Lee Odden has compiled a list of twenty useful analytics tools for blogs. I know what you’re thinking - isn’t Google Analytics enough. Well, no it isn’t. There are tools specifically designed for blogs, that take into consideration blog specific analytics issues. Anyway, here’s the list:

• 103bees - Free web stats (ad supported) up to 100k visits per month, then it’s $9
• Enquisite - Free, extremely detailed web stats
• Hittail - Provides suggested topics for your blog by keywords used in referral traffic
• Crazy Egg - Provides overlay, list and heat map web stats
• RobotReplay - Lets you record visitor actions on your site and play them back
• Clicky - Web stats plus feed and Feedburner stats
• Google Analytics - Web stats, not really the best for blogs but it’s free
• StatCounter - Free web stats
• Co.mments - Track comment threads starting on your blog and follow them elsewhere in a feed
• Blog Tracker - Free from IceRocket but limited functionality
• Performancing Metrics - Basic is Free, or $3.99 to $16.99 per month for more features
• Site Meter - Basic Free and Premium versions $6.95 and up
• Mint - Popular web stats with bloggers for $30 per site
• MyBlogLog - Basic blog visitor stats and social networking. Free and paid versions.
• Feedburner Stats - StandardStats Free, TotalStats $4.99/mo
• Wordpress Stats - Free basic blog stats plugin for Wordpress blogs
• Google Analytics and Feedburner Stats - Free plugin for Wordpress blogs
• eXTReMe Tracking - Free web stats with a paid version for $4.50 per month
• Web Stat - Many web stats features for $5/mo
• TraceWatch - Free but you need access to your server which should be running PHP/MySQL

I’ve used Crazy Egg, Google Analytics (hey, we all use this don’t we?), WordPress Stats, but haven’t tried many of the tools mentioned above. Naturally, there are plenty more tools we can use for blog tracking and analytics, all of which are discussed in Lee’s post. In fact, if you think of (or even better, have used other tools) by all means share them here or there.

Share This

Skribit is a new site with a fairly simple goal in mind - to help bloggers know which topics their visitors are interested in. They offer a small widget that, when embedded into a website, will allow visitors to describe in short what they want to read about. This way, a blog can easily concentrate on topics the visitors are interested in instead of wasting time and resources writing about stuff that users simply don’t want to see. All submitted topics are voted on on Skribit (they call this “What’s hoppin”).

Since the site is currently in beta, the widget, which is the core of the service, is unavailable to the general public but you can contact Skribit and ask to be informed about the public release of the widget. Skribit may prove to be very useful, both for the readers (content consumers) and webmasters. Kind of like analyzing search keywords the visitor used to come to your site and trying to guess the visitor’s intent from them, only this is easier because having gone through the widget, the intent is quite clear - they want to see content about this or that particular topic. I’ve signed-up to be contacted for the public release, and will give Skribit a try for sure. I am especially interested in seeing whether this kind of communication with blog readers is in line with other methods of website traffic and content demand analysis. If that indeed proves to be the case, than things will get so much easier.

Share This

On August 23, at SES San Jose, the Web Analytics Association announced a major development by publishing standard definitions for 26 “foundational web analytics metrics”. These metrics cover the areas of visits, content and conversion. The new publication is a result of collaboration between WAA members, vendors, agencies, practitioners and thought leaders. The new definitions will provide consistency of most widely used terms in the growing web analytics industry.

This document follows WAA’s previous release in 2006, which put focus on the three most important metrics in all analytics software and analytics tools - unique visitors, visits and sessions, and page views. These terms were later agreed upon, so WAA decided to expand its focus onto the many other core metrics that rely on these three initial definitions.

The market for analytics tools is booming and, with increased interest from all areas of online marketing, these standards benefit both the users and practitioners and will only accelerate the advancement of the analytics industry.

Read the entire press release on WAA.

The new definitions are available for download as PDF file.

The Web Analytics Association is a not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of web analytics through education, advocacy, standards, research and technology.

Share This