Now that we have explored a few ways to promote your website or blog, you might be wondering if all of your hard work is really paying off. Well, if you aren't using any tracking software yet, my recommendation would be to use Google Analytics. It is very easy to use, and has more information about your visitors then you would ever dream. To get started you need to sign up for this FREE service. If you already have a google account you can use this to sign in or if not all you need is an e-mail address to get your Analytics account.
Once you have signed up you need to "create a website profile." Analytics will ask you for the URL (website address) of the site. For example, this site would be promotingyoursite.blogspot.com yours could be www.yoursite.com Once you have entered the address you will need to choose your location and time zone. Then you would click the "finish" button and wham, Google produces a little piece of HTML (website code) near the bottom of the screen. All you need to do now is copy and paste this HTML into your site.If you are using blogger you need to go to your template and hit the edit HTML button. Then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the code... you should see < /body>. You want to paste the code directly before this < /body> and save the template.Now back in Analytics hit the done button, this will bring you back to the main page. You should see your site listed here followed by "Tracking Not Install" and "Check Status." You want to click on the "check status" link. If you installed your HTML correctly Analytics will tell you that "Tracking has been installed" and "Waiting For Data." Congratulations, you will now be able to track every visitor to your site.Please note you need to wait a couple hours before you will see results. So when you log back in just hit the view reports link and this will take you to all the information that has been collected from your visitors. This includes, but is not limited to the number of visitors, page views, new/returning, geo location (city/state/country), length and depth of visit, top entry/exit points, referring sources, what people are typing into search engines to find your site... I could go on and on, but that sounds like another post.You can track up to 50 sites for free!!! What are you waiting for go sign-up here or you can read even more about Google Analytics here.
Ok, so you have heard of Digg, Netscape and Reddit but have you ever heard of Spicypage.com? Chances are you haven't just yet, but the site is really starting to gain traction. Spicypage works in a lot of the same ways that digg does. Users vote on content whether it is a thumbs up or thumbs down and can comment on the sites as well. The part that I really like about Spicypage is that it is the entire website or blogs that is voted on, not just an article from a site. 
Users of this site can also submit websites that they do not own or operate like google, yahoo, or youtube, all three are all ready in the top 100 list on the site. Spicypage also has the social aspect to it like mybloglog! You can send messages to one another and gain "friends" through the site as well. Now like I said in the beginning, this place is just getting started so now is the best time to submit your content (less competition.) So what is it that you are waiting for go sign up and start voting... you can sign up here or you can view my profile here. Tell them the 1greenthumb sent you : )
Mybloglog.com is another useful way to promote your sites with a nice social twist to it. Basically, you sign up first, then I would suggest adding your different blogs/sites to your profile. Once you hit the "Add site" button Mybloglog will take a snap shot of your site, you then add in a description and you are all set. Your site is now called a community according to mybloglog. 
People then can sign up for your "community" and become readers/fans of your site. They track all of the people that sign up for your sites so you can also visit their blogs and check out who is in fact looking at your website or blog. You can also post messages to users or just to their communities, this is were the social aspect of it comes in. You can actually put a face to these blogs that you are reading. They also have widgets available that you can add into your sites to track stats on your sites including links in and out and the number of readers on your site!As you may know though it was just bought by Yahoo so I hope they don't mess up a good thing... while I am still relatively new to Mybloglog I can already see serious results in Google Analytics! So what are you waiting for you can sign up here or you can check out my profile here.
