The ActiveRain Stuff You Won't Find Anywhere Else on the Web

The Statistics link on ActiveRain shows how many comments, views, and clicks your blog posts have received over time.  I was actually shocked to see that one of my posts here on ActiveRain had been viewed over 103,000 times yet only had 18 comments. WOW! Now that's some great traffic and exposure rainers.  It wasn't even a post I felt deserved to get that many views...

Digging further into the AR stats investigation, I noticed many posts had 10,000 views or more. Would this information be useful to share with other readers and subscribers?  How would you even know or find them since the stats info is private?  How can you use and share your stats most viewed posts on ActiveRain?  This is just one way to share your "TOP BLOGS" with others.

10 TOP things I learned by doing this exercise:

1. Out of 583 posts I've written here, these are the "TOP WINNERS" based on "Over 10K Views"
2. It's interesting and re-assuring to see how your writing skills will change and develop over time
   
3. Comments aren't the most important thing on your AR Blog, but views and clicks are significant
4. Over time, your posts are still being viewed thanks to ActiveRain SEO and Google searches
5. By running through your AR Statistics link, you can provide a single post with your best content
6. Copying and Pasting your ActiveRain Statistics into an Excel file lets you do some amazing fact finding
7. This exercise will help you determine what content works best for views and clicks year over year
8. Adding "How To" into your Blog post title can increase your views and clicks dramatically (lol)
   
9. CAUTION: You'll get excited to see how much traffic. views, and clicks your AR Blog actually gets
10. The important thing I learned is Blogging on ActiveRain generates SEO, traffic, views, and business!

The information below is to try and provide you with some ideas and ways on how to populate your best content into a single location. This could be done using a blog post, an RSS feed, or a table with links on your sidebar or website.  The first step in knowing which content and posts you wish to share is knowing what articles are getting the most attention and drawing the most traffic.  It was very useful to see which ones sparked the most interest, views, and clicks. Here are my TOP 10K most viewed posts on ActiveRain.

WARNING: You may be surprised at your results when you run your own ActiveRain Statistics.

Blog Post Title                                               Comments  Views   Clicks

Active Rain INSTRUCTIONS: How to Post your Listings

366

14397

14396

How Old Is Your Computer? ..."In Computer years"

47

11267

9810

Computers and your HEALTH!

18

103633

99667

The Short Sale - Can be a Long Sail...

44

12960

11445

Active Rain New Members - Getting Started

121

16613

15537

Paying It Forward, Active Rain Style - 100 Links You MUST See!

256

11046

9614

Do You Want to be the "Featured Member" Here's Some POINTS!

706

23542

19928

5 Principles to Creating an Effective Blog Post

214

15244

11723

The California Foreclosure Process & Timeline

63

22067

19036

Update Your Verizon Wireless Handsets - Can You Hear Me Now?

41

15019

12295

Blogger Startup Kit

191

16241

10347

20 Google Tools for Your Business

272

14070

8730

7 Mistakes to Avoid on Active Rain

639

23764

19247

Widgets: How to Add Them to Your Blog

231

15741

12708

Google Earth - The Whole World In Your Hands!

92

21615

17497

Do You Want Visitors Searching Your Blog?

271

10335

3184

Video and Your Blog - Featuring Future Technology

106

11792

4298

Marketing and Farming Your Blog

239

11360

4263

3 Ways To Find Out Who's Reading Your Blog

367

16705

9587

Your Active Rain Profile - Your Masterpiece!

237

15392

9561

Active Rain Settings & SEO Benefits - Very Powerful

228

15398

8656

How To Use Your AR "Settings" Page

501

26101

18706

How to Add a Power Point Presentation to Your Blog

114

11484

6165

NEW MEMBERS - Start Here

263

21433

15308

Overcoming Adversity, Change & Life's Challenges

207

13034

6824

Real Estate Video Hosting - Dare To Compare

118

10947

5011

Email Signatures - How Good/Bad Are They?

205

10913

6060

ActiveRain Navigation - For New Members

175

23791

18481

How To Customize and Personalize Your ActiveRain Blog

305

19403

13347

How to Use The Flip Video Camera with Your Computer

117

14760

9691

SEO Tools - You Should Know, about SEO

136

19853

14674

ActiveRain Launches Outside Blogs - How Do You Get Yours?

860

36504

27251

3 Ways to Use the "Join ActiveRain" Referral Link

120

11261

5755

The "NEW" ActiveRain Blog Customizer - Version 2.0

237

14254

7078

ActiveRain and Your NEW Twitter Settings

158

11405

3742

New Members - Video Explanations - Social Media, Blogging & MORE!

98

10509

3743

The ActiveRain Suggestion Box

0

12515

7219

How To Use ActiveRain Channels

228

10459

5624

Karen George - Goodbye to an Angel

162

12213

7252

ActiveRain Widgets & The New and Approved HTML List

292

14440

6036

How To Remove Antivirus Pro 2009 VIRUS from your Computer

163

15145

7049

Copyright Laws and You - Here's All You'll EVER Need To Know

155

11862

3072

Hit Router - How To Set Up Your Own Click Campaign

138

12113

5780

ActiveBrad's "TOP FREE Picks"

232

16429

9195

Google Local - Register Your Business and Blog

120

10850

2163

New ActiveRain Widgets for ActiveBlogs

124

12647

3513

ActiveRain Domains and Blogs - The AR Staff "LIVE" and Uncensored

79

13144

4613

Internet Explorer vs Mozilla Firefox - The Mythunderstanding

152

11283

2616

5 Important Tips - Outside Blogs

146

10989

3201

How To Create an ActiveRain Outside ActiveBlog - 10 Easy Steps

161

15536

6099

ActiveBlogs - 5 Suggested Ways To Maximize Your New Group Blogs

156

11360

3634

A Special Delivery from Santa and His "RAIN"deer!

108

14472

7905

Hit Router - How To Setup & Save Your Own Traffic

213

19347

8737

ActiveRain Launches Google Analytics for Outside Blogs

137

10302

4128

ActiveBlogs - Link Love and SEO

193

14369

4870

The New ActiveRain Badges

342

16543

5189

ActiveRain's NEW RainMaker Membership Plan

795

33365

21284

The ActiveRain Ambassador Program

270

12459

5812

ActiveRain Community Search - HGTV’s "House Hunters" Is Now Casting

185

14260

7128

REALTORS® - Important 100K Announcement!

138

13661

7185

How To Setup and Maximize Hit Router for Generating Leads

90

12050

4999

How to Create a Blog Post for Customers and Search Engines

364

24434

16532

The ActiveRain RainMaker - Getting Results!

85

10115

3763

What Is RainCamp™

90

11806

3584

RainCamp is Coming To San Francisco

116

12064

4944

RainCamp - Our New Training Program - Starts In Seattle, WA

154

10757

3484

ActiveRain Training and Support - Our New On-Line Campus

128

10984

4716

The Virtual Real Estate Brokerage and Office - WEB 3.0

159

18042

11257

RainCamp™ Platinum Access Pass and Upcoming Locations

108

10767

2558

How To Create and Use iFrames and Tables on Your Blog

148

10178

3003

How To Use ScribeFire to Enhance Your ActiveRain Blog Posts

164

12376

4100

How To Use Google's Wonder Wheel

86

18814

12666

How To Use Interactive Google Maps Using Google Base Data

88

10274

3878

How To Create HyperLinks to Anchor Text

112

10580

2894

The ActiveRain Manual - NEW & IMPROVED

125

10299

2711

An ActiveRain Conduit - Toolbar for Your WEB Browser

128

10237

2680

New and Improved ActiveRain Leaderboard

44

14174

822

Who's Calling The Shots on ActiveRain - The New "Called Shots" Feature

145

10170

2997

Look What We May Have Started with The ActiveRain Point System

108

11871

2816

ActiveRain's NEW "Suggest For Feature" Button

151

12701

3465

How To Brand Yourself an Expert & Build a Six-Figure Real Estate Business

62

14715

5832

How To Create and Maximize Your ActiveRain Blog Post

85

13433

4439

Top 50 Google Tools for Business

118

13710

4820

The New "Like" Button for Facebook on ActiveRain Blogs

101

11098

3228

Winner Announcement of the "Life! By Design Contest" By Tom Ferry

57

10061

2132

Using Gmail Email as a Blog Post and HTML Editor

103

10536

2497

It's Official - Going From "A" to "Z"

235

10208

2236

The Real Estate Industry - It's not Just a Job, It's an Adventure!

181

10826

1677

How To Design a Facebook Page

85

10125

1282

Call Phones from Gmail - Now We're Talking!

80

10741

1229

Following Others On Twitter Without an Account - Twitter Fast Follow

61

10680

1122

Marketing and Advertising On ActiveRain - A Time and A Place

41

10535

1974

The ActiveRain Featured Blog Post

171

11596

2489

How To Create Your Customized QR Code Images

158

11410

4776

I'm anticipating another great year for members on ActiveRain and I'm especially looking forward to seeing how many views posts will get in 2011?  I wonder if this post will hit the 10K mark? haha~  Maybe I should go back and add "How To" in the title?  lol~

Some time ago, I shared a post showing some of the alternative sites that allow you to install their widgets or codes to get access to a variety of stats and an analysis of your Blogs here on ActiveRain.  Since Google Analytics was not an option back then, I did find a few others that worked fairly well here.  Unfortunately, I was just informed that Activemeter is shutting down their service on Feb. 28th, 2011.  They were one of the alterrnative companies mentioned in this post.

If you use Activemeter (on any site or blog), remove the code from your settings page before 2/28/11.

"IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU REMOVE THE CODE FROM YOUR WEBSITE BEFORE THEN, SO THAT YOUR WEBSITE WILL NOT TRY TO ACCESS ACTIVEMETER. TRYING TO ACCESS IT WHEN IT IS SHUTDOWN WILL CAUSE YOUR WEBSITE TO SLOW AND PERHAPS NOT DISPLAY."

The slowdown they mention above can also happen when accessing other 3rd party sites and widgets, videos, and codes too.  Hidden and useless code on your site or blog can slow it down extremely.  Just look at mine!!  haha~  Seriously, please spread the word if you know others that are or might be using Activemeter (or any other codes like activemeter) on their Blogs.  They may be down frequently, possibly broken, or in cases like Activemeter...GONE!

Many of us simply forget that we have these installed on our blogs, so make sure you check yours too. 

So while Activemeter is shutting their service down, and you can "speed things up" by removing their code (I just did)  I've found that sitemeter and getclicky still work well on AR if you're desiring additional stats, but I can't promise they aren't slowing AR down.  I think there's a fine line in the trade-off.  You have great stats available here on AR, but getting some additional detailed stats and analytics never hurts in helping you build a content rich and valuable blog for your clients and readers. 

      

Are you using the provided ActiveRain stats page that's already available here?  If not, Why?

ActiveRain Statistics - Comments, Views, and Clicks:
Your ActiveRain Statistics page shows an overview of ALL your Blog posts and the activity they are getting.  This is a great tool to gage what is happening with each of your Blog posts in real-time. 

The first column is the Title and Link to your Blog posts, there's no definition or description needed here.

The Second column is comments.  Many members and consumers may be reading your posts but not commenting. Those that do comment are accounted for and shown as a total on your stats page.  Don't think for one second that just because you're not getting mega comments that people aren't reading your posts.  Out of the more than 1.3 plus million posts on AR, there's not a single post here has not been seen, read, or at least viewed, or clicked by somebody.

The third column is views.  This shows how many times your post was viewed in a Blogroll.  This includes any Blogroll on ActiveRain.  A Blogroll is any place on ActiveRain where a list (called Blogroll) of posts are shown. Click on the "Blogs" link at the top of any AR page to see a sample of a Blogroll.  A Blogroll includes groups, subscriptions, and even the feature board.  A view simply means that your post appeared on someones computer screen as they were scrolling through the list and looking for a title to click on and read.

The fourth column is Clicks.  This is when someone actually clicks on the title of your post, and loads it as the solo post on their computer screen to read.  Clicks are accumulated not only within ActiveRain, but outside of the network too.  Many clicks on your stats page are coming from Google searches and direct hits by consumers. The longer your post is out there, the more all of these numbers will increase.

Your comments will always be less than your clicks, and your clicks will always be less than your views.  I'll explain.  When a post first gets written, it shows up in the Blogrolls of all the groups you've added it to.  It also shows on the Main Blogroll, and the "Subscribed" Blogroll meaning those who subscribe to you will see your new post on their "Subscribers" Blogroll.  With the hundreds of posts that go up daily, in a very short time, your blog posts will roll off the end of the Blogrolls and into the B.P.C.A. (Blog Post Cyber Archives), only to be found again by someone searching through your Blog, or Google for your specific content. 

Focus on "Building Your Blog Library" with quality content.  You can always go back and send folks links to your posts. This will create more views, clicks, and comments in the future, and this activity can and will continue for as long as your posts shall live.  In the chart below, I wanted to demonstrate how over time, the views and clicks will increase. This is a 30 day graph from oldest to most recent post.

How important is your Blog Post Title?  Look at the differentiation between "views" and "clicks" to determine that.

The most important thing to remember.  Any Clicks you get on your post after the first couple weeks or so are most likely coming from consumer searches and others that are searching your Blog. Comments, Views, and Clicks stats are a really great way to determine what your readers are liking, what consumers are finding, and what other members like to comment on. 

This tool is not meant to be a replacement for a good stats widget or stats tracker, but it is an excellent way to start viewing what's going on with your Blog posts and content now.  It will also help and assist you with creating more of "what's working" content in the future.  Now don't just view it, you clicked it, so comment.  lol~  Have a great week, I hope to see you all at NAR!  :-))

Related Post~
How To Track and Monitor Blog Statistics and Traffic