Tracking Your Web Site Traffic Flow

At some point after you've been blogging for a while, you'll want to see who's reading your blog ... or who's logging on to your blog and the numbers of hits and visits you're getting.

This is where a web site statistics program comes in ...

I use two free stat services for this blog and my other main blog:

• Google's Analytics -- my favorite, allows you to see who's referring traffic to you (i.e. who has linked to you) and lots of other cool stuff, like a map showing where your site guests are located
• Sitemeter -- emails you a basic report of your hits and guests

With both services, you'll need to put a supplied script into your blog. This is really easy to do and they give you basic information for doing it.

What not to do: Obsess over your site statistics like I do.

What to do: With Google's service, see who is "referring" you. Then give them the Internet equilvanet of a 'thank you card' -- send them an email thanking them for the link, or take a moment to comment on their blog.