Good blog traffic, few comments and follows?!

[Maria Behar]

I have just opened a Google Analytics account so I could track my blog traffic.  I have also removed CAPTCHA, comment moderation, and the requirement to sign in to leave comments.                  

According to the report I received on the GA site, I'm not doing too badly, traffic-wise.  Yet, only one visitor left a comment today.  I don't understand.  If my traffic is pretty good, then why aren't people commenting or following?  Am I doing something wrong? 

Here are my stats:

Visits: 494

Unique Visitors: 486

Pageviews: 946

Pages per visit: 1.91

Avg. Visit Duration:  00:00:37

Bounce Rate: 42.51%

New Visits: 97.98%

 

Could somebody let me know what's happening?  I've noticed that the duration of the average visit is only 37 seconds.  I'm wondering why...I do try to make my blog as interesting as possible, and I work hard on it. 

I sure would appreciate some feedback.  Thanks!!  : )

 

http://anightsdreamofbooks.blogspot.com/

 

 

[Maria Behar]

Hi, Laura!

Yes, I know that commenting on other blogs does help.  I do comment from time to time, but am a bit inconsistent about it, I must admit... The thing is, I have a hard time balancing the commenting with the publishing of new blog posts.  That, unfortunately, is because I have TWO jobs... so I don't have a lot of time to blog. 

I  have to try to comment more, though.  But you know, sometimes I do get discouraged, because people don't comment back.  Well, I guess all the other bloggers are pretty busy, too. 

As for photos...heck, I'm a VERY visual person!  Have you visited my blog?  I have loads of pictures and images! 

Since I tend to write very long posts, Jenna, another blogger participating in this discussion, suggested I use line breaks in my posts.  That way, she told me, people won't feel intimidated by seeing all that text.  So I'm now doing that, and have noticed (thanks to Google Analytics) that people are staying on my blog for longer periods of time when they visit. 

Thanks for your input!  I'll be visiting your blog soon!  <3

[ManOfLaBook.com]

You got a lot of great advice here, but please realize that these statistics are quite meaningless if you "just" opened the account.

Try and take a look in a month or so and come back. You'll be able to diagnose and make sense of the statistics after about a year. Then come back every 1-3 months to see if your changes are working.

http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

[Maria Behar]

Hmmm... you've got a point there.  This Google Analytics thing is very new to me, so I guess I should give it some time.  The funny thing is, a couple of days after I opened the account, I realized that the above statistics were for only one day -- June 17th.  I went back and double-checked.  The rest of the time, I had around 30 - 37 visitors per day.  I don't know why I got so many visitors on 7/17.  Maybe it was because of Father's Day.  I really don't know. 

Thanks for your input!  : )