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I wanted to share a basic topic with all of our readers that I think is sometimes overlooked, or perhaps is misunderstood by those new to the medium. In my last post I discussed how more and more people are turning to blogging as a career field. Some are finding ways to become bloggers for their companies, or they are independently finding ways to profit off the medium. In either case, money is the fundamental item we need in order to purchase goods and services, but nothing matters if you’re not tracking your stats.

For a lot of you new to blogging, perhaps you’ve heard of tracking statistics, perhaps you’re teaching yourself how to monitor your site, but suffice to say, it’s a clear cut benefit if you plan to make money on your site. This is the first of a series of posts that will look into ways bloggers can track visitors, clicks, and other vital information on their own sites in order to best plan their money making methods. There’s nothing wrong with financially gaining for your efforts, but never forget content is king, and for content to be king, you must first develop trust with your readers. But that is another post…

Tracking Stats is Fundamental

Inspired by a post I read on Mashable, I wanted to really share some key points of info with regards to planning how you will make money, and increasing your profits, all by keeping track of the vital statistics of your site. There are numerous ways, software packages, freeware, and site specific methods, and my hope is that after this series is done, you’ve got all the tools at your disposal and can make a more apt decision balancing your needs and your site’s target market.

What I’d like to target first are the analytical software packages that exist to assist those that are really looking at going in-depth with their analytics monitoring. I will delve into a few of my favorites, and then list other options that are available for you. Providing you this information will be key when making any decision, and empowering is what I want to make sure I do for each and every reader, especially on a topic as fundamental as this.

I. Google Analytics
By now everyone on the planet has heard of Google. With as many online tools as they offer, it’s no surprise that they also offer site tracking utilities that work very well with their other offerings such as AdWords. The utility allows for tracking of extensive information that would be vital to establishing which pages to market on, how, why, and where your traffic is coming in from. I personally use this tool for all of my sites, and more importantly have the stats printed out weekly in order to review how traffic is using my site, and viewing my content. The real big downside to this option is that it’s not live data. The data you review can be as old as several hours, so this would not be sufficient if you are seeking live, updated information. The process to sign up is fairly easy and provides simple navigation to get to where you want.

II. Clicky
I love Clicky, and I love what it offers and the ease of use it has established. Clicky is great if you are constantly on the go as well because it offers a mobile interface, via iPhone, that keeps you up to date with all the stats in real time, live, and up to date. Unliked Google Analytics, what you see is what is happening. The utility shows you what every person that has come to your site has done, and how they’ve interacted on your page. This might be a little more information than perhaps you are looking for, but for those that stake their livelihood on their site might be persuaded to take an active part in all it has to offer.

Clicky does offer a tiered service that starts off with a free account. The free account has its limitations, but starting out, you get a free 21-day trail of the Pro Account, to show you what you can get if you pay into the tierd services. Prices range from $9.99 to $49.99 a month, but undoubtedly one of the leaders in their field for what they do. They even go with a comparison chart of their services versus their competition. Sites such as Wine Library TV, Mashable, and Smashing Magazine all use their service, why not you?

III. Yahoo Web Analytics
Here’s another familiar face in the bunch, Yahoo. It’s almost as if the world is divided into two users, those that love Google, and those that are die-hard fans of Yahoo. No doubt Yahoo has expanded its list of services to remain competitive in the market, and despite struggles at the management level, the software it’s offering has been solid. With its version of web analytics, the dashboard is customizable and very easy to manage, along with live and up to date information. It proposes that the use of their software makes it easy for marketers to align their campaigns with the user’s search and reading habits. The strong points seem to be the demographic and behavioral reports that can be monitored with Yahoo. Definitely worth a look!

IV. Woopra
Woopra is a real winner with a lot of people, and honestly it slowly starting to become my favorite of the packages offered in this list. For starters the interface is, simply put, just beautiful. It’s comforting to browse the interface and the many segments of information it can track for you. Like other packages it offers real time tracking, and it also offers you the ability to see visitor information, track their clicks, and monitor their movements across your site. What l love most about Woopra is the extras it has added into the package to truly make your tracking interactive. For starters it offers click to chat sessions so that you can chat with visitors on your site as they arrive. It’s a two way communication and the webmaster can decide how they want to set it up. It can either be click-able by the visitor to initiate chat, or initiated by the webmaster to connect with the visitor. Secondly it also allows you to track loyal visitors to your site by specifically targeting them for tracking, monitoring how often and what they comment on, what they click, and all of this offers a better view of your most loyal fans and what works and what does not.

These are just four of top analytical tools in my book. There are many other analytical software packages you can use for your site, and here is the list of 20 for you to review. Pick the ones that work best for you.

1. VisiStat
2. mviSPY
3. LoadStats
4. Opentracker.net
5. MetaTraffic
6. ShinyStat
7. Lyris HQ
8. W3Counter
9. Blizzard Tracker
10. StatsAdvisor
11. Logdy.com
12. Pagealizer
13. Sometrics
14. Piwik
15. FireStats
16. Snoop
17. MochiBot.com
18. Grape Web Statistics
19. Stuffed Tracker
20. GoingUp

Photo Credit Don Solo

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Post Written by Luis Sandoval. He is a media strategist for Advantj Media, and writer on social media and technology on his blog The Daily Slackr.

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