Barry Sampson looks at website analytics and says:

I look at that list and while I think it might be interesting, for me it’s not actionable.

I disagree! I used to feel this way, but I recently changed my mind. In particular, I find it very valuable to know “Where those visitors appear to come from”– this is the most reliable way for me to know that someone who has a blog has linked to one of my posts. And so, without analytics, I’d never read some of the best responses to my writing, nor would I find bloggers who read me so that I can add their RSS feed and read them as well.

The best blogs to read are written by people who are interested enough in things that I write that they would bother writing a blog post in response. I’m curious if Barry will ever know this post exists– probably not! But with analytics, he would.

via Loren