How much attention do people pay to their hit counts? Out of curiosity, I've taken to recording the count for each month, although I don't pay close attention in between. I've never, for example, noted how many hits any individual entry has attracted.

I have noticed, however, that after steadily climbing to a level that I found very surprising, the hits have come crashing down the past couple months.

Comments make a lot bigger impression on me than numerals on a counter. I don't blog to attract vast numbers of readers. My old fanzine went out to 60 or 70 friends. The absolute number of readers that look at my stuff here is way beyond what I would've expected. However, I do worry about the precipitous decline. Is it a gentle hint that I'm becoming repetitious or sloppy or (dare I say it?) depressing? Well, feel free to consider that a rhetorical question.

I suppose this is an unfortunate extension of worrying about one's sales figures!

Does anyone have any experience with fluctuating blog readership? What might cause the hits to go up or down?

[Checking, I see I had by far the most hits, the month I made the fewest entries!]