A helpful site for bloggers

I know a lot of bloggers use sites to see how many visitors they get, where most of their readers are from, etc. I wanted to share what free site I've been using and find very helpful.

Statcounter.com

It has the basic show of traffic, popular pages, where your readers are from, etc. But there are some other neat things about this site. Like how people even find your blog. Here are some things people have typed into search engines and somehow got here (I find them all pretty funny):

• Jack says books

• Which blogger is a klutz who trips over the most bizarre situations?

• Skinny dipping boys

• What types of characters does Stephenie typically write about?

I also like knowing what pages are the most popular. (Usually if I'm running a giveaway, those are at the top.) When I wrote my review of Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, I included a picture of my first tattoo - it just seemed fitting. That was months and months ago and it still gets a lot of hits. (Though I think most people are looking for the tattoo mentioned in the book and wind up seeing mine instead.)

Then there is the issue with Anonymous commenters that I know a lot of bloggers have problems with. The site also shows you exactly where each person who visits your page is from, what time, and a referring link of where they entered the page they're commenting on. So you can see if it's the exact same person over and over again. (Which in my experience has happened.) This might also come in handy for those that report abuse on their sites.

I've only used this particular website on the blog. I know there are a lot of other ones out there that do the same thing. If you use a different site for this sort of thing, please tell me. I'd love to see what the differences are.


♥amber