One of the most rewarding things in blogging is to keeping track of the traffic your blog gets. Of course it's not very rewarding when you see that there's no traffic at all, but where others see a problem, we see an opportunity, right? So, now I'm going to install a traffic counter on Innerblogger. I like to use Statcounter because it's free, can handle up to 10,000 visitors per day, and it's really easy to use. It also provides tools for analyzing some simple demographics. You can zoom in on a single visitor, see how they found your site, where they are from, observe their navigation path — all this can be extremely valuable in making your site more attractive and more profitable. The downside of Statcounter is that the free version only provides a detailed history of the last 100 visitors. Anyway, Statcounter is a nice and simple way to review your site statistics at a glance.

In addition to Statcounter, I use Google Analytics, which is a comprehensive, professional statistics tool and more, but to me it is a bit overwhelming — I find that I get the basic stats that I need, quickly and easily, with Statcounter. I'm just in the process of getting familiar with Google Analytics, and it sure looks good - it really analyzes your web site very thoroughly. As soon as I've got the hang of it, I'll let you know and post the instructions on how to set it up. Go ahead and request an invitation from Google right away.

Meanwhile, here's how to add Statcounter code to your Ads Minded Wordpress template:

First, get a Statcounter account. It's free, and quick to set up. Then, just click add a new project, and follow the simple instructions. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of inserting Statcounter code into the Wordpress template:

-Choose Standard Statcounter and click continue

-Fill in the fields required on the next page. If you can't find a suitable category, just select any - it doesn't matter.

-Don't worry about the IP blocking field. You can always add a blocking cookie later.

-I chose public stats because I want my readers to be able to follow every aspect of the development of this blog. For my other sites, I chose not to allow public stats. Up to you - but if you are blogging in a very competetive field, you might want to disallow public stats

-Click continue and on the next page, click on configure and install code

-Next, you can choose whether you want the counter to be visible on your pages or not. I choose the Statcounter link for Innerblogger in order to enable my visitors to examine my stats. On my other sites I usually choose the invisible counter for web design reasons

-Now you need to determine whether your wesite uses frames or not. Most sites, especially blogs, don't, so you'll want to select the no frames option

-If you know that your web host does not allow Javascript, choose HTML only code, but this is rare. If in doubt, just leave everything unselected here. Click next

-On the next page you can choose the web editor you are using, but if like me you use Wordpress, just chose the default install guide

-Next you are presented with the code!

Now, we move to Wordpress Dashboard.

On the Dashboard, choose the Presentation tab, then click Theme Editor, then choose Sidebar.php on the right.

Go to your Statcounter code page, click the box to select the code, then hit copy and go back to the Wordpress Theme Editor, and paste the Statcounter code to the very end of the sidebar code

Finally, just above the Statcounter code, add a single line saying:

Then, hit Update File on the bottom right of the screen.  

You should end up with your Sidebar.php code looking like this:

Next, visit your blog to check that the Statcounter logo is visible at the bottom of your sidebar. Refresh your blog home page and your categories pages a couple of times to score a couple of experimental hits, then click on your My Projects in your Statcounter navigation menu, and admire your first stats! Explore the various statistics that Statcounter will provide. Remember to set a blocking cookie - on your Projects page, click on Blocking Cookie, then click Create Blocking Cookie for All Projects - now your own visits won't be logged. You may want to check the status of your cookie periodically.