What is Hilary Erickson's approach to managing blog visitor statistics?

I track and share my stats mainly to measure what’s working and set realistic goals, not to obsess over every fluctuation. In one “state of the blog” update, for example, I shared pageviews (around 280,000 that month) and a rough income breakdown, then tied that directly to what I was testing (ad networks, affiliates, email list growth).

I focus on:

• Overall trends (month-over-month growth)
• Which content and affiliates my readers genuinely respond to
• How email subscribers are engaging and clicking

From there, I set specific, measurable goals (like target pageviews, affiliate income, and newsletter traffic) and check in regularly to adjust my strategy.

Are you asking because you want to track your own blog stats, or are you more curious about how I use mine to make decisions?