Then it all changed.

I decided not to pay anymore. I wasn’t really happy with the performance reports, coupled with errors and database downtimes. I decided to explore the free world. In a matter of couple days, I found what I was looking for. The perfect statistical companion(s).

Let me share them with you.

Before I proceed, here is a piece of advice. Never rely on any one Analytics tool. It is important to have at least 2 different logging tools to gather vital information about your blog’s performance. That said, I use 3 different tools to satisfy my statistical needs.

1. Google Analytics
2. Open Web Analytics
3. Blog Stats from Auttomatic

Google Analytics: This is my favorite tool, no doubt about it. But I use it a bit differently. I login to my Google Analytics just about once a week. I do not use it to see how many visitors I have received on a given day. Instead I use it purely for the purpose of analyzing the incoming traffic, the quality of the traffic, their sources, the keywords used to arrive at my blog, the different locations people have arrived from, the bounce rate, the duration of their stay and more.

I am sure you want to know more about how to use and benefit from Google Analytics. Go to my homepage and download my book “ABC of Google Analytics. It is free and comes with zero strings attached.

Open Web Analytics: My absolute favorite for real time visitors statistics. It was founded by Peter Adams about whom you can read everything here. This tool has the look and feel of Google Analytics, while providing feature rich real time analytical tools. What disappoints me is the fact that this Web Analytics tool hasn’t received the exposure it really deserves. The first time I installed, I was really amazed at what I saw in the Dashboard. Here are a few screen shots.

Auttomatic Blog Stats: Blog Stats is the third Analytics package I use. This is something I refer daily, for the purpose of finding out if there is something that OWA has missed or not tracked. At the end of the day, I cross reference both of them and study both the data in brief to conclude the average figures. I definitely like this a lot, but do not trust the figures as much as I trust OWA. OWA is number 1 in my book for real time web analytics. Here are a few screen shots again for Auttomatic Blog Stats.

The above 2 packages come in the form of Wordpress Plugins. You have to download them and upload it to your Plugin directory. For information on how to upload a Plugin, refer to my post here. Again, the Plugins mentioned above are free and have no strings attached.

To conclude, you do not really have to shell out money on Analytics packages. They all have one or the problem and none of them are perfect. I have to add this briefly. My recent experience with pMetrics was pretty bad and depressing. I do not want to go in detail about it because the guys behind pMetrics are solid individuals with excellent morals and dedication. They are striving hard to improve pMetrics. So I am positive, in a few months it will emerge out a winner. Until then, it simply sucks.

Try the above combination and let me know. I can tell you for a surety you will love them and also that you won’t look back again at any paid packages sold in the market. Do share your experiences in the comments section. I can’t wait to hear them.

Do you pay for your Analytics package?

I have never been on the front page of Digg. There was one time I came close and the hypocrites there banned me. Maybe they do not tolerate Quality content anymore. I mean it. I have seen stale contents getting on the front page of Digg. Pretty sad.

I am beginning to wonder if too much stress is laid on these 2 communities. I rarely hear anyone talking about a community like Reddit or Propeller or Newsvine. I am also wondering if it is because of the massive numbers that the above 2 communities deliver, that they literally drown the other smaller Social distribution channels.

I am a big fan of Shoutwire, a small but popular Social community, and actually one of the first websites for Social interaction and individual freedom of Speech. I first came across Shoutwire in early 2006 and honestly, I was pretty impressed by the plethora of contents. Their topics cover from business to politics to entertainment to Lifestyle and more.

Okay, back to my main point. I have had 4 articles from blogs featured in Shoutwire. The first 3 articles got 2000 visitors each in less than 24 hours. Upon analysis, I have to say, the visitors were not really the useless types that comes from Digg, but really read my article and many of them left comments, both positive and negative.

3 days back, one of my articles made it to the front page. This was the 4^th in line. This story got me an unusual 4000+ visitors in less than 48 hours. My story was on the front page for over 24 hours and got heavily shouted and of course bashed.

I use 3 analytics program to gain an insight into the visitor averages. Google Analytics is one of them. I will cover them in another article, another time. Google Analytics recorded 3758 visitors in a period of 40 hours. Program 2 recorded 4117 visitors in the same period. Program 3 recorded 4431 visitors. I consider 4000 to be the rough average. That is 4000 visitors in a period of 40 hours. Definitely not bad.

It took me 19 votes to make it to the frontpage of Shoutwire compared to the 50-100 votes that Digg requires. It has been the same in the past 2. The previous 3 articles took 19, 20, and 22 votes respectively to be pushed to frontpage. It was definitely worth the effort.

I am pretty sure, I will use Shoutwire for a long time to satisfy my traffic needs. Certain people are worried about the critical nature of Shoutwire members, but I really am not. I love criticism and really feast on it. It has helped me a lot in growing up to becoming what I am today.

Shoutwire – Have you paid attention to this little gem?

I will definitely appreciate if you can spread the word about the book and refer people to my blog here for people to download. Without readers, my efforts will go in vain.

Well, what else do I have to say? Hmm yeah, I am excited and a bit nervous because this is my first book. Wondering how the blogosphere will respond to it. I am going to keep a positive outlook.

Do let me know your thoughts on the book. I appreciate constructive criticisms and positive feedbacks. By the way, please subscribe to my RSS . You sure dont want to miss the educational benefits this blog has to give.

Download the Book:

I have released my book finally

Web Analytics is a methodical analysis of the web visitors and a number based study of their behavior in respect to a particular website. From the business point of view, web analytics refers to using data that is collected from a particular website to find out, what on the website works towards achieving the monetary objective of the web business.

Why is Web Analytics needed?

Web analysis allows one to understand the key aspects of the website and their functioning in a better manner. It is important that as a Netrepreneur, you understand whether the website that has been designed for business, is achieving the objectives of the business.

There are several methods that are used in web analytics, thus, after a certain data regarding any website is collected, the data is statistically analyzed. The statistical data thus obtained helps online entrepreneurs determine, the behavior of the traffic that visits the website. The data is typically used for comparison with some of the key indicators of performance. This data also allows you to improvise on your website or the marketing strategies that you have been using by mere observation.

Web Analytics – a boon to businesses

Web analytics can help in a great way to improve your business. Marketing and advertising are one of the primary ways to attract traffic to your website. However, all the efforts that you put into marketing and advertising will go in vain if the individuals visiting your site do not add to the profits that you wish to make through your website.

In other words, you would have to deal with a stream of zombies that do not make a difference to your pockets. In fact, even if the website were to generate enough revenue; one does not really consider the additional amount of revenue the website could make just by observing certain key patterns and utilizing them to their favor. This is where web analytics comes into the picture. Web analytics could help you realize where there is a scope for improvement on your website by collecting data about the behavior of the individual that visits your website. You could improve on various aspects of your site, for instance choosing the right kind of landing page for your website.

Web Analytics also helps reduce cost

Once you have realized what it is on your website that draws the attention of the traffic in general, you could use this knowledge to tweak your advertising campaigns accordingly. Doing this will largely benefit you in terms of the cost of advertising; by being more specific in your ad campaign. Apart from this, Web Analytics also helps you analyze the client movement on your site. By using the data thus provided, you could eliminate the campaigns that are not profitable and thus save in costs. Besides this, you could also use the traffic data to optimize the marketing campaigns that have been comparatively better and more profitable. This would mean that you as a Netrepreneur could do away with campaigns that are bad and make use of only the good campaigns.

Methods used in Web Analytics

There are several methods used for Web Analytics that could help you determine and identify the source of the visitors and the potential customers. Two of the most popular methods used for the purpose of Web Analytics include log file analysis and the page tagging method.

Web Server Logfile Analysis

Logfiles were always used to record data of all the web server transactions. However, logfiles were not used for the purpose of web analytics until it was realized that they could be read by a particular program and thus provide data on website popularity.

Logfiles are usually already available and they record the transactions that any web server makes. After which the data gets stored on the company’s web server. This data can then be analyzed. Logfiles also contains information about visits from search engine spiders. Logfiles also contain information on requests that were not completed, or failed requests.

Page tagging

Page Tagging is more accurate as compared to Log file analysis. Java Script is used in this method and thus, you might have to alter the code of your website if you wish to make use of this method for the purpose of Web analytics. In this method, the program associates visitors with cookies and allows you to access information like the amount of purchases that the client might have made or even the size of the clients screen.

Web Analytics software Programs

There are several softwares that are available for Web Analytics. These can also be bought online. The Web Analytics softwares include programs by Google Analytics and several others like pMetrics and Mint.

These softwares are powerful. You could use the information they provide to make powerful changes in your promotional campaigns. For instance, one of the information these softwares provide is visitor tracking based on geography. If you learn that a certain population tends to visit your website more you could design your campaign to target that particular population and reduce other areas, thereby spending your ad dollars wisely.

Alright, I am late for a meeting. More later.

Web Analytics: An inevitable element of your business