If you run a website you probably fall into one of two camps, you couldn't care less about what people think about it, or you're in every guestbook in a 50 site radius asking for followers to contribute to the progress bar you put on your site. That's not to say it's bad to seek popularity, I mean, it's human nature, but I do think personal sites are a pretty dumb place for that.

I've always maintained the belief that personal sites are something you make for yourself (hence the personal part), and that it's kinda stupid to get caught up in popularity or views.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nobody's going to be thinking about your site, regardless of if you have 1 or 100 followers. Your site won't magically become this crazy phenomenon because it got semi-popular on some obscure website host, it just means more people thought the colors were pretty enough to justify clicking a [+] icon.

With how many sites have a paragraph about how they want to get away from social media after changing the world or something, it just seems weird to see the same people worrying about every single view and follower.

It's not that deep, just make a website you like, and if it gets popular, congrats, otherwise, oh well. TM out..