Stats and analytics – Feedback; Not the goal

Too many people, including my past self, who upload their creative work online are too obsessed and worried about the stats and analytics. Their art suffers to meet certain criteria to gain views or likes, instead of creating art that reflects who they are and what they truly want to share with the world.

After being on social media and having this website for many years, I’ve discovered that a great way to grow your audience is to create the best piece of work you possibly can. If it’s good enough, people will find it and share it with others. But in order to achieve this, you need to keep creating.

Stats, analytics and marketing are only a piece of the puzzle. Don't get too caught up in it. 

Statistics and analytics

Stats and analytics are measurements and shouldn’t be the goal. “A measure ceases to be a good measure once it becomes the target.” Your goal should be to create the best piece of creative work you possibly can. If it provides value to people, they will let you know and they will share it with the world.

Be patient. As someone who is naturally impatient, I had to learn this over a long period of time. You and your audience need to find each other, and that can take a bit of time. There are ways to increase the possibility of your audience finding you, and that’s by marketing yourself by sharing your work on other platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

(If you want to know more about marketing your work, let me know in the comments.)

Don’t get carried away by the numbers

Focus on the work. The likes, views and comments are merely feedback. It shows you how many people enjoyed, appreciated or resonated with what you created. Sometimes it’s a few, sometimes it’s many.

If you’re mostly doing it to gain views and followers, you might get discouraged very quickly and give up. But if you’re doing it because you actually want to and enjoy the process of creating and sharing what you’ve created with the world, then you’re already 80% of the way there.

Always focus on the process of creating. That’s what gets you where you want to go.

Create, create, create.

Put your work out there.

Received feedback.

Re-evaluate.

Improve.

Create again.

Rinse and repeat.

Keep creating. Don’t stop. Keep moving forward. Don’t be afraid to fail or to create something bad.

You can improve it – next time.

Feedback

The wonderful thing about a community is they are able to provide feedback. Whether it’s good or bad. Take that feedback and constructive criticism and create something better.

Perfection is a never-ending journey. You’re always chasing it. You never arrive, and that’s exciting. It means you always have the opportunity to grow.

Take the time to give yourself feedback. Look at your own work, after you’ve published it, and see what you could’ve done better. Then apply those improvements to your next piece of work.

Focus on the journey. Focus on the process. Give your best effort and have no expectations.