Back in the 90s I had old school visitor counters on all my websites (the kind that looked like an odometer). I got rid of them after I was displeased with how few visitors I got, and it felt like a badge of shame more than anything else.

IMO you lose a bit of authenticity when you start pandering to your audience to boost your numbers, which seems like a silly thing to do for a personal blog.

I'm totally fine with people who usually write about tech and suddenly write about baking, it makes life in my RSS reader that much more fun. If they optimized their "reach" they probably wouldn't include those gems.

> I'm totally fine with people who usually write about tech and suddenly write about baking, it makes life in my RSS reader that much more fun.

:) I recently read something in my tech feed about avant-garde perfumes and it ignited a new interest for me. I used to hate perfumes but now I enjoy them. I’m still going down that fragrant rabbit hole and grateful to have one less thing to dislike in the world.