Free Alternatives To Google Analytics

A short while ago in my quest for less reliance on Google, I removed Google Analytics from my sites. I should add that it is a great tool, if a little in depth for more average users, but like others, I’m beginning to feel that the big G have their fingers in too many pies, and their dominance might not be in the best interests of webmasters and bloggers.

Despite not wanting to spend too much time poring over statistics, once you’ve had them, it’s easy to miss them, and so I set about trawling the web for a viable and equivalent service. As a result, I think I’ve found one, which although still in Beta, is free and provides almost as much data as Google.

Introducing another Free Web Analytics Service

The program in question is called MyRT and I signed up and installed their tracking code yesterday. The early signs are good, loading times are not adversely affected and the presentation of web stats is clear and easy to interpret. So far, it is looking like a very worthy alternative. If you are among those who feel overly "Googled" you might like to give these guys a shot. It’s a little too soon to say more, but the early signs are very encouraging.

After signup, you will be taken straight to your account and provided with the javascript code you will need to start tracking your pages. (The confirmation email took a while to arrive, but you don’t need it to get started in any case). I inserted it in the footer of my blogs and within a couple of hours you will start to see reporting. It’s all very painless and simple to set up. The data provided includes things such as entry and exit pages, time on site, geographical data including maps, hot spot tracking, click throughs, traffic sources, keywords and keyphrases. It’s all presented with pretty graphs and pie charts allowing you to see exactly what’s going on on your websites and blogs.

I’ve added a few screenshots below for a bit more detail on how the service looks once you’re inside your control panel

This is one of the drop down navigation and reporting menus in the left sidebar

Here you can see the pie chart display option of stats

and if you prefer alternative displays, just click on the icons at top left to switch to another option

TCH - Web Hosting and Marketing Services

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Analytics, Web Analytics, Free Analytics, Website Stats, Statistics, Web Stats, Free Website Analytics, Google Analytics

Your Blogging Window - Share It With The World

With all the Google Page Rank fuss recently it’s time to settle down again and also time for a little light relief. I hate working on Sundays (beach days) but the good lady is at the hair salon and I’m just waiting around to hit my spot under the coconut palms. So, sitting idly around, I came up with a little idea.

Bloggers come here from all over the world and I thought it would be cool if we could all look out on the views each of us enjoy when we are blogging. Does it inspire you or depress you or whatever!

Here’s how I hope it will work. I’ll kick things off with a picture of my usual view of the world when I’m blogging, the view from my blogging window that I'm looking at right now. All you need to do is make your own post with your own picture of your blogging window, leave your comment below with a link to your blog post in the comment field. If you’ve got anything else to add, that’s fine too. We can then follow each other around and look at our friends’ views from all over the planet. Peeping toms in reverse if you like

It’s not a meme, participation is entirely voluntary, I hope a lot of folks will join in, it’s gotta be more interesting than looking at each other’s desktops. Plus, free backlinks are always nice right?

(Important - my blogging platform doesn’t allow for HTML in comments so please just leave the raw URL to your blogging window post)

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blog Views, Blog Scenery, Photo Blog, Blog Windows, Bloggers Photos, Blogging Views, Where Bloggers Are, Blogging and Scenery, The View From The Worlds Blogs

Tiresome Affiliate Bashing Is Illogical

I have a couple of things to say today about affiliate marketing. Not so much for affiliates, more for the people who have somehow made the giant leap in their imaginations that it is somehow seedy or evil or somewhere in between those two extremes. What I want to know is - why is that? Discounting a lot of the unethical marketing proponents and people selling rubbish and of course the ever hated spammers, what do people have against affiliates?

Let’s take hosting. As an affiliate for various hosting companies I am forever encountering the argument that "you only promote it because you stand to get a commission" - therefore, "any review or comment written by an affiliate is worthless". Then there is the sweeping statement that "finding reliable reviews of hosting companies is impossible because of affiliate marketing". So, let’s examine those beliefs a little more closely. It is obvious that affiliates do what they do to make money, there is no argument there. It is also possible that some affiliates will write or say some things that they can’t back up with personal experience - also true. However, there is a big gap between that and the assumption that all affiliates are dishonest or only out for a quick buck or all the other misinformation out there about affiliate marketing. Tarring every affiliate with the same brush is hardly a balanced or reliable metric.

Stumbleupon Reviews and Guides

Way back in the mists of time I joined a new program called Stumbleupon using my wife’s name, and with the intention of spreading the word about her art. I then completely ignored the site and never thought much about it again, until fairly recently. A lot has been written about SU, and I’m not making a groundbreaking post here, but this is my quick take on it for anyone still not familiar with SU and looking for information.

Getting traffic to any blog involves work and things have moved so rapidly as each year passes. The rise of social blogging networks and Web 2.0 have provided numerous ways for bloggers and webmasters to try and get their message out to the world; to the point that it’s almost impossible to keep up with the developments. I’m not going to try and tell you why Stumbleupon is so important or how best to use it - there have been plenty of articles on the subject and I’ve linked to some of the better ones at the foot of this post. What I will say is that if you are still ignoring Stumbleupon as a social traffic generating tool, you are probably missing out on a great opportunity to find new readers and new and interesting sites and people.

The fact is, Stumbleupon works. You can, in a very short space of time, start generating a lot of traffic to your blog or website, just by being an active Stumbler. I try to Stumble blogs and websites on a regular basis and it brings several benefits. Once you begin to make some friends on SU, and start to Stumble your own favorites, you will see results quite quickly. It’s not unusual to see hundreds of visitors after being Stumbled by others, particularly if they are a top Stumbler or respected source of consistently interesting and worthy Stumbles. You will probably find that the more time you spend exploring the site, the more great content you will discover and the more like minded people you will interact with, and this is what helps the program to grow and, in turn, helps you to drive visitors to your own sites. Like all Web 2.0 and social sites, participation is the key - give and take makes SU go around - but don’t worry, because with SU, it’s always fun and interesting, and you will find topics that interest you.

In my current attempts to achieve less reliance on Google, SU has become a search of choice for me - and it really does deliver some great results too. As a Stumbler, you will naturally link up with others who share your interests. This means that it is not purely the province of techies, bloggers, marketers etc. It is infinitely tailored to your wants and needs, and you will find fellow Stumblers in your sphere of interest very easily. When you befriend them, you can access all their favorite places and they can do the same with yours. User driven content of interest really works well and the more folks you hook up with, the greater the information sharing becomes. You are allowed up to 200 friends at SU so network sensibly and you will hopefully reap the rewards!

If you are wanting to drive more visitors to your own content, you will succeed if your Stumbles are worth reading and voting for - if you try to spam the system you will inevitably be hoisted by your own petard. Stumblers are a generous bunch by and large, but they will soon be turned off by rubbish and spammy efforts at blatant self promotion - this is a good thing. Also, the quality of traffic you command will depend on many variables and a lot of Stumblers will visit only as long as it takes to click on to another site from their toolbar. However, some will stay, and eyes on your content are all good after all, even if only cursory.

If Web 2.0 means nothing to you, a good introduction to the kind of social sites involved can be found at the Social Networking Articles Blog and for a comprehensive source of information you may like to read the Web 2.0 Authority Black Book These will give you a good grounding in the services and sites available and just what you an use them for.

When it comes to SU, I’m listing below a list of authority posts on the subject, (there are literally hundreds more but if you think there’s one that should be listed please leave it with your comments) so there’s really no excuse for you not to get Stumbling. When you do, be sure to drop by and join my friends list

The Unofficial Stumbleupon FAQ

6 Reasons To Love Stumbleupon

8 Reasons Why I Prefer Stumbleupon

Five Tips For Getting Traffic From Stumbleupon

Bringing Those Stumblers Back

Making a Power Account On Stumbleupon

Dosh Dosh - A Comprehensive Guide To Stumbleupon

Stumbleupon Versus Digg

Internet Marketers Guide To Stumbleupon

A Definitive Stumbleupon Guide

Technorati Tags: Stumbleupon, Web 2.0, Social Traffic, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Web Traffic, Stumblers

Get Out Of Your Niche at Life In The Country

This is a quick plug for a nice idea from Snoskred over at Life In The Country who is inviting niche bloggers to guest post on her blog about subjects unrelated to their usual writing fare........

You'll get the idea by visiting the post from Stephen Cronin of More Than Scratch The Surface who has written an interesting piece about his life as an Aussie ex pat living in China. 

If you'd like to participate, you can find details of how to do so at the foot of the post there. Could be a lot of fun! 

Footnote - (For some reason my trackback and comment to the site appear to have been nuked) but I still recommend a visit :-) 

Article Marketing With Josh Spaulding

I've been reading Josh Spaulding's blog for some time now and find it full of useful information. Josh has been involved in Article Marketing for a while and knows his stuff, so, in light of my last post about Article Spinner and Article Submitter, I thought I would take the liberty of publishing one of his many articles on the subject. If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend checking out Josh's resources at the foot of his article and subscribing to his excellent blog. 

Article Marketing - Writing Articles For Traffic

By Josh Spaulding 

You need to consider your strategy, before you start. Do you want long term traffic and income from the articles you write? If you said yes, then you need to write a completely different way from the way that has been recommended for many years. You will need to write in such a way, that you will have targeted traffic coming to your website.......

PPC Ads For Publishers From ADS-Click

UPDATE

Since  writing this I have discovered that the Javascript generated by Ads-Click was causing the infamous "operation aborted" message in both IE6 and IE7, rendering the sites unreadable in Mirosoft's browser. If you have installed Ads-Click you may want to check your own sites. Thanks to Dan at Ads-Click who has provided a fix for the horrible IE. Insert the  following line enclosed within <script> </script> tags.

document["tc-adsclick-fix-ie"]=30; 

Bloggers looking for fresh advertising and monetization options might be interested in a lesser known service from an outfit called ADS-Click. There are a few things that set this one apart from things like Adsense and other traditional PPC advertising options for publishers. There is no referral program at present and they currently have around 3500 publishers using the service.

Firstly, you will find that ADS-Click gives you a far greater deal of control over the PPC ads you wish to display, and several options on how to display them. Like Adsense, you can leave the program to choose ads based on keywords relevant to your content, or you can pick the keywords manually. This is a nice option because the program will tell you exactly what each keyword will pay per click, so, if you only want keywords paying over a certain amount it's easy to find the higher paying words.

The really neat thing is, you can then choose to display your ads in a variety of ways, you are not restricted to just the Adsense type of text blocks, although these are available in default and infinitely customizable sizes. You can also use the program to display inline text ads, converting words within your content to clickable ads, just like Kontera or Chikita but without the annoying pop up bubbles. This is only an option if you choose the Best Performing Keywords option. Then again, if you prefer a nice tag cloud of relevant keywords, you can have that too! Up to fifty keywords, manually or contextually selected displayed  in a customizable sized tag cloud. But they haven't left it at that - there is also an RSS option that I've not experimented with yet. Read the full article for demos and screenshots..........

Kontera and Post2Blog Updates

The past couple of days have seen a slight reduction in productivity due to 1) My ISP having a long outage yesterday and 2) because I have been working alongside my wife at The Morgan Gallery which we have been babysitting whilst the owners are away. This doesn’t normally affect me because I can blog from here too, but there has been much to do in recent days as the date of her newest solo show fast approaches. Today has spent rearranging the gallery somewhat for the visiting TV crew and then putting everything back as it should be. Tomorrow I will be minding the store alone.

A few little changes have now been implemented here - I hope that you will have noticed the absence of Kontera. After reading some of the comments I decided to take it down, at least for an experimental period. The Amazon contextual links are still appearing but hopefully these don’t irritate people too much. You might also have noticed the implementation of a handy "tag cloud" in my sidebar, which I’ll talk about at a later date.

I’ve been writing for other people over the past two days as well and this has affected my output on the blog too. How some people manage to stay on top of multiple blogs I’ve no idea! I’m also encountering a few problems with my rather ancient laptop and it’s making typing a little laborious. I should really get around to buying a new one, but I love my current machine and it has served me really well.

One small triumph is the success in finally getting Post2Blog- a desktop blogging client for Windows - to work with my Nucleus platform so this post is being made using the software. If you don’t already use a third party blogging client, they come highly recommended and I have mentioned several available blog posting software choices in the past and there are several free options listed here.

Technorati Tags: Kontera, PPC, Post2Blog, Blogging Software, Tag Clouds

Bumpzee Bloggers Are Rubbish

(edited slightly for clarity)

So says one blogger referring to the members of the NoNoFollow community at least. According to him, the only reason most of these blogs exist is vanity on the part of their authors. Furthermore, he claims that there is hardly one blog in the community that warrants even reading let alone commenting on. There has since been an attempt to mitigate those comments somewhat by his admission that Bumpzee sends quality traffic to his own blog (which is doubtless of the highest quality, so no vanity there), but to me this illustrates that his sense of "community" is no more than what he can get out of it. Nice. 

No, I'm not naming names, because that goes against what I'm ranting about, and yes, I could have stated my views directly in reply to his, but cluttering up someone else's blog with that kind of off topic argument isn't really cool.........

PPC Advertising - Fresh Ideas

After my usual Sunday off, relaxing on one of Cayman's beautiful beaches, eating Tamarind Balls and drinking ice cold stuff, I've been taking stock of some of my monetization efforts on this blog of late and as a result have been looking for alternatives  and trying to decide what should  stay and what should go.

I have recently dropped the use of AdEngage which simply didn't work for me at all. That's not to say it's a bad program, just that it doesn't fit my blog at the present time, and I didn't  attract any advertisers at all since signing up with them. I'm also considering discontinuing Kontera ads on this site (see previous post) as although they have been working reasonably well, they seem to alienate a lot of readers.

Actually, I don't really know why I'm bothering at all with this blogging work. I've won the lottery so many times over the weekend and in so many different countries that I awoke this morning to find myself rich beyond my wildest dreams. All I really need to do is reply to some emails and wait for those huge seven figure checks to arrive. If only I had the time to scambait like Snoskred over at Life In The Country, but I just can't see it being possible. I shall be spending the rest of my days just trying to get through those piles of money. Apologies to all you poor people, but as the song says, "Some Guys Have All The Luck"!!!!!

 However, read on for some alternative monetization ideas.......

Widget Bucks Performance and A Kontera Poll

Over the past ten days or so, I've been experimenting with Widget Bucks and despite reservations expressed by some about Widget Bucks' code, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the results. Ten days is hardly much time on which to base a decision, but click throughs have been surprisingly high and in monetary terms those clicks are quite valuable. The ads are served contextually or, you can specify products from a selection of categories.  Initially the skyscraper was only available on a 160 width, which broke my layout in IE6, but they are now offering a 120 skyscraper, which is fine for my narrow sidebars...........(read more by clicking below)

Google Analytics Removed (Small Moves)

Big Bad Google? 

In a cleaning up excercise I've decided to discontinue the use of Google Analytics. Why? Well, partly because it's too much of a timewaster at the same time as being something I don't make full use of. Getting hung up on statistics is too easy a trap to fall into and I've decided to reduce my dependency if you like. I'm also trying to do my very small bit in reducing Google's influence on the blogging world.  Pathetic? Maybe, but lately I'm disillusioned with their stance on several things, and have decided to use alternatives where possible.   

I'm also conscious that some people don't like being tracked everywhere they visit, and that loading analytics every time my pages load is just another slight speed penalty for no worthwhile gain. Read on for more about re-examining my reliance on Google.........

How Do I Make Money Online Part One - Kiosk.ws Affiliate Program

I often find when reading blogs about making money online that the information provided falls some way short of really telling people anything they don't already know, or skirts around the edges of  a subject leaving you unfulfilled and in many cases, suspicious of the author's true knowledge. Before starting this post, I was thinking of talking about how I made my first money online, but a friendly blogger only recently made a similar post so I decided to save that for another day. Instead, I've decided to talk in depth about one of the most successful revenue generators I have worked with.  Now, this is a long post, and my aim is to preempt a lot of questions and give people a thorough insight into one of the ways I currently earn money online.  I hope you will find it worth the read and that it will inspire you to continue your own efforts.

I have tried to write this so that it will be helpful to both beginners and the more experienced, so if some sections seem a little obvious, please bear with me and remember that you may know a lot more than some readers. 

Google Adsense - Thousands Still Breaking The Rules

I am prompted to write this very quick post in the hope that it will save a lot of people a lot of disappointment. Most of my regular readers probably won't be interested in this as they are a knowledgeable crowd :-). However, based on what I have been seeing lately, it's an educational need for thousands of Adsense hopefuls, working their way towards their first $100 payment threshold.

Think of this as a public service announcement. I did write about it a while back but it obviously warrants a repeat posting.

ClipClip.org - Caution Required

I got home this evening to see a pingback on one of my sites from Lucia at BigBucksBogger. Imagine my concern when I read her post about ClipClip.org and realized she was talking about a group at the social bookmarking site that belonged to me.

FeedGhost Contest Winners

The results of the Feedghost Pro License contest are in. I had three pro licenses to give away and I'm pleased to say that I can now announce the winners.....are you one of them?  Even if you didn't enter, there's still a chance if you're a regular reader, so read on!!

Please Tell Me Your Post/Design Preferences

I'm hoping to get some feedback from readers on how they would prefer me to deal with post layout on these pages. Lately I have been publishing the full post on the main page. I realize that this means a lot of scrolling down, so, my question is this......

Would you prefer to see just an introductory paragraph, with a link to the full post, or, should I continue with full posts? If I continue to publish the full text, should I reduce the number of posts on this page? (I intend to stay with my simple two column layout).

This will not affect RSS, as I will always publish a full feed for those who prefer to read via their RSS reader. If you are reading via RSS, there is a poll at the foot of this post.

Please let me have your votes and I will go with whichever option is the most popular choice. If you have other suggestions, please leave your comments. Thanks for your feedback.

TCH

Web Hosting Directory & Reviews 

FireFTP, SEO Advice, Linkbaiters Wanted and DealDotCom Freebies

I've been taking my own advice and had a couple of days away from the blog. Enjoyed a wonderful relaxing Sunday, fishing from my favorite dock on my favorite beach with my favorite friend (that's my wife). We didn't catch a whole lot but the sun! Despite an empty bucket, we were fortunate enough to see several turtles, a nurse shark, a stingray and her young, a huge lobster, a sizeable tarpon, and, after nightfall, a beautiful blue neon lightshow in the dark ocean, provided by a number of jellyfish. I love Sundays!

On returning to the laptop I see several developments, not least of which is DealDotCom's announcement that they will be giving away one copy of their deal of the day every day. To qualify, you just need to be a member of their free affiliate program, so that in itself is sufficient incentive to join their program if you haven't done so already.

The contest to win a year's free use of FeedGhost Pro will end this weekend. As the response has been so poor, you stand a real chance of grabbing one of these $20 prizes, and all you need to do is tell us about your web hosting company. How hard is that?

I'm going to post shortly with a couple of reader survey polls, following the recent blog improvement meme, so you will have the chance to help me with ongoing improvements to this blog. I hope there will be some good, straight from the hip feedback!

After my struggles with SmartFTP and swiching to an alternative, I've discovered the beautiful Firefox extension called FireFTP - this enables you to FTP right from a Firefox window and is a must have timesaver. That's my top tip for today.

Beware Of SEO Experts

Another tip - there are far too many people claiming to be SEO experts! Today I read a post, which I won't link to to save the blogger's blushes, stating that the long awaited Google Page Rank update has happened. Well, it was patently obvious that this wasn't true, and it turns out that the "SEO expert" was a touch confused over the terms "page rank" and "SERPs". I suspect that he/she will hastily remove that post - if they don't, their credibility will lie dead in the water for some time to come.

I am no SEO'er myself, but if you want reliable knowledge you won't go far wrong with YackYack or Andy Beard, both great places for enhancing your knowledge. Rob Watts has today sent a broadcast out via BlogCatalog seeking people who can write quality linkbait - if you feel qualified, you might want to pop over there and read what he has to say -yes, there is even  money on the table for the right people.

OK, I'm off to figure out the questions for my reader polls. Don't forget to enter the contest - you have until Sunday -  and remember Google Page Rank is not EVERYTHING :-) 

TCH

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