If a young lad were to be working out at the gym regularly, training on the weights, building the muscle mass, after a while, say a few months, he’ll start to notice how good he’s looking in front of the mirror.

We’ll see an increase in size where its noticeable: biceps, chest, shoulders. Perhaps a reduction of size in around the gut and love handles if that was ever a problem. Our strapping young lad looking at himself in the mirror isn’t a sign of ego. Okay, there’s some vanity involved, but it’s good to see the progress that’s being made.

The same goes when you’re publishing online. You’re researching your ideas, drafting your articles, editing them for clarity. You publish. You promote. And then it’s good to check the stats. Visitors, who’s linked to you, click outs… And of course the revenue stats… how much money is being made and so on.

But don’t become a stats addict. They don’t need to be checked every 30 minutes. Again, like our bodybuilding analogy, can you imagine if a person spent most of their time just posing and posturing in front of the mirror? Our weight lifting lad wouldn’t make any new gains. At best he may just maintain his size. Though he may even start to see some muscle loss. Which is a shame, because he really wanted to become a professional bodybuilder.

The same will happen if you spend too much time revisiting your daily stats several times per day, you won’t be able to keep producing the articles that was part of your plan to become a quality online publisher.