Website Analytics: That Way Lies Madness

One of the best parts of 2017 has been finally starting this website and the Harold webcomic. Knowing that people out there can finally see this thing that’s been bouncing around in my head for several years is still kind of mind blowing, and it’s really gratifying whenever someone lets me know they’ve been enjoying the comic.

On the other hand, there’s website analytics.

In theory, this is a great tool: I can see at a glance how many people visited the site, what pages they visited, how they got there, what they’re wearing (ok, one of those is made up). I can look for patterns and play around with timing: “Do I get more clicks if I post a link on Facebook in the morning or evening?”

The reality is that, for a brand new site, the analytics are a lesson in frustration. The other way to think about the above is that it allows me to see how many people DIDN’T visit the site, which, not shockingly, is a big number. If I allow myself to obsessively check the site multiple times a day to monitor those numbers, it’s very easy for me to get hung up on them. That can get dark pretty quick. (“Only five visits today? Why do I even bother? Maybe the comic’s just not that good.”)

I’ve had to more or less swear off checking the numbers, and refocus on the enjoyment I get from working on the comic, regardless of readership. I hope those readers will come around eventually, but my energy is better spent drawing pages and looking at more and better sharing options than sweating the analytics.

*****

On a completely separate note, a brief book recommendation:

Last week, I finished reading Meddling Kids, by Edgar Cantero. (https://goo.gl/WCzBbH) As the name suggests, this book riffs heavily on the Scooby-Doo gang. 

Image The main characters in novel are the grown-up versions of a crime-solving group of kids much like the Scooby-Doo characters. Since their last childhood adventure a few decades earlier, all the members have lead troubled lives of various kinds. They eventually discover that the last case was much bigger than a man in a monster suit (though there was one of those, too), and return home to face the Lovecraftian horror behind it all.

This novel was a lot of fun, both in terms of how well Cantero played with the familiar Scooby-Doo concepts, without ripping them off, and in the Cthulhuesque mythology he created for them to face.

Highly recommended.

*****

That’s all for this week! Look for a new page on Christmas morning, and a new blog next Thursday. If you have any topics in mind that you’d like me to touch on, let me know in the comments. Thanks!