The results are in! Who has the best free counter and tracker service? In my opinion, Stat Smarts wins hands down.
Why statsmarts? Because it is invisible. NO BANNER ADDS! The counter can either be completely invisible, with no graphic on the page at all, or you can add a counter with just the number of hits and not even a link back to Stat Smarts. Personally, I really like the Stat Smarts service, so I’ve linked to them about 20 times.
Stat Smarts gives you detailed statistics, including visitor’s domains, time of visit, operating system and browser, reslution, color depth, the path they took through the site, the referrer, and an option to exclude hits from your own computer. The referrer listing is very helpful, because it shows how people are getting to your site.
What’s the catch you ask? No documentation….well, very little anyway. Beyond setting up the account you’ll find next to no information on the service on statsmarts.com.
So, if you’re not that familiar with computers and crazy stuff like that, you may be better off with Extreme Tracking (http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/).
Extreme Tracking offers most of the same services as Stat Smarts except you have to include a small (and tasteful) graphic and link back to their site. Extreme Tracking comes in a close second.
If you’re still with me, and you want to try Stat Smarts, here’s some info that will help you: Stat Smarts is actually the implementation of the free software POWER PHLOGGER 2.2.1 from phpee.com. This is software that anyone with a linux webserver can run, hosting their own service just like Stat Smarts. Awesome! So, if you need any help with Stat Smarts, you’re most likely to find it at phpee.com. If you’re running a server and want some visits to your site, here’s a really cool, free service you could offer that would make your site useful to lost masses. I would suggest some documentation, though. If anybody does implement this (any of the 10 people that have ever read this blog), send me an e-mail and I’ll be sure to link to your site. In fact, even if you don’t implement it, e-mail me and I’ll link to your site. I just like you that much.
Sincerely,