StatCounter
One of the great tools available to answer the question of “How to Create a Blog” is StatCounter. StatCounter is a free service that provides incredibly useful information about what is happening with your blog. How many people are visiting, where they come from, how they got there, what keywords they used and more. It is simple to install and a definite must for every one who is serious about starting a blog. To get started go to StatCounter.com.
Press on the Register Now link and fill out the information they are asking for.
When you are finished click the Register My Account button.
You will be congratulated and the asked to add a project. Click on the Proceed & Add a Project button.
Fill in the title of your blog and the URL of your blog. You will be asked for a category, pick the one that matches your site. You will want to type in your IP address in the IP Blocking box so that you don’t keep stats of how many times you are at your site. Your IP address will actually show up (look in the screenshot above where I blacked out my IP address. That is where your’s will be. When you are finished press Next.
You will get congratulated again! Click on the Configure & Install Code button. You can pick which kind of Counter you want. I chose the invisible counter and clicked Next.
Enter in what type of site you have (in my case I entered self-hosted WordPress) and press Next.
If you are using WordPress you are going to need the information that I blacked out. Your project number, your partition number, and your security number. While you are on the screen with your code on it click on the option to download a zipped version of the WordPress StatCounter Plugin. Download the file and install it in your WordPress Plugin directory. If you need help downloading and installing a plugin please read my article 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog From Scratch – Part 2. Activate the plugin on the WordPress dashboard and then go to Options and StatCounter.
Enter in the numbers from your code that I told you to copy and then click Enabled and Update Options. Give your site a little time to get some traffic (if you are a new site and not getting much traffic, just go and check out your site from a different computer with a different IP address). Go back to StatCounter.com and you can get some amazing information.
Analyzing Your Stats
Click on your site name on the StatCounter project page.
As you get traffic you will see a bar graph that tells you how many page loads, unique visitors, and returning visitors you have had. If you look to the left you will see a menu of all types of useful information.
Check out all the summaries. The Keyword Analysis will be very helpful in finding out how people are getting to your site and what keywords you should focus on. You can also find out what pages they are gong to and how much time they are spending on your site. This is a very helpful tool and definitely makes the Cool Tool Page.
Category: Moving Along
