Who Reads My Blog? The People Behind the Statistics

It’s Thursday, which normally means it’s time to look at the blog statistics. But this week, I got stuck on a completely different question: who reads my blog? Behind every view is someone who has opened a post. But do you read my long posts all the way through? Do you skim them? Or do you stop after a few paragraphs? Suddenly, the people behind the statistics became much more interesting to me than the numbers themselves.

🇬🇧 English – you are reading the English version now.

🇸🇪 Svenska –Vem är du som läser?

A comment from my husband got me thinking

Yesterday, my husband said something that made me stop and think.

He hardly ever reads my blog.

But this time, he had read my post “What Makes People Vote for the SD?”

“That was a really good post,” he said.

Then came the rest:

“But I can barely manage to read all of it. How do you manage to write all that?”

And yes.

That is actually a pretty good question.

How do I manage to write all that?

But even more than that, I started thinking about those of you who read it.

How do you manage to read all that?

Who reads my blog?

Every Thursday, I usually look at the statistics from the past week.

I can see which posts have been opened.

This week, people have been reading about everyday life and ADHD, the schools in Färgelanda, politics, Pippi Longstocking and winter swimming.

It’s quite an odd mixture, really.

But perhaps that is exactly what Malix is.

Everyday life sits alongside the bigger questions. ADHD alongside politics. A post about winter swimming can be followed by thoughts about schools and society.

On my page Everyday Life, ADHD and Being Present, I have tried to explain why the blog looks the way it does. I write about life as it actually feels and about the things that make me stop and think.

But the statistics only tell me that someone opened a page.

They don’t tell me who you are.

And, above all, they don’t tell me what happens once you arrive here.

Do you really read the whole post?

I started wondering about this after my husband’s comment.

Because what if he isn’t alone?

What if you click on one of my posts and start reading?

Then there are a few more paragraphs.

And a few more.

And perhaps you think:

Carina, you really need to stop now.

Maybe you only read the headings.

Maybe you skim.

Maybe you jump straight to Between the Lines.

Or perhaps you are one of those people who actually reads from the very first sentence all the way down to my closing quote.

I have no idea.

And actually, none of those ways of reading has to be wrong.

We all read differently. We have different amounts of time, energy and interest.

A post that one person reads from beginning to end may feel far too long to someone else.

So why do I write so much?

I don’t think I ever sit down at the computer and think:

Now I’m going to write a really long blog post.

It just happens.

I start with something I have seen, heard or been thinking about.

Then a question appears.

And that question leads to another one.

Sometimes I start investigating.

That is exactly what happened when I wrote “I Thought One Thing About Färgelanda’s Schools – Then I Started Investigating.”

I began with an opinion.

Then I started reading and investigating.

And instead of becoming easier, the question became more difficult.

I didn’t arrive at the simple answer I might have thought was there when I started.

But I understood more.

And perhaps that is part of the answer to why my posts sometimes become so long.

I don’t always write to tell you what I already know.

Sometimes I write to find out what I think.

Do I need to start writing shorter posts?

That was actually one of my first thoughts after what my husband said.

Are my posts too long?

Should I write shorter ones?

But I’m not sure that is the right question.

I don’t want to start cutting away parts of an argument simply so that a post can be consumed quickly.

Some thoughts need a little space.

At the same time, I don’t want to hide the most important part at the bottom of a post that the reader has to struggle through to find it.

Perhaps there is another question:

Can I continue writing in my own way while making it easier for you, the reader, to find what matters to you?

That is a question I want to carry with me.

This turned into a strange statistics post

Oh dear.

This was supposed to be my statistics post.

I was going to look at the past week, which posts had been read and what had been happening on the blog.

Instead, I’m sitting here wondering who reads my blog and why these particular posts make someone click.

There hasn’t been much statistics at all.

But perhaps this tells me more about the blog than the numbers would have done.

I could tell you that one post had this many views and another had that many.

Next week, the numbers will be different.

Of course, it is interesting to see what gets read, but the number itself isn’t really what I am most curious about.

I’m curious about why.

Why did you choose that particular post?

What made you continue reading?

And if you stopped halfway through – why?

Perhaps this is what I really want to use my Thursday statistics posts for from now on.

Not simply counting the people who come to the blog, but trying to understand what is happening on Malix.

What do you want to read?

What do you come back to?

What makes you feel or think something?

And what simply passes you by?

So no.

This didn’t turn into much of a statistics post.

Or perhaps it turned into exactly the statistics post I needed to write.

Maybe the question “who reads my blog?” is actually more interesting to me than how many views the blog received this week.

Between the Lines

When I started writing this, I was thinking about statistics.

Now that I have reached this point, I am thinking about people.

Perhaps it is easy to forget that when you are sitting in front of a screen looking at charts, views and visitors.

Behind one of those numbers might be a person who read the whole post.

Behind another might be someone who read three paragraphs.

Someone may have agreed with me.

Someone else may have been annoyed.

And someone may have read a single sentence that stayed with them for the rest of the day.

I can choose the words.

I can write, edit, think and eventually press publish.

After that, I can’t decide what happens.

Then the text belongs to you.

And perhaps that is one of the beautiful things about writing.

Questions for you who read

Now I really do want to know.

How do you read Malix?

Do you usually read my whole posts or only parts of them?

Do you sometimes skim and stop when something catches your attention?

Is there something that makes you keep reading – or something that makes you leave a post?

What do you most enjoy reading here: everyday life, ADHD, personal reflections, social issues or something completely different?

And the question I am most curious about:

Has anything you have read on Malix ever stayed with you and made you continue thinking after you left the blog?

Please tell me in the comments. I really am curious.

You might also like to read

🌿 Everyday Life, ADHD and Being Present
Here I explain more about the blog and why I write the way I do:
https://malix.se/vardag-adhd-och-narvaro-malix-se/

🌿 What Makes People Vote for the SD?
This is the post my husband read – and the one that started the thoughts behind today’s post.
You can find it among the latest posts on Malix:
https://malix.se/

🌿 I Thought One Thing About Färgelanda’s Schools – Then I Started Investigating
A post about what can happen when you begin examining your own opinion and discover that the question is more complicated than you first thought.
You can also find it among the latest posts:
https://malix.se/

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Live today – right now.
Yesterday is history, and we know nothing about tomorrow.
The only thing we truly have is this moment.

– Carina Ikonen Nilsson

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Who Reads My Blog?