Welcome to the 6th article in the series on Webmaster and SEO Tools. In previous articles I have discussed how web sites like Google Analytics, Clicky and Feedburner can be used to analyze traffic to your web site.
Today I am going to continue the theme of analytics and discuss MyBlogLog. Not only does MyBlogLog provide statistics on traffic to your web site, it is also an excellent way to promote, market and connect with visitors to your web site.
A good introduction to what MyBlogLog is all about can be found on the MyBlog About page. If you like what you read then the next step is to visit their home page and register.
MyBlogLog Home Page
Once you’ve registered and logged into your account you are taken to your home page. This page will show you the most recent readers to your site, your MyBlogLog friends and contacts, any messages sent to you, plus a roundup of what is happening in other communities. This is what my home page looks like.
MyBlogLog Account Tools
The first thing you want to do is use the ‘Account Tools’ section on the Home Page sidebar to edit your profile and add any web sites or blogs you author.
You’ll also notice the following options on your home page, where you can view stats for your web site, get widgets for your site and edit other settings.
View Site Stats
The stats page will show you where readers came from, what they viewed, and what links they clicked. I like this page because it provides a very good executive type dashboard view where I can see at a glance what is happening on my site.
Click on the thumbnail below to see an example of what the stats page looks like.
You can also run reports on what users have clicked and viewed on your web site together with a list of referrals to your site. These reports can be customized to cover any time frame you like, previous day, week, month, etc.
If you click on the thumbnail below you can see what the reports page looks like.
In order for MyBlogLog to record these stats you need to enter a piece of javascript tracking code onto your web site. A good place for this would be in the header, footer or sidebar. I’ll go into this in more detail in the next section on widgets.
It is also worth mentioning that there is a free and Pro version of the stats. If your site gets a lot of traffic and you’re interested in seeing stats in real time then the Pro version may be for you. Pro costs $25 for a years membership or you can pay $3 per month if you don’t want to commit to a years membership up-front. If you only check your stats every couple of days, then the free version is probably the ticket for you. More information can be found on the MyBlogLog help page.
MyBlogLog Widgets
MyBlogLog provides you with widgets which you can add to your site. These widgets are essentially a piece of javascript which you add to your web site. This javascript also contains a piece of tracking code which is used to gather all the stats information about your site such as visitor numbers and what pages they viewed.
You can see one of these widgets in action on this blog. In the sidebar I have a widget which shows recent MyBlogLog members who have visited this blog. I like having this feature on my web site. It provides a way for me and other visitors to connect with other people who visit this site. It has also enabled me to discover other MyBlogLog member web sites and communities, so it is a great way to build up a network of contacts and friends.
MyBlogLog also provide a Top 5 Links widget which is updated hourly. This widget can be used to show the current most popular links on your web site. This widget also contains the tracking code for web stats.
If you’re not interested in having any widgets on your site then you can just add the tracking code on it’s own.
MyBlogLog Communities
The communities section of MyBlogLog is a great way to connect with other members and also to discover some pretty cool and interesting web sites. It is also a great way to promote your own web site. You can see at a glance who has joined your community, recent readers to your site, Top 5 Links on your site, plus the latest blog posts from your site. You can also send messages to other community members.
It’s a great way to connect with your readers. I always like to take some time to see who has visited my site. I’ve found some really useful contacts and MyBlogLog communities through doing this.
Summary
MyBlogLog is a great way to promote and market your web site and it provides excellent opportunities for networking with fellow bloggers. It is also a great way to discover web sites you might otherwise not come across. The MyBlogLog stats don’t go into the level of detail like Google Analytics or Clicky but if you’re looking for an executive dashboard view of visitor numbers it is an excellent tool.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Robin Good's Latest News // Jun 7, 2007 at 8:08 am
Community Building: How To Give Exposure And Visibility To Your Readers While Building Your Own Community – MyBlogLog…
Are you willing to increase the popularity of your blog though you have already tried all of the conventional methods? Then you might be interested in knowing more about a service called MyBlogLog and how you can leverage it to……
2 OOM // Jul 27, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Interesting post, never know of all those options. They seem of particular help if setup is good.
3 Dean // Jul 27, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Yes, the stats provided by MyBlogLog are worth looking into. They provide a nice at-a-glance view of traffic levels on your blog. I normally dip into that page once or twice a month. They provide some nice reports on web site stats too.
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