I'll get by with a little help from my friends

A couple of weeks ago I started making some changes to the Advisory Bored to help me know about my visitors and to help visitors get updates. I thought I would take a moment to share them with you:

1. I'm now using Google Analytics to track activity on the site. If you judge readership based soley upon comments then you get a limited view of the actual readership . With Google Analytics I can get an accurate picture of how many people are visiting the site, what pages they are reading and for how long. I don't know "who" you are, but I do know what browser you are using and where you are browsing from. For instance, the number of visits from Ellensburg jumped following my post of the Central Washington University BAS-ITAM program. Go (CWU mascot name here)!
2. I've started using a free service called Feedburner to manage the RSS feeds. It also makes it easier to submit the feed to a number of widely used feed readers. As you know, an RSS feed allows you to read the content without visiting the site. That's great for the reader, but the author has no idea how many people are subscribed. Feedburner allows me to track that, which gives a much more accurate picture of who is reading my posts.
3. Along with the RSS tracking, Feedburner will turn an RSS feed into an email. So if you don't use RSS, but would like a notification when new content is available, sign-up in the "updates via email" section of the blog, right under my profile in the right-hand column.
4. I'm also using the blog tracking site Technorati so that others can find Advisory Bored. In addition to tracking the sites, Technorati allows for tagging, so users can quickly search for other content using the same tags (I now include Technorati tags at the bottom of each post). Technorati also ranks blogs based upon the amount a site is referenced from other sites and through the use of favorites. You can help me out if you have a web site or blog by simply adding a link to the Advisory Bored. Also, you can tell Technorati that this site is a favorite by clicking the small green Technorati icon under the email alerts box (#3) in the right-hand column.

Again, thank you for stopping by and reading the blog. Please share this with other instructors and staff that you think would find it interesting. If there is anything you would like me to discuss, please leave a comment to this post and I'll see what I can do.

Tags: Google Analytics, FeedBurner, Technorati