Google Traffic or Loyal Readers?

A loyal reader is more important than a Google traffic If you want to add of more revenu.

There is nothing like a comment from someone who has actually read the whole post. The stats used to make me happy earlier. Now I know how misleading those numbers are. So for me - Loyal readers. Anytime.

The catch of course is that I want more and more of them. So can't rule google out of the picture.

Though high stats look good anyday. There is nothing like your readers reading your every post and commenting on them!!

A loyal set of readers and who follow you, with useful comments is the right way to go. Sometimes high traffic and set of comments leads us to false sense of security and appreciation. It has happened to me once or twice and when it starts going down we are disappointed. good topic

I would opt for loyal readers from Google Search :-P ;-)

Since I haven't had any comments in over a week I'm going to say loyal readers lol. I like seing my numbers go up but I thoroughly enjoy the interaction.

It does not matter ,whether they are loyal readers or from Google traffic. As long as the the blog makes impression.

What  I found is if we increase frequency of updating, loyal readers can't comment everyday, it's not possible so graph of comments goes on decreasing. But on search engines we go high, visits and pageviews substcribers increase. I used to post almost in a week, I had lot of comments. Now, posting many different topics, almost daily and rarely I get comment. But then I thought, life is short and I have to reach to maximum people with thoughts so increased posting. I am sad not getting my regular friends to comment on my blog. Even I can't manage to comment on their blog. So can't feel sad too. I think answer I have practically given. 

An apt mixture of both? I've been blogging for nearly three years actively, and I've got both. Readers who read and comment loyally for my posts, and also few time visitors from search engines. Some of the search engine bloggers who've found my blog have become regular long term readers too. But regular readers are always quite better than a one-time visitor :)

loyal visitors == returning/revisitors along with good comments is pretty much better.

google traffic == just for the reads

a blogger/writer would always love to hear from his/her readers. Google traffic often also increases loyal readership [but that's not always].

Both.

either.

A good question.....Loyal readers for sure is better than the Google traffic thing mainly because of the appreciation, because they know you and your blog and their feedback will be really helpful. Loyalty always scores for me.....

I would prefer having comments by regulars and aim to go on increasing that base.  But who wouldn't like to see a soaring graph of GR views? Actually I have no choice since I can't claim to having thousands of hits a day Since mine is a personal blog that gives me space to air my views, I can't expect any revenue out of it either, can I?

@Mohini: I agree with you about increasing frequency and losing comments. It is also not practical for me to post more than 1-2 posts in a week.

I had asked a similar question  about the effect of Google readers in another thread.

@Arti

I thought that a travel blog like yours has potential to attract lot of GR with high relevance. And info  (Tech, cookery, financial, travel) blogs, generally go for Google juice, I thought.

A Personal blog gets Google readers too. But often the relevance is very low. So they try to cultivate loyal readership/friendship by following, commenting on other blogs.

But as you said, it depends on what you want. If you are in it for professional reasons you go after Google. For the interaction with fellow bloggers, you go the other way. It is just that, if you are a personal blogger getting GR is extremely difficult in my opinion.

Being a niche blogger (medical blogs are not read by too many people) its hard to get loyal readers, but I do get a lot of Google love on certain posts. However, I would prefer a loyal reader over a bunch of random googlers any day! Quality over quantity...

[or maybe I am just trying to console myself coz no one reads my blog!]

We cannot really compare..

See, the visitors are of four types,

First the persistent ones. They are those who are loyal to you and will lap up each of your post eagerly. However, tell me this, how many such readers can you have at max ? The scaling up is very limited in this case. But since they are the higest quality, keep them hooked up with active interaction. 

The second type of vistiors are reasearchers. They have been looking for an information over the search engines and landed up on your page. There is a great chance that they will read your page and may even see more. Never ignore these people. For them make sure your content is good and is SEOd.

The Third type are stragglers who land up on your page from the Bookmarking sites like Digg/Stuble On etc. Since the data at hand is much more in their case and since the page is accessed from within the bookmarking website, there are chances that they will read just that one page and move on. Their attention span is also low and hence we need photographs / illustrations etc to attract their gaze.

The Fouth one are the most insignificant yet more in number. The trolls, pat backs etc. They come and go in large numbers but your blog is never on their agenda for the visits. Their existance doesnt make a difference and hence you need not even worry about them.

Long post.. hope I made some sense. :)