We all like to have some form of tracker or hits counter on our blogs but are they accurate? Well I guess they can't be as they give differing statistics.When I first started blogging I used eXTReMe Tracking. This worked fine until I started using hit exchanges such as Blog Soldiers, Blog Mad and Blog Explosion Any hits from these sources weren't registered. I tried also running sitemeter and the hit exchange traffic was then captured.
Though I've long forgotten hit exchanges - they only give artificial, cosmetic traffic - I still have problems getting accurate figures.
On my celebrity blog my IceRocket tracker often shows nearly 1000 additional visitors to eXTReMe Tracking - but as far as Google Analytics goes, along with Alexa, they seem to reckon that the blog is getting only 100 or 200 hits a day when in reality it's attracting several thousand. I get more Google clicks than they say I have hits! My celebrity blog Alexa Ranking is therefore way adrift.
It's all a bit confusing.
Actually though I try not to get too bogged down by studying statistics. I'd rather spend my allotted blog time doing something practical that might just earn some money.
Of course it's useful to see such things as the number of visits, page reads and how many clicks there are on on the varying adverts - though not all trackers do this. MyBlogLog does and also FeedBurner has interesting stats for free.
In the end though, if you have a money making blog it's the money you make that's the important statistic. It's so easy to get sidetracked into various statistical measurements and rankings and forget what the real reason is for blogging.
Stay on track.
Good luck,
Mike.
