanish. As it is, I am continually hopeful the bloggers who vanished return one day.
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