More data is always better– that is, until it paralyzes you.
You’ll probably find that, as you learn what happens to the visitors on your site, the more you’ll want to learn. You’ll test pages in relation to each other and see what website’s traffic converts better.
Some people make a great living doing this. It’s profitable. You probably could too.
One day, however, around the time 10th time we’ve calculated whether it’s more effective to launch a post on a Monday or a Saturday, something might occur to us. We might have what some would call a revelation.
On this day, the morning light will come in from the window. We will look down at the coffee we just made for ourselves as we were checking our stats for the day, and something will click. At that moment, we will realize that we’ve spent more time dissecting and analyzing content than actually creating it.
We will realize that instead of making, we have been optimizing.
Then, we will look up from our screen and think “Hold on– I’m not happy with this at all. I didn’t get into this business to watch what other people do.” We will realize how long it’s really been. We will look at our most visited websites and see that none of them have to do with anything we actually really like. We’ll have changed.
But only some of us will realize this.
The rest of us will go on testing, analyzing, and noting down the changes. We will have become a form of micro-manager, a kind of subtle bureaucrat that gets excited by looking at percentage points. They will not know it, and those around them will not either.
And I have to ask myself if this is what we want.
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