Setting Up SiteMeter to Track Visitors

In a previous post, I mentioned using SiteMeter to track your visitors. Here are a few tips and tricks to using SiteMeter that will help you get the most use out of their free traffic tracking gadget.

The first thing you will want to do is click "HTML Code" from the left hand side of the screen, using the green navigational links. Copy and paste the tracking code from their website to an area you are able to edit your sidebars. (If you are using Blogger, this would be your "Add Page Elements" link from your "Dashboard". Once you have installed the code on your website or blog, you'll be ready to track your next visitor!

• "Statistics" link on top of page - that's where you can see how many visitors have been on your site, and some information about how they found your site and stuff like that. You should see a list with black headings and green links.
• "Manager" link on top of page - the green links on the left will provide different options on this page. One of those options is "Stats by Email" - click that link. From here, you choose how often you want your stats sent to your email. I chose every day because then I can view my stats in an email - and hardly ever have to visit the site to log in just to see your overall traffic stats.
  
• From the same screen, click the link on the left side that says "Ignore Visits". This is where you can either have the counter "count" your visits to the site - or ignore your own visits to your site (and "count" all other visitors in your statistics).
  
• From the same screen again, you can also use the left green links to change your password to something you can remember easily, and a few other useful things.
  

Poke around in the SiteMeter website, and see what other tools could be useful for you. You can use the reports to see what region your readers are visiting your site from, and their browser details as well. Pages they have clicked, total time they spent on your site, and where they came into your site, as well as what page they were on when they decided to leave. Best of all, it's a free program, worth every penny - and more!

Blogger for Widgets and Blogger in Draft for Google Gadgets

Did you know that there are two ways of using Blogger? Most of us are familiar with logging in through Blogger's home site, and the use of widgets. But you can also use Blogger in Draft to edit your blog, which uses gadgets instead of widgets! You may be asking, "what's the difference?", so here's a closer look into both.


Blogger's Widgets

Through Blogger's home page, you edit your site through the "Dashboard", and through your "Layout" tab, you can edit your "Widgets" or drag and drop them within the layout, and "Add Elements" to your blog. You can choose page elements by clicking the blue "Add to Blog" buttons that you see in the picture.

Blogger's Gadgets

Blogger in Draft has all of the same options, but instead of "Add Elements" on your "Layout" page, you should see "Add Gadgets". You can choose different page elements by clicking the blue "Add" button. But you are also presented with a sidebar on the right with different categories of "Gadgets that you can add to your blog.

While you can still add pictures, headers, text, html and java script, you can also add Google Gadgets to your blog. You can literally choose from thousands of "gadgets" to add to the sidebars and editable areas of your blog. From games, weather gadgets, search tools, and dictionaries to videos, jokes, quizzes and news tickers, there's a gadget for nearly every blog.

In both Blogger and Blogger in Draft, the "Page Elements", which are your "Gadgets" and "Widgets" within the layout - can be edited, added, deleted, repositioned and moved by dragging and dropping them. If you haven't already played around with Blogger in Draft's features, take a look around. The layout is the same as the one you are used to. You can navigate through the categories on the left sidebar to find gadget that may be useful to people who read your blog!