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I actively started blogging since 20 August 2011. I can’t explain why I’ve hibernated since 2007 after I signed up for a WordPress blog. (I’ve become a fossilized dinosaur if measured by the speed IT is moving!!)

Fast forward to the present, in the past weeks, quite a few visitors have viewed my blog entries (3578 views as I write this). Curiouser and curiouser (pardon the English), I want to know more about my readers. While the default WordPress Stats data is good, it hasn’t quite satiated my desire to know the reach my blog has.

Until I read my friends’ blogs. Their sites’ snazzy looking stats make my blog appear naked. Theirs have been actively logging visitors in excess of 100,000s. And mine? Naked. I decided I too must join the stats web-analytics bandwagon. I finally got two widgets to do this task for me.

First, I installed the FEEDJIT widget. I obtained the HMTL code from FEEDJIT site. Second, in WordPress, I accessed the Widget option under Appearance. Then, I dragged a Text Widget to my sidebar group. Next, I pasted into the text box the HTML code I’ve copied. That is all to it.

As a free widget, it will display an up-to-the-moment-you-entered-this-page list of visitors to my site. The feed appears in a sidebar showing 10 (maximum) recent visitors to my blog.  This feed shows the flag, city and country of the visitor, and the time that reader joined the blog page. The only snag is that this feed is not streamed live because WordPress does not allow javascript widgets. The HTML coded feed can be refreshed by pressing the F5 key for the current page or by viewing another post on this blog.

You can also view a detailed feed by simultaneously holding down CTRL button and left clicking the feed box. A new page appears in a new tab, and you get to know which blog post your visitor is viewing, and when this visitor arrived at your site. I like this detailed report for it also reports the visitor’s arrival or departure, the country, browser and OS. How cool is that?

Feedjit Details

 

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FlagCounter Stats

The second free web-statistics widget I installed is FlagCounter. Like Feedjit, it tracks visitors to the blog. The sidebar display is more spartan, showing the visitor country flag and the number of visitors from that country.

Viewers who are very much into statistics would be happy with FlagCounter. Installation procedure is the same as for Feedjit. Blog owners can view detailed statistics by simultaneously pressing CTRL and left mouse click. A new page opens showing an overview of visitor statistics. Click the Details tab and you get details showing visitors from countries. And, clicking FLAG MAP, you see a geographical locator for visitors to your site. I like this mapping a lot.

FlagCounter — Flag Map : Like a Lesson in Geography

So, now that I have two web tracking widgets installed, I think my blog pages/posts are no longer naked. It’s only been 2 days, this being the third so my visitor stats is still low. But, tell me, what do you think?

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You can download and install the aforementioned free widgets from these URL:
1.   http://lifenbits.com/2011/08/20/cool-stats-widgets-series-feedjit-live-traffic-widget/

2.   http://flagcounter.com/index.html

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