Blog stats – cyber navel gazing

Is it better to have loved and lost or never to have loved at all?  Now I understand that dilemma in terms of blog readers.  Getting a bounce from a Twitter a few days ago really felt good – “wow, look at how many people read my blog!”  Only to then suffer the post-bounce decline in readership and ponder – “wow, nobody reads my blog”.

Of course I would be oblivious to the tides of readership if not for one small widget – blog stats.  I check my stats everyday (ok, sometimes more than once).  How many readers?  Who is referring?  Which posts are most popular?  I constantly ponder the state my own virtual popularity.  This self-obsession with the blog’s popularity is not healthy.  From a research point of view, I know that these variations are not statistically significant because I do not have a large enough sample of posts.  I know logically that I shouldn’t even look at the stats for a few months, but I just can’t help it.

Now I wonder what statistically significant looks like for a blog.  How many readers do you neeed?  How regularly must they read?  How many commenters?  How many posts?  I think it is time I stopped examining my own blog belly button and started reviewing some literature and current research on blog metrics.  Any thoughts on where to look?