I use both Google Analytics and sitemeter. Sitemeter helps me take a quick look regarding recent visits while Analytics gives more reliable and detailed reports, but it takes more time-I need to login etc…

I like AWStats for accurate reporting, but external counters are convenient, some are real time, and, for anything commercial, third party stats might be useful.

Jaycee - it isn’t as much work as you think. Especially if you’re on Blogger. I might have Sephy post about that soon.

I now stop myself when I see my mouse heading to click on the statcounter icon in my browser and think - what could I do to make better use of that time?

I limit myself to checking once a day.

Meg - That is an excellent article, thanks for posting it. In case anyone could not read it, click here - Google Loves Transparent Links & Hit Counter Spam - I’ll put it in the weekly wrap up as well.

Cugat - I understand completely. We all have our addictions.

Forest - I posted a few articles about templates since then too - check the snoskred articles in the sidebar, and the past tuesday think tanks.

Hari - Hit counters are not just about numbers. It can be really useful for any blogger to see what search terms are being used, what screen resolution people use, what browser they use (and then making sure their site looks ok in that browser) etc. I’d ask your friend to install aw stats or at least use google analytics to grab that info for yourself.

Daisy - Yes, it is hard to ignore once you know it’s there. I tend to fixate on the search terms too much. I’ve now taken to copying and pasting them into a text file when I check the counter just to have a record and so I can use the text file when it is time for the weekly wrap up.

Tay - I’ve just had to turn my crazy egg off, it was causing some issues for visitors. I loved that thing! It might be a clash with their browser, perhaps. If only everyone used the most recent version of firefox!

Magpie - cheers!

Julie - I haven’t tried any of the paid versions and I probably wouldn’t do that. It’s enough just to have that rough guide, at least for me it is. Once I move to Wordpress I can install my own tracker onto the server which is a LOT more efficient. It tracks things when they are asked for by the reader, not by having code in the page. Ive used stats like that before and they are purely brilliant and a lot more accurate.

I’d say that is what the advertisers are using, they can see when the link is asked for on their end and usually they have a referrer code which enables them to tell who is referring that person to them.

Christine - I spotted that when I dropped by - it looks great!

Lynne - WOW. WOW. Seriously WOW! That is stunning. I love it. One thing I would say - the text in the central block, the main text, I would make that black instead of gray, just to make it pop out a bit more. There’s probably a couple of other nitpicky personal choice things, like I’m not a fan of overly busy backgrounds which draw the eye away from the content - I would make that all one color - and no big subscribe button to be seen - but otherwise it is one of the best templates I have seen in ages.

Did you make the sidebars different colors, or was that a part of the package? I love that idea.

I’ll make sure to drop this comment on your blog too, in case you didn’t see it here.

Kirsten - I love the last 10 visitors have come from thingy, how does that work?

Opal - Google Analytics is really useful as it’s one of the only packages which doesn’t limit the information to a number of visits. It’s surprisingly quick for me most of the time, feedburner seems to hold things up here more often.

Lightening - That one is easy.. it is just basic html. Shall I put together a post on html?

Again thanks for the comments all..

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org