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The State of BeingKevin: What My Blog Numbers Really Tell Me

I’ve been looking at the numbers behind BeingKevin. Below is the positive results of my tweaks I made based on analytics I checked over two previous intervals.

Not because I’m obsessed with statistics.

Well… maybe a little.

But after publishing hundreds of posts, I think it’s reasonable to occasionally stop and ask a very simple question:

Is anybody actually reading this thing?

The answer, fortunately, appears to be yes.

BeingKevin isn’t a huge website. I’m not getting thousands of visitors every day, and I’m certainly not competing with major publications.

But that isn’t really the appropriate comparison.

This is a personal blog written by one guy about life in Brazil, retirement, history, politics, books, culture, technology, observations, complaints, and whatever else catches my attention.

For that kind of blog, the numbers are encouraging.

And more importantly, the trend is encouraging.

The Six-Month Picture

Looking at the six-month period ending August 27, 2026, my WordPress statistics show:

• 9,344 views
• 5,466 visitors
• 440 posts published
• 333 WordPress subscribers/followers

That works out to roughly 1.7 views per visitor.

That’s an interesting number because it suggests that at least some visitors aren’t simply landing on one article and disappearing.

People are looking at more than one piece of content.

For a personal blog, that’s a healthy sign.

I’m not just generating individual page views.

I’m gradually building an archive that people can explore.

Traffic Is Moving in the Right Direction

The most encouraging part of the analysis isn’t the absolute number of views.

It’s the direction.

Over the period we examined, monthly traffic moved from roughly 1,000 views per month to more than 2,000.

Monthly visitors also increased, reaching roughly 1,100+ visitors.

That’s significant to me.

If I had 2,200 monthly views and had been sitting at that number for years, I wouldn’t be particularly excited.

But getting there from approximately 1,000 monthly views tells a different story.

The audience is growing.

And there is another number I find even more interesting.

My Individual Posts Are Becoming More Productive

At one point, I was publishing an enormous amount of content every month.

As the number of posts increased, total views increased too, but views per post initially declined.

That’s not particularly surprising.

There are only so many hours in the day that readers have available.

Publishing more doesn’t automatically mean every individual article receives more attention.

But more recently, something better has been happening.

The approximate views per post increased from around 15 views per post to more than 30.

That’s a much more encouraging statistic.

It means I’m not simply producing more content.

The content itself is becoming more productive.

That’s the direction I want to see.

More Isn’t Always Better

This may be one of the most useful things I’ve learned from looking at my numbers.

I’ve sometimes published 60, 70, 80 or even more posts in a month.

That’s a lot of writing.

Perhaps too much.

The numbers suggest that continually increasing publishing volume doesn’t automatically produce an equivalent increase in readership.

At the same time, engagement per post has improved.

So my goal shouldn’t be:

Publish as much as humanly possible.

It should be:

Publish enough good material that readers have a reason to keep coming back.

Based on the numbers we’ve examined, somewhere around 60–70 posts per month looks like a reasonable target rather than continually trying to increase the volume.

That’s still roughly two posts a day.

I’m not exactly taking it easy.

When Should I Publish?

The data also gives me a pretty good idea of when my audience is most receptive.

Thursday is my strongest day.

Monday and Tuesday are secondary strong days.

Wednesday is generally my weakest day.

That actually fits surprisingly well with the way I’ve structured BeingKevin.

My weekly rhythm is roughly:

• Monday: Daily Prompt / Satire / Gripes
• Tuesday: Living the Brazilian Way
• Wednesday: Optional or lighter content
• Thursday: Major history/flagship article
• Friday: Entertainment picks
• Saturday: Coffee with Kevin / personal stories
• Sunday: Weekly roundup

The lesson isn’t that I should stop publishing on Wednesday.

It’s that my strongest material deserves to be concentrated around my strongest audience days.

That’s particularly important for the Thursday flagship articles.

What About Likes and Comments?

This is where personal blogs need a little perspective.

It’s easy to look at a large website and think:

Why don’t I have hundreds of comments?

Because most readers don’t comment.

They read something, perhaps like it, and move on.

A comment requires considerably more effort than a view.

So I don’t think comments should be my primary measure of success.

Likes are useful because they provide a relatively easy indication that somebody connected with something I wrote.

Comments are even more valuable because they represent deeper engagement.

But neither should be viewed in isolation.

I’d rather have:

1,000 people read something and a handful respond

than:

50 people read something and 20 of them comment.

The first scenario gives me an audience I can build on.

Now Let’s Talk About Subscribers

This is where I discovered that I needed to be more careful with the terminology.

At first glance, it appeared that I had 333 subscribers.

That’s what WordPress’s overall statistics report.

But that number doesn’t mean that 333 people are receiving my emails.

WordPress’s overall subscriber number can include people who follow the site through the WordPress Reader as well as people who subscribe by email.

So I need to distinguish between followers and email subscribers.

That’s a much more accurate way to look at the audience.

333 Is My WordPress Audience, Not My Email List

WordPress currently reports:

333 WordPress subscribers/followers

That is a useful number.

It tells me how many people have connected themselves to BeingKevin through the WordPress ecosystem.

But it should not be described as:

“333 people receive my emails.”

That would be misleading.

Some people may follow through WordPress Reader without receiving email notifications.

Others may receive email.

Some may have different email-frequency settings.

So 333 is best thought of as my broader WordPress following.

My Actual Email Audience

For email, the number that matters more to me is my MailPoet list.

As of this writing, that list contains:

105 MailPoet email subscribers

These are the people I’m actually communicating with through my email program.

MailPoet handles:

• My daily BeingKevin email
• My weekend roundup

And I can confirm something that isn’t visible simply from a subscriber count:

My daily MailPoet open rate is consistently excellent.

That’s important.

Having 105 people on an email list is one thing.

Having those people actually opening the emails is much more meaningful.

Why I Use MailPoet

For my particular blog, MailPoet makes sense.

I’m not simply publishing a post and saying:

“WordPress, automatically email this to everybody.”

I have a deliberate email strategy.

The daily email keeps readers connected to the blog.

The weekend roundup gives readers a convenient way to catch up on anything they may have missed.

That gives me much more control over the relationship with my email audience.

Because MailPoet handles the actual email delivery, its subscriber count and engagement statistics are the numbers I should use when evaluating the performance of my email audience.

But I Keep WordPress and MailPoet Synchronized

This is also important.

I don’t consider the two systems competitors.

I keep my WordPress subscriber list and MailPoet list synchronized.

That’s intentional.

Readers can choose how they want to follow BeingKevin.

Some people may prefer WordPress.

Others may prefer email.

I don’t need to force everyone into one system.

Instead, I want both systems working together.

So I think about my audience in several layers:

Audience	What it represents
333 WordPress followers/subscribers	People connected to BeingKevin through the WordPress ecosystem
105 MailPoet subscribers	My actual email audience
5,466 six-month visitors	People who visited the website
9,344 six-month views	Consumption of my content

These numbers overlap.

They aren’t supposed to add up.

They are different ways of measuring the audience.

The Difference Actually Makes Sense

At first, seeing 333 in one place and 105 in another looked like a problem.

It isn’t.

It’s actually telling me something useful.

Think of it this way:

333 people have said:

“I want to follow BeingKevin.”

105 people have said:

“I want Kevin to send me his emails.”

Those are two different levels of connection.

The first is a broader audience.

The second is a more direct relationship.

And because my MailPoet open rates are consistently strong, the smaller number may actually be the more valuable metric when I’m evaluating email engagement.

What I Want to Track From Now On

This has changed the way I want to measure the blog.

Instead of focusing on one giant subscriber number, I want to track several things separately.

Traffic

• Monthly views
• Monthly visitors
• Views per visitor
• Views per post

Engagement

• Likes
• Comments
• Repeat readership

WordPress Audience

• Total WordPress followers/subscribers
• Growth over time
• Reader versus email participation

Email Audience

• MailPoet subscribers
• New subscribers
• Unsubscribes
• Open rate
• Click rate
• Growth over time

That’s a much more complete picture.

The Subscriber Growth Question

There is one limitation I still need to work around.

The current statistics give me today’s totals, but a single number doesn’t tell me how quickly the audience grew.

That’s something I want to track more closely from this point forward.

Rather than simply saying:

“I have 333.”

I’d rather eventually be able to say:

“I gained 18 followers this month.”

Or:

“My MailPoet list grew by 12% over six months.”

That’s much more useful.

The Audience Funnel

When I look at BeingKevin this way, I can see a much more useful picture.

Someone discovers an article.

They become a visitor.

They read another article.

They like what they’re finding.

They decide to follow the blog.

Maybe they follow through WordPress.

Maybe they subscribe to MailPoet.

Eventually they become a regular reader.

That’s the process I’m actually trying to build.

So the important progression isn’t simply:

Views → more views → more views

It’s:

Discovery → Visit → Engagement → Follow → Email Subscription → Repeat Reader

That’s a much better definition of an audience.

So How Is BeingKevin Actually Doing?

If I were grading the blog strictly from the numbers we’ve examined, I’d roughly rate it this way:

Category	Assessment
Overall traffic	Good
Traffic growth	Very good
Visitor growth	Good
Views per post	Improving significantly
Engagement	Good
Likes	Healthy
Comments	Normal for a personal blog
Publishing consistency	Excellent
WordPress following	Healthy
Email audience	Healthy and engaged
Email open rate	Very good
Growth potential	Strong

Overall:

B+ / A−

I wouldn’t give myself an A for traffic yet.

I’m still a relatively small blog.

But I also wouldn’t call BeingKevin a struggling blog.

Quite the opposite.

The Most Important Number Isn’t 9,344

It’s tempting to look at the six-month total and say:

9,344 views.

That’s nice.

But the number I find more encouraging is the fact that monthly traffic has roughly doubled from where it was.

Individual posts are generating more views.

People are following the blog.

People are subscribing to the email list.

And the people receiving the daily emails are actually opening them.

Those are all pieces of the same story.

The blog is developing an audience.

I’m Not Trying to Build the New York Times

And that’s probably worth saying.

I’m not trying to turn BeingKevin into a giant media company.

I’m a retired guy living in Brazil who enjoys writing.

I write about things that interest me.

Sometimes those things interest other people.

Sometimes they don’t.

That’s okay.

The goal isn’t necessarily to become famous.

The goal is to build something that people actually want to return to.

If someone reads something I’ve written and thinks:

“That was interesting.”

Or:

“I never thought about it that way.”

Or:

“That guy is completely wrong, but I enjoyed reading it.”

Then the post did its job.

What I Need to Do Next

The numbers suggest that I don’t need a completely different strategy.

I need to refine what I’m already doing.

That means:

1. Keep publishing consistently

The volume is working, but I don’t need to chase ever-higher numbers.

2. Concentrate major content on strong days

Thursday remains particularly important.

3. Continue building the archive

Every good evergreen article creates another potential entry point.

4. Watch views per post

This may ultimately be more useful than total views.

5. Track WordPress followers separately

The 333 figure is useful as a measure of my broader WordPress audience.

6. Track MailPoet separately

The 105 figure is my meaningful email-audience baseline.

7. Pay attention to email engagement

A growing list is good.

A growing list that actually opens the emails is much better.

8. Keep MailPoet and WordPress synchronized

Give readers the choice of how they want to follow the blog.

9. Don’t become obsessed with the numbers

Analytics are useful.

They’re not the reason I write.

The Bottom Line

So, after looking at all of this, what’s my verdict?

BeingKevin is working.

It’s not a huge blog.

It isn’t generating enormous traffic.

But it’s growing.

The audience is increasing.

The archive is becoming more valuable.

Individual posts are getting more attention.

People are following the blog.

People are subscribing to the email list.

And the people receiving the daily emails are actually opening them.

That’s a pretty good foundation.

The next stage isn’t about trying to suddenly turn 2,000 monthly views into 20,000.

It’s about taking what is already working and gradually making it better.

And perhaps the most important conclusion from all of this is surprisingly simple:

I’m no longer just writing a bunch of blog posts. I’m building an audience.

And that’s a very different thing.