stereotypical single woman

Wow, since a couple people asked I’m going divulge my cyber-stalking tools and secrets. Keep in mind that I am not a complete tech geek, I just enjoy playing around with HTML and CSS. These links and opinions are just that - my opinions. They may not be the best. If you know of better (and free, it’s very important that it be free) services by all means, please let me know.

Most of my experience is doing this with WordPress hosted on my own site. While I have used the free guest counters on my old blog, that was a while ago and since having jumped the Blogger ship I haven’t tried anything else over there. However most of these will work on any site, the services step you through the process of installation, and if you have even a basic knowledge of HTML you will be fine. Except on MySpace, they have dumbed that interface down so much to editable by the common man that their software does not place nice with anything else. That is one page I don’t have any counters on because it’s just not worth messing with in my opinion. It’d be like putting a GPS system on your child’s Barbie Hotwheels.

If you’re confused a little bit about what exactly an IP is - go here. Basically it’s your internet id number, but there’s more to it than just that, and they explain it better than I do.

You’re back? Now we’re going to track some IP addresses. But you do need to keep in mind that any free IP locator is not going to be able to tell you consistent and accurate information. It will tell in what general area the visitor (or in some cases the internet service provider) is located, what browser was used to view your page, and (sometimes) what the referring link was. It will not tell you who is behind that IP address. You may be able to guess once you know the other information, but no locator will be able to tell you that specific of information.

Free IP Locators

• My IP : This is the one that said the dead people were accessing my site. It also tells me that my IP address is currently located in Novi, about 30 miles away from where I actually am, so it’s not the most accurate. But, I like that it gives me a good general idea of where someone is from. It’s a free service, but you must subscribe.
• Geobytes IP Address Locator
• WhatIsMyIP.com - tells you your IP address

Of course, in order to track visitors you need to know their IP address first - here’s a selection of trackers to install on your site.

Free Guest Counters

• Statcounter, I use this one. It’s free and it’s invisible. Personally, I think invisibility is important. As a constant web surfer I am very aware that my visits are being tracked. In fact I work under the assumption that every blog I visit has one, and that’s fine. I don’t believe that stat counters are a way of Big Brother watching you. Most likely they are just being used by people like me, someone curious about who finds them, and delighted that you’re there. But even with that mindset there’s something about actually seeing a counter on the page that I find unnerving. I feel like I’m being watched, and that makes me tend to spend less time on the site.
• Sitemeter, Another good meter, but it’s not invisible unless you pay for the service, so I no longer use it.
• Google Analytics. While this provides some interesting statistics, it’s often too much for the average blogger. It’s geared more toward business owners looking to improve their customer return rate, but it’s free so I have it tracking my site and look at it occasionally.

(note to Wordpress users - the code generated will go before the </body> tag in the Footer file of your template, not the Stylesheet. After switching it took me weeks to figure that one out, so let my ignorance be your gain)

Free Feed Stats

• Feedburner. I’ve never gotten this to work. I tried it twice and messed up my feed magnificently both times. There is also a Feed Burner Wordpress Plugin you can try, and if you get it to work let me know what you think about it.

Unfortunately, this last section is only for the Wordpress users. I love me some Wordpress plugins. They have plugins for everything from comment management to a Hello Dolly Quote generator (seriously) and could not be easier to install. And, once installed, all are accessible and managed from you dashboard. So if you have Wordpress and aren’t using them, well, stop being so lazy and go find something to soup up your page.

Wordpress Statistic Plugins

• FireStats. If you are using Wordpress on your own site and get no other site meter, get this one. You will not be disappointed.
• FeedStats. I just installed this last week. It’s a great addition to Firestats, because while that shows you who actually views your page, this shows you how many times your feed is accessed (unfortunately nothing more.) Between the two of them you will get a good general idea of how large your reader base is.
• BotTracker. This one tells you which bot is indexing your page, how often it’s been accessed, what keywords are being used for it to send people to your site, and if there have been any hacking attempts. It’s a tad bit clunky to navigate around, but has graphs and pie charts, which, when connected to your blog, will always make you feel important.

So everyone go out, install some code, and if afterward you see someone from Detroit (or Novi) visiting, it’s most likely me!