TypePad® for Dummies®

Appendix B. Third-Party Stat Counters

In This Appendix

• Speaking the basic lingo of blog traffic

• Understanding how to use FeedBurner

• Using Google Analytics to track more than basic stats

Being aware of your statistics is a significant part of the blogging gig. Particularly for bloggers who seek to blog professionally or want to establish credibility as experts in their field, it's impressive to colleagues and marketers when you can show measurable results of your blog's performance. When you deal with advertisers, they have every right to ask you about your blog's traffic — you'll need to be able to show your blog's reach and audience.

TypePad tracks your statistics for you; in Chapter 5, we explain how you can see your most recent page views and referrals on the front page of the blue blog-level navigation bar. These numbers may be helpful as a quick reference, but TypePad's Dashboard statistics don't provide the in-depth information most professional bloggers may require from their statistics-tracking software. As a result, we recommend that you install a third-party statistics tracker (also referred to as a stat counter) on your site.

In this appendix, we give you an overview of the subject of blog traffic, defining the terminology and helping you understand more advanced tools such as FeedBurner and Google Analytics. Entire books have been written on how you can use sites like these to track and interpret your blog's data, but if you're a beginner to blog traffic, this appendix gives ...