Statistically Speaking

Do statistics really matter? What exactly are all those Google Analytics telling me?

When I first started selling on line in my Etsy shop, I checked my statistics fanatically! Several times a day! Before Google Analytics, I kept a spreadsheet to see what time of day people were looking at my shop. I tried to evaluate if views went up when I listed a new item for sale. They did. Then I tried to see if a certain time of day was better than another for generating views. After I signed on with Google Analytics, I checked daily to see what keywords were being searched on. I learned which items were the most viewed. I learned which blog post was the most popular. I learned a lot…

Not really.

I had a lot of statistics and information, but I never did figure out how to use any of these facts to help me sell anything. I can’t tell you if blogging, or tweeting, or Facebooking resulted in a single sale. This is frustrating to me because all this information should tell me something.

This June will be four years since I opened my Etsy shop. I don’t look at the statistics nearly as much as I used to. Now I mostly just look at two things.

1. How much am I selling?
2. Am I selling more this year than last year?

I figure that as long as the trend is up it’s still worth keeping my Etsy shop open.

If you want to contribute to the statistics, you can visit my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/GlassArtByMargot